The first ‘refinement’ of wgs84 moved it by ~1.5 metres, subsequent ‘refinements’ are in the order of 0.1 metres. I don’t know if these are all in the one general direction (and therefore cumulative) or in random directions. There is, I believe, at least one datum with 0 running through Meca.

I’d think the historical Greenwich meridian mark was used as 0, and probably that is still the case for some maps … probably very old ones.

Easy Alex. He has 3 diary entries, no edits and only recently accepted terms. So very new to OSM.

NathanO … Three things

Welcome! Hope you find ‘us’ friendly and informative.

The vast majority of people here come to fix things on the map like yourself. The best person to make those fixes is yourself. You know what needs to be done, you just need to find out how to do it. I believe an on line editor like iD might be your best bet for easy editing of non complicated things. osm.wiki/ID Neither Alex nor I would feel comfortable making changes in Texas … we are both a long way away. The person ‘on the ground’ (you) know far more about the local things.

Data sources .. best to use the stuff that is all ready available to OSM. There are legal things that need to be done to have data sources legally usable in OSM. I’d not peruse this unless you have the time and inclination? It certainly is not my thing.

How Long to Wait?

Maximum: 4 weeks - this allows for holidays …

If the mapper is active during that time period .. then less time needs to be allowed.

If the mapper has made few edits with long time gaps between the edits then they are an ‘infrequent mapper’ and may be unresponsive.

Note that contact with them should be respectfull and express a view point rather than a ‘rule’.

Adding detail? The leisure=pitch could also have a sport=x tag .. where x is the sport played there …. if more than one sport then use, for example, sport=tennis;basketball

The building could have a few floors too. And some ‘school buildings’ are for sport, meeting hall etc. I’d not tag those as building =school as they don’t have class rooms.

Hi, Be a little carefull with what sources you use … they should conform to OSM requirements regarding copyright. Map what you like to map. Best if they are things you use as you are most familiar with them.

If your using JOSM there is a plugin called scan aerial that may help to start mapping the crinkly bits.

I agree … except some admin boundaries (a legal or social feature) are in part physical features.

Example: Part of the boundary between the Australian states of NSW and Victoria is the Murray River, actually not the river center but one edge (I forget which gets the river itself). So there are some exceptions.

Wood … I have come to the firm conclusion that this should not be associated with boundaries of parks etc … it should be its own way/relation. In fact, I think, in most cases, any ‘natural’ (landcover or landform) feature should not be part of any other feature.

So … as a guide … one feature = one OSM entity

There is a difficulty where two features coincide or nearly so - the editors are set up to snap to nearby nodes .. so the nodes get shared between the two ways/entities. There are ways around this .. but if your not carefull then it happens.

Most spammers will; not have any edits … only make the one dairy entry …

Human moderation of the first post would probably get most of them … but in terms of work/benefit in OSM ?

That would not be landuse=forest but natural=wood :) unless the harvest is used for making wigs, brushes … :)) Humm I wonder if hairdressers make something on the side recycling the ‘waste’? Not something the younger productive (hair wise) people would think of…

While a mapper may take the ‘center line’ of a river to be a geometric mean of the river banks boats and ships will probably prefer to take it as the deepest part of the river for navigational safety purposes and if the river ever gets low then this will still be the rivers center line.

So .. include a source statement of your ‘center-line’. And refrain from changing one already entered unless you know the intention/source of that center line.

It is not so much about some ‘standard’ that has official backing… but what exists for the people. So if there is a route marking on a sign .. use that. It is what the user will see and be able to relate from the map to what is there, that is the important bit. If the route shield/design changes along the route .. then so be it - have separate relations, even if it is the same route number.

If these routes don’t have any visual clues on the ground .. then are they worth mapping? By all means map the roads and their local signs … but don’t spend time chasing stuff that only exists as a planers dream.

Does that help?

Some of them get removed. Relax. let ‘them’ (who ever ‘they’ are) deal with it. Best to just ignore them and concentrate on the good stuff. If the firm is local I might just go for a visit and voice my disgust in person, only had one of those and it was not OSM related.

Oh, cell phone coverage in Australia is claimed to cover over 90% …of the population. This is less than 10% of the area. Reliance on cell phones for emergencies … no. You want something simple, that works anywhere and is reliable. A paper map, a compass work without batteries. An EPIRB/PLB are serviceable for many years and work most places (need a view of the sky).

Country and area specific.

For international use 112 is the emergency number for cell phones.. should even work in the states!

Things other than cell phones should be considered for remote emergency use - satellite phones, EPIRBS (or PLBs), SPOT etc.

In some places water is much more important than a weapon.

.

People have been fined for mounting small cameras on the outside of their car in Australia. Reason being given is that they pose a hazard for any pedestrian that may get hit. I take it you have no problem with the fighting kites? Take care.

The satellite imagery used depends somewhat on the zoom level you are using. With a diameter of 300 kilometers you get low resolution suitable to pick out oceans, large forests … zoom in to say a 1 kilometer diameter to look for houses …

I have used man_made=survey_mark for similar things .. See http://www.lpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/208280/Protecting_survey_marks.pdf for some different kinds of survey marks.

See https://help.openstreetmap.org/questions/44030/how-should-we-tag-ordnance-survey-bench-marks for more comments..

Some of these have become tourist attractions! These have been mounted on concrete plinths … however some have been stolen, vandalized … the more popular ones have had ‘tourist marks’ placed a little way off the actual survey mark and the true survey mark hidden in some way.

In ‘outback’ Australia ‘stations’ (a farming property with a central concentration of buildings one of which forms the main residence) have names that are in common usage. They may have a property lot number and possibly the post office may allocate a reference number, but everyone uses the name. The remoter properties get their mail weekly .. by aeroplane. It is still common practice to have the name painted in large letters on the roof to aid navigation by aeroplane.

In the early days of Australian settlement houses had names .. these too were in common use and numbers were little used. Modern practice is to only have a number.. a lost cultural practice.

I expect there are a few of them. Maybe they should be mapped? Like landmines and speed cameras? That way you might be able to set up a proximity alarm on a GPS when you get close.

A quite place to have a break can be hard to find. As well as parks .. cemeteries can be good, tend to lack toilets. Humm do Tescos have public toilets?