Hacker News Reader

Comment by alsetmusic | Hacker News Reader

> Updating OpenStreetMap is incredibly easy. Create an account…

Creating an account is a pain point for some people. I notify companies and individuals all the time about typos, dead links, bugs, etc. In any instance where I am not an established user, the process halts when I have to create an account. I’m giving freely of my time and knowledge; the process for me to do so should be as close to effortless as possible.

View on HN

> Creating an account is a pain point for some people.

Fair enough. And even fairer, if you're not an experienced mapper you may easily be able to spot a problem but not be sure how exactly to fix it. OSM has you covered -- right-click the map and select "Add a note here". Add a quick note with all relevant info. It won't appear on the map, but mappers who are working in the area will (hopefully) see it and fix it.

Not sure if Gnome Maps implements this functionality, but most phone-based OSM clients do.

It's literally like wikipedia. Anyone can contribute, provided they make an account. There has to be some accountability with edits, hence the requirement. Your dream requires accepting anonymous edits, which opens the doors wide open to abuse.

You don't need an account to help with wikipedia. I've never created an account, but I've fixed many typos, anonymously.

OSM used to have anonymous edits, but that was disabled more than 10 years ago

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Anonymous_edits

Reply on news.ycombinator.com