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I asked a question in the following thread:

https://help.openstreetmap.org/questions/22837/yet-another-why-havent-my-edits-shown-up-in-openstreetmaporg-question

This was closed with the following comment:

While edits are usually quick to show up on the map, it can occasionally take longer; other answers, that you claim to have read, explain this in more detail.

The tone of your reply gives the impression you think I’m a liar, or too stupid or too lazy to read properly.

I had read the following link:

https://help.openstreetmap.org/questions/102/i-have-made-edits-but-they-dont-show-up-on-the-map

This said the following:

When you talk about 'the map', you may mean the 'Mapnik'-layer on OpenStreetMap.org. That one should be updated every minute, but you still have to keep in mind that not everything is shown there.

This is the first time I’ve done a map update and I would like some feedback that what I’m doing is not wrong and not a waste of my time.

If you don’t want new users to join this project then please say so and I will go away, never to return and tell everyone who will listen not to go anywhere near openstreetmap.org.

So how long is longer. I’ve waited 4 hours since the edits, how much long do I have to wait?

I would say having to wait more than 4 hours to check if an edit is OK must qualify this site for some sort of a worst user interface award.

Terry

asked 29 May '13, 13:48

terry's gravatar image

terry
12222
accept rate: 0%

3

Clear your browser cache again. As per the comment on your previous question the changeset mentioned looks fine and has rendered.

(29 May '13, 14:39) EdLoach ♦
3

Click here if you think edits don't show up fast enough on the map.

(29 May '13, 15:04) scai ♦

I was the one who closed your other question because you claimed to have read (more than one) other answer and you didn't say why exactly they did not help you. This makes it difficult to improve the site - we certainly don't want the same question asked (and answered) over and over again. I'm sorry if I was a bit impolite but I was exasperated by a self-confessed newbie who made it difficult to help him by not saying what the problem was!

Sadly, your above statement of "If it takes more than 4 hours to see if an edit is right, this is the worst user interface..." contains a couple of misunderstandings. Firstly, the map view is not meant to be the arbiter of what is correct or not; as you will know from the other questions (I have made a list of links for you in the answer section to your original question), there are many features that do not even show up on the main Mapnik style, and it would be very sad to only have features that show in that map. Secondly, we cannot guarantee that the map is updated within 4 hours, and expecting this from OSM will not give you a happy editing experience - we try to update the map in a timely fashion but it can occasionally take several days for an update to show, for example because the rendering database is being rebuilt or because of update hiccups or so. OSM is certainly happy for your contributions but if they come loaded with the expectation that they must show up within an hour or else our user interface is "the worst" then they come at a rather high price.

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answered 29 May '13, 22:47

Frederik%20Ramm's gravatar image

Frederik Ramm ♦
82.5k927201273
accept rate: 23%

edited 30 May '13, 09:15

Your problem is certainly a failure to clear the browser cache; everyone else can see the changes you made, just not you. (And probably about 20 folk have checked by now).

A very simple way to check that your data has been entered is to choose the "Browse Data" option on the layers button halfway up the right-hand side of the screen. This option directly pulls data from the database itself.

There is no question as to whether we want your edits: OF COURSE WE DO.

This very question probably pops up here every couple of days. if each one is answered individually as a particular case then the value of this site as a source of common questions & there answers is devalued. It is much better if this, known, common, problem is referred to pre-existing answers.

Note that this site is not meant to be a support site - "Here's my problem how can I fix it?" - but a crowd-sourced answers to generic problems and issues. It is to avoid a proliferation of answers to a common question that questions such as your original one get closed quickly.

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answered 29 May '13, 15:14

SK53's gravatar image

SK53 ♦
28.1k48268433
accept rate: 22%

I sympathize. I dare say somewhere on this help site there is a concise and comprehensive answer to what must be about the most commonly asked question. The problem is finding it!

My understanding is, when people access the rendered map, the tiles required for that particular area (and zoom level) are retrieved, and a check is made to see whether the database in that area has been changed since any given tile was last rendered: if there have been changes, the tile should be queued for re-rendering to pick up the latest changes in the database. However, that queue is a finite length and, if it happens to be full, no new entry will be created, and the need to re-render is simply forgotten, until another attempt is made to view the tile (which could be weeks later). You can tell whether the tile is up to date by finding out its URL (in my browser, Chrome, I right-click on the map and choose 'Copy image URL'), then paste that into the browser appending /status on the end. This should tell you whether the tile is currently queued for rendering ('dirty') and the date/time of the most recent rendering. If it's not dirty, but the date/time indicates that it hasn't been rendered since you made your change, you can replace the /status with /dirty, which attempts to add the tile to the rendering queue there and then. If, after that, you find the /status doesn't change, that suggests that the queue is full and new requests are not being accepted. In that case, you might as well leave it a while and then go through the process again. I think the graphs available at http://munin.openstreetmap.org/openstreetmap/yevaud.openstreetmap/renderd_queue.html should also give you an idea whether the queue is full.

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answered 29 May '13, 14:51

sdoerr's gravatar image

sdoerr
1.5k32031
accept rate: 8%

There is no clear answer. Edits can be visible almost immediately or they can be visible only after a long time because of high load or server/database problems or because you edited something special like a coastline or because of some other reason. Longer is as long as it takes (but usually very short).

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answered 29 May '13, 15:14

scai's gravatar image

scai ♦
33.3k21309459
accept rate: 23%

edited 29 May '13, 15:15

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question asked: 29 May '13, 13:48

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last updated: 30 May '13, 09:15

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