newb wants to contribute

ATGardner · 2010-12-16T07:40:04.000Z

Hello people.

I am really interested in hiking, and to get started on contributing to the site, I have some recent trail data from a hike in the west Ramon Crater area.
I gathered the data using My-Tracks, and uploaded it all to my Google Maps, but I’d love to export it to gpx, and put it in OSM as well.
I have also tried uploading some data I recorded 2 years ago of the INT (Dan->Arad), but I have many errors in there (missing sections, wrong samples), and I do not know how I can easily edit the data to clear the mistakes.
This weekend I’ll read the tutorial in the wiki, to try and understand how I can edit and fix my data (of the recent hike, for a start) - is there anything more specific I should read and look into?

Hope to add more and more data, and get more involved in the future.

Mr_Israel · 2010-12-16T13:07:07.000Z

First of all: WELCOME to the OSM community!

Great to have another hiker on board.
As I’m not that typical hiker, I can not help you so much with the hiking, but there are other users that have a lot more experience with it.
Maybe they can help.

There is a lot of information in the wikis about openstreetmap, but you are always welcome to ask in the board and I think everybody will be happy to help you in specific questions.

Have fun!

adrukh · 2010-12-17T09:40:42.000Z

Hi, and welcome!

Take a look at www.gpsies.com - you can manage your tracks there, and upload them to OSM as traces with a single click.
You still have to go to OSM to edit the map according to the traces, though

talkat · 2010-12-18T10:56:54.000Z

Welcome to OSM!

In addition to what the others have said,
I’d like to refer you to our main wiki page.

As for tagging hiking and biking trails, see specifically this section there (also the relevant forum thread here)
e.g. Most of the related tags should be on a relation, and not on the way itself.
In the relation you aggregate all the relevant small way sections.

When you update an existing way, if possible, try just to change its nodes (move them, add new, delete old, etc.) There’s no need to delete the way and create a new one.

When creating ways, try as much as possible to connect them to other ways. This makes the map routable, and helps with navigation.

If there are no ways around to connect to, make some “artist’s sketch” along where actual other ways are. Tag these ways with a “fixme” note.

A general guideline:
If you want to map something and you’re not sure how to do it, look elsewhere on the map for a similar feature, and try to copy the tags.
Chances are that most things are already mapped, and there’s some common practice.

Happy mapping!

talkat.

ATGardner · 2010-12-18T14:26:58.000Z

Thanks for everyone’s welcome notes.
I have entered my hike in the west Ramon - just noticed you went over them, Talkat.
Can you please tell me what changes you’ve made there, so I’ll know better next time?
Seems like you moved most of the general data “up” to a relation, and left only the specific data in the trace. Why would we need a relation containing only one way? Is it just a “best practice”, so that when someone adds other parts of the way he can just reference the same relation?

About the Gamla Reserve - I noticed you have cut the road in two - what is the reason for that?

Another question - in the OSM viewer, especially in the Gamla Reserve, the ways keep disappearing and reappearing when I zoom in and out - how can I set the zoom level for the way’s visibility?

Final question that comes to mind right now - the map at Lonvia displays the Red marking at the Gamla Reserve, but no markings at the Ramon ways I’ve added - what properties are missing in them?

Thanks for your help, and also for fixing my submissions.

talkat · 2010-12-18T17:01:03.000Z

ATGardner:

I have entered my hike in the west Ramon - just noticed you went over them, Talkat.
Can you please tell me what changes you’ve made there, so I’ll know better next time?
Seems like you moved most of the general data “up” to a relation, and left only the specific data in the trace. Why would we need a relation containing only one way? Is it just a “best practice”, so that when someone adds other parts of the way he can just reference the same relation?

That’s exactly what I did.
If you look at the guidelines, you’ll see that trails info should be in the relation.

A relation should aggregate several small sections of ways.
A relation is a means to have the same info applied to several features (nodes and ways)

It is not just a “best practice” - This is how it should be done in order for it to be mapped in a standard way,
so all renderers (e.g. Mapnik, Osmarender, CycleMap, Lonvia, hikebike.de, etc) are aligned.

ATGardner:

About the Gamla Reserve - I noticed you have cut the road in two - what is the reason for that?

You added a path (i.e. Single) which intersected a track (i.e. Double)
A common practice is to cut such paths.
And also - The path hit the track at one point, then it overlapped the track, and continued from another point.
So it’s really two different paths, with one track.

Another good common practice is to cut tracks whenever they cut other tracks, and to cut paths when they hit other tracks or paths.
off road ways should be as short as possible, between two intersections.

ATGardner:

Another question - in the OSM viewer, especially in the Gamla Reserve, the ways keep disappearing and reappearing when I zoom in and out - how can I set the zoom level for the way’s visibility?

What do you mean by “OSM viewer”?
Mapnik? You can’t control it. Tracks and paths appear at zoom level 13.

ATGardner:

Final question that comes to mind right now - the map at Lonvia displays the Red marking at the Gamla Reserve, but no markings at the Ramon ways I’ve added - what properties are missing in them?

Lonvia’s displays relations. See above.
Now that the data is in a relation, Lonvia’s would pick them up and show them by tomorrow.

talkat.

ATGardner · 2010-12-18T17:15:13.000Z

Ok. So relations for the ITC info and shield and stuff, and the actual way for visibility, route/track and stuff like that.
About the zoom level - at zoom level 13 (http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=32.9047&lon=35.7705&zoom=13&layers=M) I do not see most of the track at Gamla (only the red trail)
at zoom level 14 and 15 I see it all.
at zoom level 16 again most of the tracks are missing, including the road leading to the reserve.
17 - (http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=32.90056&lon=35.76314&zoom=17&layers=M) half of the track from the picnic area to the reserve is missing
at 18 - again some bits of the way are missing

it all looks like a rendering problem.

talkat · 2010-12-18T17:23:24.000Z

ATGardner:

About the zoom level - at zoom level 13 (http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=32.9047&lon=35.7705&zoom=13&layers=M) I do not see most of the track at Gamla (only the red trail)
at zoom level 14 and 15 I see it all.
at zoom level 16 again most of the tracks are missing, including the road leading to the reserve.
17 - (http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=32.90056&lon=35.76314&zoom=17&layers=M) half of the track from the picnic area to the reserve is missing
at 18 - again some bits of the way are missing

it all looks like a rendering problem.

Sounds to me like a tile refresh “problem”…
It seems to me that now everything is visible.

Can you put a link to a way that’s not visible at some zoom level?

The tiles refresh at irregular intervals.
It could be seconds, or even hours.

The zoomed-out tiles render once a week, or less.

talkat.