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Assuming I'm going to be spending hours and days creating map points and data, can I protect my efforts from vandalism, or are they vulnerable?

Thanks Matt

asked 20 Dec '13, 13:41

MapMoose's gravatar image

MapMoose
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I'd also recommend that you become familiar with the data model, best practices and generally agreed on tagging that OSM uses, and try to fit your data to it if possible. If you start doing some very unusual things, it may get changed or deleted. The most examples I've seen are people adding data that shouldn't be in OSM at all, and/or mis-tagging things so they get rendered by one or another webmap.

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answered 20 Dec '13, 14:46

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neuhausr
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To turn the question around, would you want to prevent other contributors from improving an area ? Maps are never a finished product, and they need to remain open for edit. However much "perfect" your contribution is today, it doesn't make sense to mark the area as "read-only" or something similar. It is true that some edits deteriorate the map, but the vast majority of edits improve the map.

That said, the best way to make sure that your favorite area of the map (whether you made an edit or not) remains error and vandalism-free is to keep an eye on edits made in the area. See this question for various ways to monitor an area.

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answered 20 Dec '13, 14:13

Vincent%20de%20Phily's gravatar image

Vincent de P... ♦
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Your edits can be vandalised should someone choose to do so, but since OpenStreetMap's servers are effectively a Wiki, any vandalism or mistakes can be rolled back. Further to this, there are a number of moderators who can block users if they persistently vandalise OSM.

The OpenStreetMap community has been preventing vandalism in this way for some time, and it appears to be effective.

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answered 20 Dec '13, 14:09

Jonathan%20Bennett's gravatar image

Jonathan Ben...
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4

Think that ALL contributions can be vandalized, not only yours. But the project works since 9 years and you can see the result.

(20 Dec '13, 14:36) Pieren
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question asked: 20 Dec '13, 13:41

question was seen: 3,729 times

last updated: 20 Dec '13, 14:46

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