The problem with maproulette is the same thing that makes it fun: the gamification.<p>Some people value imaginary internet points so highly, they edit OSM willy-nilly to make it conform to maproulette, disregarding ground truth, not checking if the tasks analysis is complete and mapping slightly wrong around the world.<p>This is mad MUCH worse by the fact that the default setting in maproulette is that when you finish a task, the system takes you to an another one at a random position in the world. I have no idea, for instance, if this Italian restaurant in Minsk has a correct web address (or if it exists at all), but I'm incentivized to jut remove the tag and get those sweet points.
I like the idea, but these tasks seem incomprehensible. I looked at some near me, and one is about traffic lights at an intersection that doesn't have traffic lights, and the others just say "Highway not on ground and no tunnel, bridge or covered tags" under "Instructions" but they're not highways or roads at all (though I guess they are on the ground).
It makes no sense. I zoomed into a segment of my city, lowest level.<p>I see two clusters with "2", maybe that means that there are 4 tasks on the map segment which need fixing.<p>Clicking on any of the two clusters does nothing. The sidebar has just an odd "Global: [amenity=doctors] and [healtcare:speciality=*] missing [healthcare]", which, when I click it, reloads the page and shows me a world view with problematic doctors.<p>When I deselect "Cluster", then nothing is shown, instead of those 4 clustered tasks that apparently need fixing. I expected to see 4 individual tasks, instead of the two clustered ones.<p>At the same time a label tells me "23 tasks found", yet I see none. I assume those two pairs of clusters of two should represent 4 tasks, but I can't interact with them in any way.<p>I also can't easily navigate to a place of interest because there is no location searchbox.<p>I was expecting something like StreetComplete.
Lately I've been thinking more about how to get better POI (like business) data into OSM. Apps like everydoor work okay but I feel it's still annoying to type it in and get the tags right.<p>I think it could be a really good use of AI to let me, for example, snap a photo of the menu and then have it automatically generate the OSM tags. Then someone just has to review if it all is appropriate.<p>Just bring able to walk down the street, snap a bunch of menu or sign pics, then go home and drop pins and confirm tags from photos would be great.<p>Heck it could even scrape their website to verify the information too!<p>Does anyone know if there is a project like this? Or have any thoughts on if this is a reasonable approach? I think as long as there's a human in the loop checking things it should be fine by OSM.
This reminds me a bit of the obsessive fun of foursquare super-usering back when that app wasn't dead in all but name. I remember painstakingly updating whole strip malls and such to have every single business perfectly delineated and labeled, with the pins located right at the front door of each.<p>(At some point they made some change that left my class of SU behind, but since the original purpose of 4sq died long ago there wouldn't be a point to donate my time to it now.)
See also: <a href="https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete">https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete</a>
The website is giving CSS IS AWESOME vibes <a href="https://imgur.com/a/wM7ZT2C" rel="nofollow">https://imgur.com/a/wM7ZT2C</a>