Russian mappers

Thanks for telling this, that russian mapper and him alreday reported. Hope that in the future will have a local mapper in Klang, and also hope Kaart Team to fix those road names in Klang.

I should start a list too, but that’s a lot of work trying to get all the data together as a report. I’ve seen paid mappers from every organization doing the suspicious copy thing. One of these days, god willing.

https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/141944627 How can that user put hire as a source?

At the risk of sounding like a broken record (does anyone even remember that as an analogy?) please comment on potential problem changesets asking questions about sources, etc. Currently there is nothing at http://resultmaps.neis-one.org/osm-discussion-comments?uid=7778913 .

I’ve commented on a couple of changesets. These will appear shortly at http://resultmaps.neis-one.org/osm-discussion-comments?uid=7778913 .

Many thanks for your response. It’s probably just my hunch, but usually strange mappers from Russia (unless they’re actual visitors to the country - pre-pandemic times) would concentrate on an area, and suddenly added tons of street names for highways without one previously - might be copying from elsewhere. Some obvious red flag includes copying abbreviations as it is (might almost got caught red-handed).

And then it’s almost always with a changeset comment of “new road”.

Samples:

I usually would leave some changeset discussion, but apparently I’m not getting any reply.

This one had stopped mapping altogether when I did the same. Checked with this tool, it’s really out of place seeing someone actively mapping this part of the country (the username itself is in Russian), and the editor is set in the Russian language.

Some “similar mappers” in this area have already been redacted. https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/337052470/history is an example of that - you can see that some object versions in the history just link to https://www.openstreetmap.org/redactions/19 . If any redacted names seem to be “reappearing” then obviously we (the DWG) will want to take an interest.

What I’d encourage everyone to do, if they see “new” mappers adding names from a source that seems unlikely (such as “Bing aerial”) is to please ask what the source of the names was. If they don’t reply within a week or so, tell the DWG about them. I’ve commented on a couple just now (you can see those at http://resultmaps.neis-one.org/osm-discussion-comments?uid=61942&commented , although of course you’ll see all my other comments in there).

If it appears that there are a number of other mappers that need to have edits reverted and also maybe redacted, then we’ll be better able to do that once we have a list of all the users concerned - reverts get messy if done piecemeal.

Best Regards,

Andy

They seemed already caught up with the game. Their answers would be " I know the area". But when you begin checking, you’ll see that they put more than dozens of street names, in areas reaching hundred of kilometers away, all during one day mapping. To suggest that these were added after repeated excursions out there to gather street names and what not is a little shaky at best.

Now, how many of you memorize more than a few actual road names around where you live. You might now quite a few around where you live, but not at some place way out there for what it seems to encompass the whole neighborhood.

My suggestions for those with deep knowledge of how overpass work:

  1. search by name/hash UTMMapathon (or something similar mapathons held in malaysia)
  2. filter out users that put street names in their edits
  3. see how many street names they add during their one day mapping.

Just my conspiratorial mind at work. :D:D

Assuming the street signs are still intact and not vandalised (or broken)…

In older housing estates built pre-millenium, some might even stick to an address format just like this:

House Number
Name of housing estate
Name of nearest major street
Postcode, and nearest major densely populated town or city

… without any mention of the adjacent residential highway.

We’ve just had a reply at https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/79397346 - “My uncle asked me to name this street. Since he lives there”.

I’ve asked about another one.

Hey, who are we to judge. He/she got many uncles everywhere, also probably one named Sam in the states. :laughing:

Same vibes coming from this mapper. Suspiciously mapped the name of many, I dare say probably 1000 or more unnamed highways around the city of Kulim, Kedah - numbers assumed from ~550 changesets.

When asked about the source, the mapper simply just said they were from " taxi driver, and know streets well". Wow, someone who knew 1000+ street names by heart (right).

The dead giveaways were as clear as the day: abbreviations of street names were inputted instead of typing the full street name. It’s another red flag for me, because it seemed like this mapper had likely lifted these names from a map database, rather than a real person, if it’s even true (no one in Malaysia abbreviates Jalan - Street – as simply “Jl”).

Up until today, the said map database is a mystery, personally. This is because, even popular map providers with coverage in Malaysia, do not even use these kind of eccentric abbreviations (only maps of Indonesia do that IIRC).

Uncle Roger, got many nieces and nephews.

Another changeset from one of these mappers (the one with the “uncle” above): https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/94135189 . This one looks just based on aerial imagery.

Wasn’t this guy reported before and already suspended?
In a probably relevant question, is there a competition or something among the russian mappers that get points from their edits in OSM? I found another guy with a russian name doing street names around here but I haven’t bothered to report it yet.

Of course…

and the guy has a good name: “манагер1234545” (i.e. "Manager1234545).
On the other hand, he is no more active since more than a year already.

And there seems to be only one more Russian “pere-ulok” in Malaysia:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/393380752

plus a malay-russian double name at node
https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/6758697185

See also an Overpass Query:
http://overpass-turbo.eu/s/17IU

that overpass query result is rather unsettling. The road names without the “Jalan” in front and wrong name structure suggest that these are imported from somewhere else. Shit never ends…

and a shopping center on Langkawi:
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/337105786
That’s all which I could find with an updated overpass query for Russian characters in the name tag .

That’s neat!

Remember this? Many thanks to the Data Working Group, one down, all edits coming from said user is wiped.