Bulk additions of buildings - Comment GRM MSU

Russ_McD · 2018-12-30T05:55:36.000Z

I have noticed a massive number of small buildings being traced, and from first sight, mainly in rural Issan. The mappers are fairly new (2 weeks) and maybe part of a small group. Two that I have seen so far are:

Natchaya Phajaung https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/natchaya%20phajaung, and
Sirilak Kaewkasorn https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Sirilak_Kaewkasorn
… there may be more.
The changeset comments reference GRM MSU, and while I don’t recognise it, the locality of the edits would suggest the last letters are "Maha Sarakham University. GRM could be “Something of Rural Mapping” - just a guess.

Sirilak appears to be correctly tagging and I have written to her as interested in the process involved (manual tracing, or some form of AI).
However Natachaya seems to just be using the area=yes tag, which basically means the buildings are not going show up anywhere. https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=17/16.02510/103.38762
I have written to her too with the hope of bringing the mistake to her attention, and sharing their “project” with us on the forum. I’ll leave a changeset comment too.
Of course I may not get a reply if they don’t read English, in which case I’ll ask one of our native Thais to make contact.
Just wanted to bring it to everyone’s attention !
Russ.

Mishari · 2018-12-30T07:16:19.000Z

Thanks Russ, I’ll drop them a note.

Russ_McD · 2018-12-30T07:35:56.000Z

Thanks Mishari…
I noticed another member of the gang:
Wittawat Sarawohan https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Wittawat%20%20sarawohan
but a little more serious … he has deleted a number of roads in Phayakkaphum Phisai, and added one or two ways without connecting nodes or tags, presumably in an attempt to repair the damage.
Looking a little more closely at their work, we may have the old problem with students playing with the Map again … the building tracings are of poor quality, overlap in many places, and no attempt has been made to tag properly.
A screenshot of the above user shows …

https://www.openstreetmap.org/edit#map=18/15.51133/103.19619
So, question to Thai mappers …
Shall we go for a revert of all their work and a block until they contact us with explanations?
Or, if they don’t contact us, just do bugger all and accept it ?
Russ

Russ_McD · 2019-01-05T03:53:39.000Z

Andy (DWG) - we have no response that I am aware of, either to me or Mishari in the local language.
Would it be possible to do a complete revert of all edits from Wittawat Sarawohan ?
It seems like masses of changesets were done 2 weeks ago but nothing since. Some roads have been deleted, I but don’t know the full extent of the damage. Once done, I’ll check the Phayakkaphum Phisai area as I made a few corrections before stopping.
Cheers, Russ.

SomeoneElse · 2019-03-30T08:36:47.000Z

Just for info, in case they do start mapping again, I’ve added https://www.openstreetmap.org/user_blocks/2629 .

stephankn · 2020-08-28T08:32:07.000Z

Quite a while has passed. None of these mappers came back to repair their oddly shaped blobs tagged as building, roof or simply area.
No feedback at all to our requests.

Not in this thread and not in the other threads covering similar topics, mostly the attempt to add building footprints “for a good cause” to OpenStreetMap by inexperienced mappers without support from experts or any quality control.

I thinks it is time to clean up this mess and make room for proper mapping.

I am going to add a hint to the wiki page as well, kindly asking directed mappers and those planning for a larger mapping project to contact us in the forum before.

Also I will explicitly mention a minimum standard for mapping buildings (checking alignment of imagery beforehand against multiple GPS tracks, not connecting large areas into artificial buildings, using proper shapes-buildings in Thailand have right angles as other parts of the world)

stephankn · 2020-08-28T08:34:04.000Z

BTW: “Geography for Resources Management” of the mentioned university

https://www.facebook.com/pg/%E0%B8%8A%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%A0%E0%B8%B9%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%A8%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%8C%E0%B8%A1%E0%B8%AB%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%AA%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%84%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A1-G-R-M-M-S-U-799608903573689/posts/?ref=page_internal

Mishari · 2020-08-29T05:16:11.000Z

I just realized I might be able to reach out to some of the editors on FB, will give it a go.

stephankn · 2020-08-29T08:28:42.000Z

If they would rework it: great.
I have doubts regarding the process.
Still thinking best would be to remove all these funny shaped “roof” to be able to properly draw them using right angles at the corners.

I would not worry too much about a small (!) offset to the imagery as long as the shape is right. All editors have tooling support to do this properly. So asking for it is not that much.

Mishari · 2020-09-09T02:24:55.000Z

I got in touch in the FB page, they said they would like to rework and will consult with their professor and get back to us with a schedule.

Best Regards
Mishari