Why aren't my uploaded GPS traces shown on the maps?

For OSM, GPS tracks are a raw material from which we make our maps; they are not the end product. You will see your tracks when you open one of the available editors and instruct it do download and show GPS tracks.

You can then use that editor to make your raw tracks into proper way geometries, assigning them a track type or a name and all that. After you've done that and saved your work, your new tracks will be shown on the map after a short delay.

We need this manual edit step because the raw tracks don't contain important information like names and way types, and they are sometimes a bit jittery, or have point clouds where you stopped, and so on. All that can be fixed in the manual edit.

Some other user may use your trace to edit the map it which case you will then see them. But if you read this http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Potlatch2 you can then have a go yourself. You will need a good knowledge of the ground and signs so you can tag (name) roads or paths, or notes of what you encountered.There is advice of ways to do this in the beginners guide http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Main_Page it isn't too difficult good luck. If you want to see your trace on an OSM map try this small Java program http://activityworkshop.net/software/gpsprune/