No need to post link spam. It’s been on the map for at least two years now.

junction=circular does not replace junction=roundabout. Circular is for junctions which look like they might be roundabouts but actually aren’t.

In a roundabout, every entry yields/gives way to the traffic already in the junction. Some circular junctions give preferential right of way to certain directions of traffic, and some traffic in the junction must yield to others.

junction=circular: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/29.72405/-95.39051 junction=roundabout: https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=19/29.77100/-95.42353

(Both in Houston, TX, US, as this is my hometown and I happen to know where to look for examples of each.)

How does this differ from the existing data from Microsoft available via MapWithAI?

JOSM has a tool to place a node at an exact latitude/longitude. You will find there are a lot of things iD can’t do (or can’t do easily) that JOSM can handle no problem.

To me, the one thing iD handles better than JOSM is turn restrictions, though at least JOSM has a usable turn restriction plugin editor when needed.

Sometimes I will just map what is easily available: address, opening hours from sign, etc. If there’s no sign for the hours I’ll sometimes just tag opening_hours:signed=no and be done with it.

I’ve had a few people ask. The worst was one phone call I made where the guy didn’t understand what I was asking and why… I try not to make phone calls for data for this reason.

This was a good start, but this area needed a lot of cleanup. (See changeset 123322598)

For landuse=residential the name=* tag is often used for the name of an apartment complex or subdivision. Is this not correct usage?

I’ve noticed that Carlos has replied to at least a few changeset comments. I, too, wonder how in the h-e-double-hockey-sticks someone can manage to upload unclosed ways for buildings in JOSM. I can only imagine it’s from intentionally turning off the validator prior to upload–not easy to do on accident, and a very bad idea!

That’s absolutely awful. Here in greater Houston, Texas, we don’t have much of a community yet but I hope to change that as soon as we are out of pandemic status. I definitely don’t want to have the same issues here.

Asking whether or not a source is license-compatible to OSM is a valid question. Asking to include the entire community is a valid request. It’s unfortunate that both of them seem to get you ignored/excluded.

1. Any way of getting a closeup of that first map around Houston, Texas? I see several yellow dots and a red dot around where Houston would be and I’m curious as to exactly where these were.
2. What about certain features that actually have a profane name in reality? (Examples: one of the curves on the Dalton Highway is actually called Oh Shit Corner, and I’m pretty sure there’s an actual Shit Creek signed somewhere.)

I didn’t see anything horribly wrong with the few changeset comments I translated. Honestly, if I was somewhere like Panama instead of a major city in the US (Houston), and I had to deal with a lot of remote humanitarian mappers coming in and making a fine mess of things, I could easily be making very similar changeset comments and facing the same situation. As it is, I have, so far, gotten along with everyone in charge at OSM and haven’t had any major issues in a decade of mapping. We had a guy down in Florida who managed to get banned for continuing to provoke silly edit wars and engage in silly disputes; he contributed about 6 times the volume of data I have to date in only 3½ years. It’s perhaps the saddest story of someone being separated from the OSM project the I know of.

I hate seeing people leave for reasons like that. While I may never visit Panama, I appreciate that you care about the quality of the data in OSM and I hope you remain with the project. Either way, thank you for your contributions and desire for quality data in OSM.

I agree with Sanderd17 on learning JOSM. You may also want to look at getting an Android device (if you don’t already have one) and installing Vespucci and StreetComplete for mapping/adding data in the field. They fill completely different roles: Vespucci is more of a full-featured editor while StreetComplete is mainly for adding missing data on already mapped objects.

When I first started mapping, the Houston area was a mess. We’ve come a long way in the 8½ years since my first edit, but thankfully I’m not alone.

If you have a physical office, that can be mapped, including contact information such as website, phone, email, etc. What’s considered spamming is adding a bunch of ad copy to the changeset comment, description=, note=, map notes, etc, or changing the street name to be the name of a business (actually that’s vandalism as well, and yes, some people have actually done this).

Welcome aboard! This a great volunteer opportunity, especially if you travel a lot.

As you get into a rhythm of contributing, try learn who the other local mappers are, and if there are any local quirks to how things are mapped (some areas have their own ways of mapping certain things).

Even if you start out just doing small edits in iD, you may want to look at JOSM (on your computer), or StreetComplete and Vespucci (on your Android phone/tablet) among others.

If you need help figuring out JOSM or Vespucci, drop me a line. (StreetComplete is designed to be easy enough to figure out without help.)

I’d say they are in fact different features even if they are the same establishment. With pay at the pump, it’s possible to refuel without ever setting foot inside the c-store.

Different opening hours has been enough for me to split off the amenity=pharmacy part of a Walgreens or CVS into a separate node from the shop=chemist. It’s not an optimal solution to me but it’s the best alternative I have so far.

Some of your images from this post have already broken. Was this on purpose?

As long as it’s OSM-related it’s on topic. I totally get the need to vent about challenges in your local area, and trust me, you are not alone. Heck, look at my entries, I have found some, er, interesting things looking for opening_hours/collection_times/service_times issues.

I’d also like to add that map notes, note=, description=, and changeset comments are not for advertising copy. We have way too much of this pollution as it is, and there are people who go through every so often and clean up, or as I call it “de-rubbish”, note=* and description=*.

Re: iD losing changes – or, as an alternative, use JOSM for larger changes and iD only for small changes and turn restrictions (which is what I do).

It depends on what you are doing. If the entire intent of my changeset is just to add a few traffic controls, fix alignment, or add the address of something (say, a c-store) I’m content with <10 edits. If I’m adding buildings with MapWithAI, 1000+ edits is not uncommon and I’ve even maxed out a changeset at 10,000 changes before.