Running around with StreetComplete, the app sometimes tells me to leave a note instead, which I do. Short time later, I receive an email that another person has resolved my note. That’s nice, but wouldn’t it be better to do it all on my own?
I think I need a more powerful Editor for that, and installed Vespucci. Now I’m scared to break things. What are the next steps, how to proceed?
Vespucci is great once you get the hang of it! No need to be to afraid, as you will get to review your changes before you upload (unlike in StreetComplete). Just abort if there’s something weird looking.
Find something you want to fix, and then head to the wiki to see how it’s supposed to be mapped. E.g. maybe you want to add a bench. The wiki tells you that it should be either a single node or a way, and that it should be tagged amenity=bench. (It also lists a bunch of other tags that may be used). Then just try to implement that with Vespucci. Most of it is just tagging. (There is actually a bench preset in Vespucci, so you could just search for it there, but this is the general process.) Refer to the wiki, a lot. We are basically lawyers interpreting the wiki.
As a beginner you can also check the “I would like someone to review my changes” box when uploading, if you’re unsure of something.
Thank you! I feel this advice will help me when checking out the other resources amazing people have proposed.
And yeah, lots of the hesitation is probably just being afraid of the unknown. Taking a few simple steps should dispell that.
You can see, edit and close notes on https://Mapcomplete.org/notes . You can also edit the map and add new points with MapComplete as well, within many thematic maps.
I’ve been impressed how quickly people do this and I’ve wondered how they notice these so quickly and take care of them
Right, how do they do this? Is there a ticket system of some sorts to which one has to subscribe? Or did they just happen to browse the area proactively shortly after I was leaving a note?
I feel taking that seat, viewing things from that perspective might help me learn about the next steps.
Also thanks to all other replies, will check them out in time.
I am a OSM notes “specialist”. The notes will appear in your OSM profile, you can go there and find them one by one, but if you’re using StreetComplete they’ll be all together, you just need to activate the Notes layer in ID.
Other way to find notes to solve is by visiting the the Neis Pascal site with your specific country of interest, like https://resultmaps.neis-one.org/osm-notes-country?c=Canada
You don’t need a third party for that, you can subscribe to an rss feed of notes from an area straight from osm, just change the bounding box in this url: https://api.openstreetmap.org/api/0.6/notes/feed?bbox=18.9154,47.3695,19.2686,47.6182
This also documented in the wiki: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Notes#Monitoring_notes_in_a_selected_area
I hate seeing unresolved notes in my area. They can often sit for over a year, and then we don’t know if the information is still relevant. So when someone creates a note in my neighborhood, I try to make the necessary changes right away. I leave the notes layer on in the website and check them out whenever I’m verifying changes in my neighborhood.
I hate seeing unresolved notes in my area.
Haha, I guess that’s the spirit! The other things you say make also make lots of sense. I also feel the completionist’s call. Hence I’m here, to become a bee like you. And sorry for creating notes.
What exactly is “the notes layer in the website”, and how do you check it out? Is it as simple as pressing F5?
I think my area (Hamburg, Germany) is free from notes in quite a wide radius. So maybe other diligent workers are doing the same here.
There are a lot of tools to monitor changes in osm, To check notes regularly you can use several tools, they are listed in the wiki: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Notes#Monitoring_notes_in_a_selected_area
For checking all changes on the map there are other tools: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/OSM_viewer#OSM_changeset_viewer
I personally use osmcha.org regularly and an rss feeds of notes, in my area.
StreetComplete uses OSM’s built-in note system to leave the notes, so basically any OSM user can see them and react to them.
I use Vespucci now and them, but most of the time I find it too fiddly to use on the go. What I usually do is also have OsmAnd open and use its own note system to make a local audio or photo note. And when I’m home I go through the list of notes and change the things in ID or JOSM.
