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Comment by ks2048 | Hacker News Reader

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ks2048

Already roughly 75 edits since the collapse.

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What impressed me was that it looks like openstreetmap shows the bridge as down already.

https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=16/39.2144/-76.5279

Looks up there to me [1]. If you're referring to the red colour, zoom out - all the big highways are that colour.

[1] https://imgur.com/LymzwMU

cdn cache probably,

It looked like this to me.

https://nl1.outband.net/image/fsk_bridge_down.jpg

Yes, probably tile cache on different servers. I tried from some random TOR exit node and got a mixture of tiles showing parts of the "before" and parts of the "after": https://imgur.com/zLAdmUc

Tiles are cached on many servers worldwide.

The API shows the data was modified to mark the bridge as collapsed.

Makes sense, you want anyone following GPS to divert from the scene ASAP. Caching-wise, I see the updated bridge at zoom 15+ but the old intact bridge at zoom ≤14.

OpenStreetMap editors are just as passionate as Wikipedia editors. :)

Nicer community and less bikeshedding.

https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/149163581

> Set access=no because the bridge collapsed

* https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/149163336#map=15/39....

> Bridge collapse after being stuck by container ship - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/maryland-b...

* https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/149162713#map=18/39....

> Tag bridge as destroyed and ruins

* https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/149168397#map=14/39....

* https://www.openstreetmap.org/history#map=15/39.2182/-76.512...

It makes me wonder what goes through someone's head when one sees a mass casualty event like this, and your first instinct is to rush to Wikipedia to change the article to past tense ('was' a bridge).

There is a lot of misinformation in the world, and Wikipedia can often be one of the places people go to for reliable knowledge.

They probably will be getting more traffic than any single major news paper.

A lot of people, potentially scared and confused, and going to be reading that article and making decisions based on it.

Keeping the information good and complete sounds to me like a deep kindness.

Free Internet points.

But who is counting?

Other Wikipedia edit warriors.

https://imgur.com/a/g15dyXX

Do you think that someone at the FBI, inspired by https://xkcd.com/2910/, will be checking the IP addresses of the Wikipedia editors who got there before the ambulances did?

"I can't do much else, may as well keep folks up to date" I guess.

If they're sitting on the shore with a fully stocked rescue boat delaying help to post their edits, aye I'd be peeved too. Otherwise, might as well keep info updated as it becomes known.

One of the beauties of the internet is that there's enough people willing to do the work to keep the rest of the world up to date with real-time information.

Chances are changing tenses was just a single command anyway, `./pastTensify.sh "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Scott_Key_Bridge_(Balt..."` or whatever the Wikipedia bot command equivalent would be.

Adding actual information about the event will naturally take a little longer as it needs writing first - they probably fired off the pastTensify automation while writing the meat and potatoes of their edit.

It was somebody on their phone, not signed in, and all they did was change "is" to "was" in two places, leaving the single word edit summary "was". But thank you for imagining Wikipedians are so professional.

Thank you for the clarification.

Not sure I understand the snarky turn at the end there but I imagine I'm just lacking whatever context you have! No problem :)

Two days later, I come back to find this downvoted a lot, even though I meant it literally. I've been a Wikipedia editor for some 10+ years, only a few of us use bots, we're not generally very sophisticated, so the assumptions amused me.

Ah. I think the wording plus the existing downvote when I read your reply made me not even consider it might be literal and not at all snarky.. I'd like to blame my British sarcasm-as-a-first-language upbringing, but really that one's on me.

For what it's worth I've popped an upvote on your comment and will go out of my way to double check snark is actually snark before replying to things in future.

Sorry for the misfiring assumption!

How do you know it was their first instinct?

"I know nothing about this bridge, let's check Wikipedia. Oh, I guess 'is a bridge' is now incorrect, I'm already here so let's change it."

What was your first instinct when you learned of the event, and how did you respond to that instinct of yours?

What was going through your head at that time?

And what are they supposed to do? Pray? Rush there to help? (from thousands of miles away potentially) They've done what they can.

Some people are clinical -just an item to update. For others it’s the old “first post” mentality. It’s basically personal mores whether something is too recent and tragic to update.

What should their first instinct be? Hop on an 8-hour flight to Baltimore, rent a car, drive to the scene and cross the cordon to help out?

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