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Is there a way to get information about deleted osm users ? While editing using josm I wanted to get info about a certain user but his userpage tells me "The user does not exist". whosthat gives me his his UID and former name and yosmhm still shows those edits but nothing for the later used name.

If the user has been deleted a notice better than "Sorry, there is no user with the name user_xyz. Please check your spelling, or maybe the link you clicked is wrong." would be more helpful.

asked 21 Apr '18, 11:43

katpatuka's gravatar image

katpatuka
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accept rate: 12%


I imagine not. Deleted users have requested that personal details, email etc be removed from by system administrators. As I understand it this involves removal of diary entries, and some anonymisation of contributed GPS traces as well. All that is left are the numeric user_id and a name generated from that.

Given that to be deleted requires a significant statement of intent, I think it is only courteous not to try to identify them and contact them.

Furthermore in the future old usernames etc are unlikely to be available in full and history downloads (see recent discussions regarding GDPR).

permanent link

answered 21 Apr '18, 16:51

SK53's gravatar image

SK53 ♦
28.1k48268433
accept rate: 22%

I only noticed now that his UID is being used as a suffix to the last used username. To make it more obvious that a user has been removed a name like removed_user_123456 would be more helpful ;)

(21 Apr '18, 17:29) katpatuka

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question asked: 21 Apr '18, 11:43

question was seen: 2,528 times

last updated: 21 Apr '18, 17:29

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