this post was submitted on 31 Aug 2024
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Everything #OpenStreetMap related is welcome: software releases, showing of your work, questions about how to tag something, as long as it has to do with OpenStreetMap or OpenStreetMap-related software.
OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open license.
Join OpenStreetMap and start mapping: https://www.openstreetmap.org.
There are many communication channels about OSM, many organized around a certain country or region. Discover them on https://openstreetmap.community
https://mapcomplete.org is an easy-to-use website to view, edit and add points (such as shops, restaurants and others)
https://learnosm.org/en/ has a lot of information for beginners too.
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Every edit will have your username on it. If you edit a lot in certain areas, one might guess that you live/work around there. Other than that, I doubt there are any such considerations.
Some apps allow uploading photos when making a note. These services may not clear some of the metadata, though geolocation is already obvious from the note itself.
Thank you. I would be changing my username regularly and posting at random times.
I don't think that's good etiquette in such communities. I realize the privacy concerns, but what if someone wants to message you about your edits?
Not editing around such sensitive areas is a better choice IMO. Hopefully someone else will.
That's good to know, like I said, I'm new. Do people often message about edits?
Yes, changeset comments are more common than messages though. They are public comments. You can see all of them worldwide here: https://resultmaps.neis-one.org/osm-discussions You can see in the last week 1300+ comments were made
I review edits in my area made by new contributors frequently, write to them if their was some error, help them fix it, or if it's too complex for them I fix it etc. There are tools for that, e.g. osmcha flags suspicious edits.
Please also sign up with an email address you actually read. If you don't answer to changeset comments for a long time DWG (Data WorkingGroup) will block you.
Changeing username frequently doesn't help anything. You have a hidden user id you can't change, so tools can list all your previous usernames, even though it's not visible on the main UI.
Thank you, I will read email. I will setup a dedicated address for it.
I am still trying to understand how this all works in general, and how I can maintain privacy at the same time.
What is your attack vector, what type of tracking or privacy violations are you afraid of? I'm really curious.
The number of osm contributors are too small to someone start to track your edits for some nefarious reasons, targeted advertizing.
Email aliases are usually more convinient for this type of usage, basically it will be a read only address, you won't have to send anything from there.
Only to minimize tracking. I've never used Facebook, Twitter, or had a Google account. I would rather give them as little as possible.
I am relatively new as well. Someone asked for some clarification on an edit I made, and it turned out I had made a mistake.
In addition, if you leave notes, those may go without interaction for a long time. Although it is true that notes can be resolved without any further input from the original account.
I believe I could then use different usernames as long as I kept the original email addresses active.