NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum

I noticed that i recent months there have been strange edits in the OSM data in the Jeddah area in Saudi Arabia. Sections of roads had vanished and I've fixed them manually.

Now I noticed that the Saabaar junction at highway 5 (22.420715, 39.1989674) has been revered to quite an old state. There is extensive building going on there and all my edits are gone. The ownership for the changes seems to be by "General Dreedle". Following links I find out that that is a bot that that prevents vandals making spurious changes.

The General Dreedle login points to Richard, whose page points here.

What is going on? Have I been labeled a vandal?

I have not tried reverting changes before. What is the best way to find a change set ID history for a node? I am using JOSM.

asked 05 Jan '13, 10:28

HeikkiL's gravatar image

HeikkiL
26113
accept rate: 0%


Looking at http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/161147071/history as one example it appears that General Dreedle has removed RR8's edits and actually reverted it back to your last version.

Do you have an example of an object where your edits were reverted?

permanent link

answered 05 Jan '13, 10:47

TomH's gravatar image

TomH ♦♦
3.3k83943
accept rate: 20%

1

Thanks Tom. I can now see better what is going on. Clearly, my edits are not targeted.

Still, there are edits missing. Your link to history shows a way coming from east and turning north. It now splits to two lanes and continues over the motorway as a bridge. There is no connection to north any more. I can not see how I can revive those ways?

(05 Jan '13, 11:03) HeikkiL

Actually, it's not just General Dreedle who is editing here. Here's an example of another deleted way of yours.

If you want to look at deleted ways you can go into the old Potlatch editor by adding "&editor=potlatch" to the end of the edit URL:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/edit?lat=22.41948&lon=39.20067&zoom=16&way=161147071&editor=potlatch

and then select advanced / undelete. You'll get a bit of a rat's nest though, and you'll need to manually join undeleted ways to current ones. There's no Bing imagery there either.

permanent link

answered 05 Jan '13, 11:57

SomeoneElse's gravatar image

SomeoneElse ♦
36.9k71370866
accept rate: 16%

Thanks for tracking this down, SomeoneElse. This seems to be the edit that changed the Saabaar Junction, too. Looking at this user's other edits, I can not see any intended malice in his actions, though. Looks like the edits are based on Bing imagery that does not show the bridge and other roads that under construction around the new railway station. That is an interesting topic in itself: how to convince other contributors that your edit is valid even when satellite images show otherwise!

(05 Jan '13, 12:19) HeikkiL

Indeed it is - I'll be having a similar conversation myself with a local mapper in the next day or so. In your case it's someone who's only been mapping for 2 or 3 months, so be gentle with them!

(05 Jan '13, 12:26) SomeoneElse ♦
2

Just to add a bit of background - General Dreedle is designed to fire very rapidly (usually within 10 minutes) after a persistent vandal has edited the area, which minimises the chance of any "collateral damage" from a clash of edits. It therefore shouldn't damage your edits in any way. You certainly haven't been labelled a vandal: the General has a very short list of users it reverts!

(05 Jan '13, 12:34) Richard ♦
3

I manually added the missing bridge and roads from a saved xml file. Case closed. Thanks for everyone!

(05 Jan '13, 12:40) HeikkiL
Your answer
toggle preview

Follow this question

By Email:

Once you sign in you will be able to subscribe for any updates here

By RSS:

Answers

Answers and Comments

Markdown Basics

  • *italic* or _italic_
  • **bold** or __bold__
  • link:[text](http://url.com/ "title")
  • image?![alt text](/path/img.jpg "title")
  • numbered list: 1. Foo 2. Bar
  • to add a line break simply add two spaces to where you would like the new line to be.
  • basic HTML tags are also supported

Question tags:

×127
×86
×10
×2

question asked: 05 Jan '13, 10:28

question was seen: 3,452 times

last updated: 05 Jan '13, 12:40

NOTICE: help.openstreetmap.org is no longer in use from 1st March 2024. Please use the OpenStreetMap Community Forum