'Welcome' page on the first screen of OSM

On the front page of OpenStreetMap, wouldn’t it be nice to have a more prominent “Welcome to OpenStreetMap” section inside the “Help” section?
Honestly, I don’t think people pay much attention to the “Help” item.
However, it does contain essential information, especially for beginners, but many people don’t look at it.
If you’re already familiar with OSM, you probably don’t need it, but beginners often get lost or make errors because they don’t know this simple stuff.
Therefore, I think it’s a good idea to at least place the “Welcome to OpenStreetMap” item prominently, or at least make the “Help” item prominent.
New contributors, especially in regions with less active communities, often don’t know where to turn for help.

Worse, it’s not even visible to non-logged-in users.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a sneak peek for users who aren’t signed up?


한말글 요약 : 첫 걸음을 한 기여자들에게 도움이 될 수 있도록 ‘도움말’ 항목이 눈에 띄게 만들거나 ‘도움말’ 안의 ‘OpenStreetMap에 오신 것을 환영합니다’ 항목이 눈에 띄도록 배치해야 한다고 생각합니다.

8 Likes

I have always liked the way that https://openstreetmap.de/ does it.

5 Likes

There is actually a separate “Welcome Mat” subsite geared towards organisations but is still sufficiently useful for the general public.

1 Like

This is cool!
I think this is a great idea that could always be helpful for newcomers and those who are not yet familiar with OSM.

Also, there are a lot of help pages for OSM, but they’re TOO SCATTERED. - OSM, OSM Wiki, LearnOSM etc.
Often when I need help, I don’t get it because I can’t find where it is.

1 Like

I’ve improved the osm.kr website, inspired by the openstreetmap.de. Now someone can read very detailed descriptions for OSM in Korean on the main page.

openstreetmap.de를 참고해 osm.kr 홈페이지를 개선했습니다. 이제 첫 화면에서 오픈스트리트맵을 모르는 사람도 쉽게 이해할 수 있는 설명을 볼 수 있습니다.

1 Like