Looked at one of those linked ways in ID in edit mode on my tablet. Not knowing what a ‘filter’-road’ is, or why sections of road were deleted, the one I looked at v8, but the new v1 has perfect alignment with bing imagery, without any offset correction. What the mappers thinking is I cannot fathom. If the actions make no sense, reverse the new and do an undelete in JOSM for the specific object. The ID number of the way is revealed in the edit set where the original was gone. This way you avoid removing anything that might be good.
I think I must have forgotten to clarify that Changeset: 171855403 | OpenStreetMap was not part of my concerns. But the other changesets I linked to are concerning and I am trying to get Mirditor22 to improve their editing and answer prior questions about their edits, if you know what I mean.
It is not like I suddenly became paranoid or something, but it was a culmination of issues and unanswered questions that led to the post.
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Map User Grecce may be a sockpuppet of Delta Evas ALL because of a fake junction layout at 39.682853,20.810896 (OSMCha) - the user is still ignoring our concerns and block messages.
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Guys, I received a reply via email from the DWG about Map User Grecce, and the DWG says that we were not working enough to engage with the user to change their behaviour.
I don’t really see what we could do to engage them more directly. They don’t reply to concerns raised in changeset comments, nor in private messages, nor to messages left by the DWG when blocked. The editing style (and username choices, including the occasional misspelling) point to the same person, who is for some reason very insistent, but very resistant to direct communication.
Obviously, gleaning something about their motivations behind this behaviour from them directly would be helpful, but reaching them seems impossible.
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In any case, their problematic edits have spread to neighbouring countries. The majority is still concentrated in Greece, but there are a few in Bulgaria as well as Italy.
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From a DWG perspective, that’s the bit that hasn’t really been explained to us. We’ve not tended to receive reports saying “I think X and Y are the same because Z” just “I think X and Y are the same”.
Blocking a suspected nefarious user “until they respond to comments” is something that we can only do if there are changeset comments.
Most of their edits in Bulgaria have been reverted it seems:
EDIT: Their edits in Greece have mostly been reverted by ika-chan. In general, after a cursory look, everything ika-chan has reverted has been in good faith and correct according to Greek and general tagging guidelines.
They seem to be currently making edits in the border area with Turkey. Its unclear to me if this is meant as a tactic to avoid more diligent policing of their actions in Greece (as we can see, their edits were quickly reverted in Bulgaria, but some Bulgarian community members monitor this topic).
Do you mean that I made sure that the affected ways were fixed and checked to comply with Greek and general tagging guidelines? The shortcomings of the machine translator must have struck again.
On 15 October 2025, I sent the following direct message to Map User Grecce, to try and get them to explain their edits:
Hello,
I (ika-chan!) and PeachyOne are concerned that you are mapping features and road layouts that do not exist in real life, according to Esri and Mapillary. In addition, I noticed one case where you were not retracing ways accurately, and three cases where you added relations for national roads that do not exist (the ones that exist are listed at osm.wiki/Greece/National_Roads).
Can you please explain why you mapped the following features that do not appear to exist in reality?
https://osmcha.org/changesets/172960171 - Non-existent filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1436190449 - Non-existent filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1436190456 - Substandard retracing: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/776479731 replaced by https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1436190455) https://osmcha.org/changesets/173002472 - Non-existent or unmarked filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1436419202 https://osmcha.org/changesets/173017175 - Non-existent national road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/19691913 https://osmcha.org/changesets/173045181 - Non-existent or unmarked filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1436666007 https://osmcha.org/changesets/173045937 - Non-existent or unmarked filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1436668885 - Wrong junction layout at 39.682851,20.810876 https://osmcha.org/changesets/173060073 - Northern and western roundabout approaches are not split in reality, at 38.324452,23.323701 https://osmcha.org/changesets/173095870 - Non-existent or unmarked filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1436926011 - Non-existent or unmarked filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1436926016 https://osmcha.org/changesets/173096578 - T-junction with soft corners wrongly mapped as split triangle, at 38.438638,22.841531 - Wrong junction layout at 38.413326,22.837832 https://osmcha.org/changesets/173122016 - Non-existent or unmarked filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1437057071 - Non-existent or unmarked filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1437057072 https://osmcha.org/changesets/173132445 - Non-existent national road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/19699664 https://osmcha.org/changesets/173164592 - Non-existent national road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/19701985 https://osmcha.org/changesets/173164855 - Non-existent or unmarked filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1441573249 - T-junction with soft corners wrongly mapped as split triangle, at 39.337624,21.835539 https://osmcha.org/changesets/173275367 - Non-existent or unmarked filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1442140617Please get in touch with us to discuss your edits, at https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/report-vandalism-or-concerns-about-edits-here/4223 (or start a new thread at https://community.openstreetmap.org/c/communities/gr/68). Please tell us where you are stuck at so we can help improve your skills. Sadly, if you do not reply within seven days from the date of this message, then we may have to consider further action to persuade you to communicate with the community about your edits.
OpenStreetMap is not the place to map features that do not exist in real life, especially in a country with a poor road safety record (source). Inaccurate data on OpenStreetMap can be at best time-wasting for people who depend on us for navigation, and at worst dangerous.
Best,
–ika-chan!
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User aidworker added the text “> Αδιέξοδο” as a name to many roads (link)
and has also used in many other tracks non standard naming such as “Κ1 (> καταφύγιο - κορυφή Πρ. Ηλία) - 1 ώρα” (link)
I have contacted this user explaining that the name field is only for official or unofficial names but looks like this user is not willing to accept it, trying to convince me that in this way the map is more useful.
So, because I don’t have more time to chat or to convert the names, I am asking the community to decide and act if necessary.
Γενικά δεν είναι άκρως απραίτητο να μιλάμε στα αγγλικά στον νήμα, απ’ όσο ξέρω. Απλά επειδή αναφερόμαστε σε ονόματα στα Ελληνικά το αναφέρω.
The examples you give are pretty old, and maybe aidworker was not yet aware of other methods for mapping these sorts of things (like relations). Whenever I have encountered other examples in other parts of Greece (usually hiking trails) they are similarly old, and I try to correct them sometimes. Have you found any examples that are more recent that show the same sort of editing style?
For example, here a few days ago they have used a relation to map a hiking route, a rather standard way to map this sort of thing.
PeachyOne and I are concerned that GATAA RANA may be a sockpuppet of Map User Grecce due to similar bad editing practices. The user appears to continue to ignore concerns from their previous account.
Hello,
We have reason to believe that your account, GATAA RANA, may be a sockpuppet of Map User Grecce, because you have added filter roads that do not exist and abandoned roads that were in fact demolished. While your mapping may have improved somehow, you still continue with problematic mapping at times, and more seriously, you ignore concerns raised with your previous account (https://resultmaps.neis-one.org/osm-discussion-comments?uid=23368171)
The following changesets raised concerns with PeachyOne and I:
https://osmcha.org/changesets/173837765 - Non-existent or unmarked filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1445415842 - Southern roundabout approach is not split in reality, at 41.100196,20.029493 https://osmcha.org/changesets/174715626 - Non-existent or unmarked filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1451023071 - Non-existent or unmarked filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1451023072 https://osmcha.org/changesets/175198853 - Non-existent or unmarked filter road: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1454163495 https://osmcha.org/changesets/175209718 - Abandoned road is demolished (according to Esri): https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1454229825 - Abandoned road is demolished (according to Esri): https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1454229826 - Abandoned road is demolished (according to Esri): https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1454229830 - Abandoned road is demolished (according to Esri): https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1454229831 https://osmcha.org/changesets/175275859 - Abandoned road is actually a cutline with tracks: https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/1454658930Please get in touch with us to discuss your edits (as well as those from Map User Grecce), at https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/report-vandalism-or-concerns-about-edits-here/4223 (or start a new thread at https://community.openstreetmap.org/c/communities/gr/68).
Best,
–ika-chan!
Changeset 175209718 is included to prove the link between two accounts regarding the addition of abandoned roads that were demolished in reality (Changeset 173002472).
Further to https://www.openstreetmap.org/messages/1310957:
https://osmcha.org/changesets/175209718 was included in the list, because while you replied to my concerns on that changeset, the changeset was very similar to your possible previous account adding abandoned roads that were demolished in reality (https://osmcha.org/changesets/173002472).
– ika-chan!
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I would like to point out there has been lots of changesets in other countries as well, that have been similarly scrutinised by local mappers. This is the first time I have seen this person actually respond to changeset comments (including one by ika-chan).
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In this changeset, user GATAA RANA adds a fake junction layout and non-existent filter road, despite telling them via private message not to do that.
EXTRA (2 January 2026): the account has been blocked in an attempt to get the user to address our concerns, although the comments about the user’s changesets is actually at https://resultmaps.neis-one.org/osm-discussion-comments?uid=23431883.
The following changesets by user GK1926 have been removed for unexplained removal of features and the addition of fake junction layouts:
I have asked the user to explain their edits here. It is possible that the account may have been compromised given reasonable edits in the past.
User map-mastermind was recently blocked for repeatedly removing private roads, even those that were appropriately tagged with access=private.
Changesets in question:
- https://osmcha.org/changesets/174152428 (deleted a service road that was already marked as private)
- https://osmcha.org/changesets/177865291 (deleted service roads behind locked gates that could have been marked as private)
- https://osmcha.org/changesets/178472281 (deleted a service road instead of splitting it and tagging the private section with access=private)
- https://osmcha.org/changesets/180355248 (deleted a service road that could have been marked as private)
- https://osmcha.org/changesets/180599683 (deleted numerous private roads instead of retagging, such as ways 538499882, 809976823, 956549146, 956549150, 961802177, and 1075914239)
I post this because the user had since sent an abusive message to me, which the DWG is aware and thus additional vigilance of their subsequent changes is requested.
The applicable policy about private roads can be found at https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Why_we_won’t_delete_roads_on_private_property.
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@ika-chan could this be the same user?
I see you’ve already commented on and reverted three changesets: Changeset Discussions of stratos008
They added some highways in Italy too. For the one in my area, I have no idea what it represents, and neither does another local mapper who commented on the changeset.
If this is the same user, it may be better to block the account and revert all related changesets.
I think they are, given that they added a road number that does not exist and I just tried to ask them where the road number comes from: Way: A28 (1504509546) | OpenStreetMap
You are welcome to report the user to the DWG: after their insulting message to me as GATAA RANA (source), I am getting too weary of dealing with them. It is clear that giving them a second chance (after the DWG was concerned in October 2025 that we were not working enough to engage with the user to change their behaviour) isn’t working.