Hi Martijns, Is there any way that MapRoulette could be used to do an import (after going through the appropriate reviews and approvals of course)? This would require the feature to be imported, such as a building footprint, be loaded into the editor (JOSM, iD) along with the existing OSM data so that the user can review whether the feature should be imported (in JOSM two data layers can be merged). Thanks, Mike

@mapeadora Interesting about receiving HOT TM messages in ones email. I didn’t think this was possible. It would be great if it was! Perhaps you mean messages sent through the OSM website (e.g. change set comments)?

I agree with you that the wrong type of feedback can be very demotivating. I have been the recipient of that and felt hurt. When validating I always try to give positive feedback and nice corrective pointers. My point was that if people are not reading their HOT TM messages - and I don’t think data is available as to whether they are or not - there can be no causation, only correlation. I suspect, and this is only a suspicion, is that if we could only looked at cases where messages were read, there would be a much larger negative impact from negative comments.

Local knowledge is very important. I didn’t mean to imply that it was not. My point was that if a new mapper did happen to to either have some existing mapping skills, or was able to quickly pick them up, they would be both more likely to get positive feedback, as well as continue as a mapper. In other words the common causation of both the positive feedback and the mapper returning is the initial or early skill.

Very interesting study Martin. However, while I believe it is important to give positive, and if necessary nice corrective, feedback (just because it is the right thing to do), I am surprised there was a strong correlation between the type of feedback and subsequent mapper behavior. My experience has been that new mappers don’t read their TM messages, either because they never log back into the TM after their first edit session, or they ignore the notice that they have messages in their inbox. Is it possible that the mapper behavior is influencing the type of feedback as opposed to the other way around? In other words, mappers that from the start “get it”, do a good job mapping and therefore get generally positive feedback. Because these mappers “get it”, they enjoy the activity, and are more likely to continue to contribute (who wants to continue to do something they are not good at).

@yellowbkpk thanks for the reply. If I am editing in Potlatch, shouldn't all features be displayed? How do I tell if the data is really there or not so I don't add duplicate information?