How is it done?

In Manitoba, Canada, there seem to be massive areas where someone/something has added in lakes and treed areas. They seem to be of dubious accuracy, like they’ve been done by a scan or other automatic input. How is this done? The areas seem to have odd squared sides often stopping their work at a road or other line.

Do we want that kind of data up there, or is the goal that more of it be input more accurately by hand.

MH

By an import of dubious accuracy, probably CanVec: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/CanVec

I’d suggest “no”. If it’s no more accurate then a 5-year-old’s drawing of a house then it’s just “colouring in” and shouldn’t be in OSM.

I’d suggest “yes” - although achieving that goal may be some way off.

There has been discussion within Canada about whether CanVec is worth importing or worse than useless. I’m not from Canada but am from OSM’s Data Working Group, which is where disputes about this sort of thing end up. Generally speaking we try and let local OSM communities sort out this sort of thing themselves, provided that formalities such as https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Import/Guidelines and https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Automated_Edits_code_of_conduct are followed. The argument for importing is “but Canada is huge - we can’t manually edit all of it”. The argument against is “but what you’re importing is crap” (and that’s not me saying that, but a direct quote from https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/81368424 among many others). At least one CA mapper has a crossed-out Canvec logo on their profile: https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Viajero%20Perdido .

To be fair to the people who imported CanVec (and TIGER south of the border in the US) the problems with imports weren’t as well understood when that data was imported as they are now. That excuse doesn’t apply now though.

Thanks! That’s very helpful. I appreciate the long answer.

Unfortunately, people are still importing CanVec. The wiki is quite out of date, and if anything, still encourages importing. I don’t feel I have the authority to update the wiki with, ahem, my sharp opinions.

Over in Alberta and BC, I’ve painted much of the land green, by hand, putting my effort where my mouth is. A lot of work, yes, but it’s possible. I wanted to stay ahead of the importers, let them see that my favourite areas didn’t need their help, so they could mess up Manitoba instead. :frowning: Sorry about that.

[sarcasm] Thanks [/sarcasm]

Good one. You brought a smile to my day.

I was using the fast draw plugin in JOSM. That helps. Is there a way to have it save the tags for everything I draw, or to see all the things I’ve added, so that I can select them all at once to tag them? I’ve been tagging each item as I go along and that seems quite unhandy.

There’s a JOSM search syntax for new (just-added, not yet saved) untagged ways. I don’t know what the syntax is, but you could find it. Draw a pile of ways, use the syntax to select them all, then add appropriate tags just once.

JOSM rocks, and yes, also the fast draw plugin. :slight_smile: