- cross-posted to:
- opensource@programming.dev
All of you are invited on !openstreetmap@lemmy.ml
Also checkout the many editing tools, such as https://mapcomplete.org, https://streetcomplete.app,…
I successfully used Every Door during my holidays to contribute
There’s a small learning curve I wish some bothered to understand first. Does this app help? The part of this I don’t like is vacationers leaving useless names like ‘Mango lady’, ‘many street vendors’ for a block, or ‘local restaurant’ since they can’t read the sign as opposed marking up the cuisine type, maybe adding an English description, & leaving the name blank. Nobody expects uploads to be perfect but Bangkok is littered with this noise that makes it hard to follow or find things.
It takes effort and knowledge to make good contributions, this app is just a tool to do that.
I can only say I myself try to make valuable contributions, some other people might care less.
I think EveryDoor requires some relatively deep understanding of OSM before actually being a useful tool. So edits like this should be rare with that tool. Many of the edits like this are from when MapsMe was very popular and suddenly introduced editing, without enough nuance in the process. Bad edits do happen everywhere, you need a good balance between people who data curation and newbies making beginner mistakes. In some places, there’s a lack of experienced people maintaining the data.
Every Door
thank you for sharing, definitely the easiest for Android from my research :-)
Note: there is a comparison of editor apps here: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Comparison_of_editors
Thank you for sharing the links!
the biggest problem I have with switching is that Google Maps is a business directory. open street maps is empty where i live. it works okay for navigation, but not so much for finding a coffee.
there are ways to make it easier; it’s been gamified:
https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete
Available on FDROID.
When my partner stops to play pokemon go, I complete some Open Street Map info quests…
Street Complete is a great app for quests regarding existing features, but also consider the feature might not exist at all yet in OSM.
Map Complete is great for adding new features. It also asks a bunch of optional simple questions about the feature which gets converted into the relevant OSM tags. It’s browser based but you can just add a shortcut to your home screen to have it quickly accessible.
@controlphreak @snrkl
Now that StreetComplete has overlay layers for places and things you can add most of the thing you’d want to add in person.I didn’t know about map complete, thanks!
I’ve just installed this now, thanks for the tip!
So many quests right on my street!
Be the change your want to see in the world https://droidify.eu.org/app/?id=de.westnordost.streetcomplete&repo_address=https://f-droid.org/archive
It says “page not found”, maybe because I’m not in EU.
I’m in the US, also says page not found for me.
Yea looks like they were linking to this: Street Complete
Very strange. It doesn’t work. I shared directly from the f-droid client droid-ify
https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete/index.html
Same in EU
Link to fdroid next time
Oh weird. That’s shared from droid-ify which is an f-droid client.
Here’s the proper link https://f-droid.org/en/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete/index.html
As many have already told you, you can contribute to OSM, I have put in it almost all the establishments in my area (Not at Big area but…). Although soon I have to update them
im on board with the idea in general, but im not going to do this. it would be an endless effort to the benefit of almost nobody. places go up and down so fast here that google maps is often out of date too. it’s filled with stale information and im flagging missing places constantly. every digital community in this country is a garbage pile.
the ride share apps here do use open street maps though, and im making corrections to building addresses when i find something isn’t right. it’s great.
Umm…it benefits loads of people.
On OSM you don’t have to just flag something. You can edit it directly, so it leads to more accurate information.
But you can also just flag it if editing is not your cup of tea. Here’s a convenient, non-techy tool to add notes for others to use when editing: https://www.onosm.org/
Great point
You can contribute them!
There’s a pretty barebones editor in Organic Maps, but you can also check out Street Complete and Every door (more advanced and less user friendly, though insanely efficient)
I use Vespucci, it’s advanced but still pretty easy if you just want to do basic editing. https://vespucci.io/
P.s. how do you link to an app on fdroid?
Thanks. I wish the link could be created from the f-droid automatically. I’m too lazy to try to paste the parts together
Same issue here. I really like their maps in general, but my local area in OSM is about a decade out of date
Yeah, it’s interesting to look through the edit history over the years. With StreetComplete I recently fixed ~8 stores that were many years out of date, during an hour walk.
It’s fun to find a real hole-in-the-wall that even google maps doesn’t have.
I keep businesses in my area up-to-date, doesn’t take much time at all.
That kind of contribution seems like a lower level of effort than making changes to source code.
And there are apps that make it very very easy and fun. Check out street complete.
I felt the same however Organic Maps did have many businesses. And with Street Complete I can correct any errors when I visit.
It may simply be my area, but I so recommend organic maps over Osmand for business and POI lookups
Yeah trying to find anything on any of the competing apps is basically impossible. I mean ffs OSMand literally couldn’t do address lookup!
I just recently learned this.
For OsmAnd, go to search, then the categories tab, and then hit “Online Search”.
Voila, address lookup.
I have found Organic Map’s search to be far better than OSMand. OSMand has far more features though.
You’ll need to first download the relevant section of the map downloaded to be able to search it, though.
i think openstreetmaps only works in big countries honestly
What does the size of the country have to do with it? Which good big and bad small countries are you talking about?
Most people don’t use openstreetmaps on these small countries like with low/medium population it feels like apple maps on there
Can you give an example? Because I’ve just looked at Luxembourg, Nepal, and Aruba, and they’re all littered with named buildings and landmarks. Pyongyang even has a fair bit filled in.
didnt rlly try it but might try tbh but idk since i see people here where i live use google maps
edit: tried it and it really is quite outdated my house does not show up and idk if waze is even privacy respecting
Waze is google these days. They bought it some time ago.
Ohh
Apple Maps uses OpenStreetMap data on n some countries.
ohh makes sense
All it takes is you to fix this. Its even easier in a small country
oh okay
You can add the POIs and fill the gaps!
And then in the web app, you need to do this complicated hold-LMB-then-select-from-list to select something, making just browsing really difficult.
Or is there a better way of doing that? I lack a good way to just browse Openstreetmap.
openstreetmap.org is a mappers website, not a map users website. It works great for mappers, but is horrible for people who want to use the map to find their way around.
I think the openstreetmap ecosystem really needs a better website for map users.
Organic Maps was put back onto the Play Store the next day day: https://organicmaps.app/news/2024-08-18/good-news-organic-maps-appeared-again-in-the-google-play-store/
Yeah but it demonstrates googles unwillingness to cooperate and give fair warnings.
You seem pretty active with OSM, so I’ll propose this here since I don’t have time to make it.
OSM is very, very popular with hikers and cyclists, and I’d argue rhey drive a lot of it’s use, especially via third-party systems. However, it’s one failing is “gravel” roads. While they support many different gravel road types, they admit on their Wiki that use of the proper terms is low.
Given the heavy use of Garmin devices, especially among gravel cyclists, mountain bikers, and bikepackers, where terrain definition is important, it would be outstanding to have an app in the Garmin store for Edge devices that could report the exact terrain type (compacted, dirt, etc) with a button mash as you ride it.
Check out StreetComplete (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.westnordost.streetcomplete)
It does more than just road surface type, and incorporates location-based OSM editing in a very user-friendly way!
F-Droid link: StreetComplete (OpenStreetMap surveyor app) https://f-droid.org/packages/de.westnordost.streetcomplete/