Talk:Notes

Associate note with OSM-user?

I just created note 349 and assumed since I was logged in it would be referenced with my account. It wasn't. Tho I resolved note 329 and that got referenced to my account. Is it a bug or am I doing it wrong? /TheOddOne2 (talk) 17:00, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

Ok, logged out and restarted browser, now its working. But hmmm... /TheOddOne2 (talk) 17:37, 26 April 2013 (UTC)

Thoughtfully, welcoming

"oneway in wrong direction" is certainly not a note to suggest but exactly the best example of what should be avoided because someone may have flipped the direction before the note is considered. I have met a number of similar issues in OSB reports.
I have modified the English and Russian text but I couldn't find in the translation system how to raise an alert to the other translators.

"Logged-in users will automatically get an email notification": is it logged-in or subscribed?

"To submit a new note, or comment on a note, it is not necessary to log-in or have an OSM account, but it is beneficial to do so.": rather than having people turn away because of making yet another subscription, why not mention the non-affiliated OpenID login here, make it apparent (not hidden) on the login page, and mostly have it work because all I see is failure with no contact address to report the problem. Note that OpenID usually has an e-mail address attached where to send very appreciated follow-up and that remembering such an ID is much of a sort of subscription. In short: Welcome casual reporters.

Shouldn't a link to this page or other help be put on "Parcourir les notes" "browse the notes" in the map?

--Papou (talk) 11:48, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

API

Is there a notes API for editors ? If so, where is it documented ? --Don-vip (talk) 11:31, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

API Yes. Documented yet: No, but look here: https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/blob/master/config/routes.rb#L82

Examples:

* RSS of London: http://api.openstreetmap.org/api/0.6/notes/feed?bbox=-0.65094,51.312159,0.374908,51.669148

* GPX of London: http://api.openstreetmap.org/api/0.6/notes.gpx?bbox=-0.65094,51.312159,0.374908,51.669148

* Notes XML of London: http://api.openstreetmap.org/api/0.6/notes?bbox=-0.65094,51.312159,0.374908,51.669148 BUT NOTE! https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/230

-- Firefishy (talk) 13:06, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

Editor integration

API is the enabler -- but any guestimates on a possible timeline to have a plugin for editor(s / JOSM) to show/add/comment_on these OSM notes in the editor? That is: Is any developer known to be working on this or planning to work on it in the foreseeable future? --JaakkoH (talk) 22:10, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

At least for JOSM the notes plugin 0.5 seem to work fine and a adequat replacement to the OSB plugin. But it doesn't suite to scan/fix for notes workflow. So can there please a JOSM localhost link at the notes popup at osm.org, to download the area? This feature offers all the other Bug reporting sites, to encourage the users to watch and fix bugs regulary.

Beobachtung

Nachdem zum Note ein Kommentar ergänzt wurde, erhält der Noteersteller eine e-Mail mit dem Inhalt des Kommentars und einem Link zum Note. --Reneman (talk) 20:45, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

Im Osm.org-Userprofil werden die eigenen Note's aufgelistet. Beispiel --Reneman (talk) 21:31, 24 April 2013 (UTC)

Rejecting and temporally deferring

Hi, there are many Bugs in OSB with a long discussion but no solution. It would be nice, if some note could be temporally defered(is there a better English word for 'DE:zurückstellen'). On the other hand there should be a mark for rejecting a Note. possible colours: deferred (yellow), rejected (purple) --josias (talk) 11:05, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

I do not know about deferring, but I am against "rejecting" - just because it sounds aggresive to novices. In most bug tracking systems you just politely explain why one "Here" comment in no enough, and "solve" or "close" the note. However it sould be nice to have "reopen" button to "solved" notes. This way you can "close" comments with not enough details quickly and ask for more details. If the autor is not coming back, than is is closed and if s/he comes back and adds more details, he can reopen it. Also it could serve as something like "Thanks for correction but it is not enough" comments.

API for adding a Note

The Link "add a Note" is very small and a new User Wouldn't noticed that. So it would be nice, if I can Push a User to that Function. eg: I set a link under my Map: "if you find a bug: click here". (The link would be updated at every map-move.) The link directs the user to osm.org and opens a "add note"-window on the (in the link) specified Position. --josias (talk) 11:21, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

Personally I like the way how the german community introduces OSMbugs to the audience [1] --!i! 11:32, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

I second the notion to do it more intuitive - this way there also will be many misplaced notes. Why it is not possible to have "dropdown" menu when you right click on the map. Like openstreetbrowser.org (wikicleanup: dead service).

OSMbugs migration?

Hi, is it planned to add all of the past OpenStreetBugs? Currently it's a bad sitution to encouraging people to contribute to OSM via this makers, as there is no localized text and the functionality isn't that prominent. Osmbugs.org on the other side is now already read-only and http://openstreetbugs.schokokeks.org hasn't that a serious URL to spread the word. So what should the community do? --!i! 11:30, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

Here are the plans OpenStreetBugs/Phase Out how to phase out OpenStreetBugs. Basic idea is fixing and closing as many as possible and move the rest to Notes. --Werner2101 (talk) 19:48, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

Since completed I believe (Thanks for all your great work on doing that Werner) -- Harry Wood (talk) 16:39, 5 August 2016 (UTC)

Bad wording & help

The "add a note" is bad wording. Should be "report a map error" or something (I would not have thought that it is for to report errors). Also we should mention the license in the popup and strongly discourage the use of other maps to make a map error report/suggestion. (in German: Mist, nun habe ich auf Deutsch getippt: Ich, OSM-Mitarbeiter, sah das "Notiz hinzufügen" und konnte mir gar nichs darunter vorstellen - dachte jedoch am ehesten an eine persönliche Notiz für mich. Oder an eine Art Marker mit Notiz zum Weiterschicken an Freunde. Dass das ein Bugreport/Melden eines Fehlers/Vorschlag sein soll, kam mir wirklich nicht in den Sinn. Meines erachtes eine sehr unglückliche Formulierung - zumindest auf Deutsch.) --Aseerel4c26 (talk) 23:01, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

Exactly. One reads Notes, one comes here, and one reads "don't write notes but reports".

I too enabled Notes, saw no change on the map and disregarded it entirely until I learned in the wrong place that Notes exist. And if I did not have strong :reasons to be interested, search and relate my two events, I still would ignore what Notes is.

Also, please consider my suggestion for some help:

Shouldn't a link to this page or other help be put on "Parcourir les notes" "browse the notes" in the map?

A simply put page could explain basic facts of reporting such as locating something like the start of a speed limit with 1) a GPS or GPS enabled GSM, 2) a distance (number of 1 m steps) from a known point 3) the house number x) ???

--Papou (talk) 12:19, 8 July 2013 (UTC)

Should we discourage the use of other maps to make a map error report/suggestion/"notes"?

We should mention the license in the popup and strongly discourage the use of other maps to make a map error report/suggestion. --Aseerel4c26 (talk) 23:01, 29 April 2013 (UTC)

I wouldn't think it would be a problem if an observation from another map was used to make a note about the OSM - so long it was verified independently from a non-copyright before changing the OSM data? -- Chuq (talk) 02:04, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

The same over there - RichardF writes: "Registered users agree not to copy from other maps when signing up, and are requested to verify each suggested correction from non-registered users using ‘on the ground’ information." I am not sure that this is a good idea to put this burden on the local mappers. Furthermore that means that if some "note" seems to include local knowledge we should not use it directly because it also could be derived from another map/source. Apparently this also means that notes are not OdbL licensed. By the way - look at the left panel of OSB - both (don't use other maps, and the notes content is licensed) are mentioned there. --Aseerel4c26 (talk) 19:11, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

what about adding this to NON logged users only --Jakubt (talk) 12:08, 9 May 2013 (UTC)

RSS

I subscribe to an area with the RSS-Feed in Google Reader. Now I get every note update many times. I think this is because of the every time I request the Feed the time since the last edit is changed (1 minute before, 2 minutes before, ....). Is this a failure of Google Reader or does other Feed Reader also have this problem? --Maduser (talk) 17:55, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

I created ticket #5012 to embedd the RSS feed in the webfrontend. If your bug persists, feel free to open a similar one --!i! 14:17, 16 October 2013 (UTC)

Experience with mapping notes information - placement is issue

Hi, I have been doublechecking, mapping and resolving the notes for few days. It is a great feature and I am glad we have it on the map, because it lowers the contribution treshold for novices. Here is my experience after working with it for a while:

The biggest shortcoming is that the notes are very often misplaced. It often sais something like "Hotel XY" and after web search you find out that the hotel is a block apart or in the parallel street. Of course that the information from notes will be always inaccurate and should be doublechecked, but we should make effort so that it is as precise as possible. I have asked some nonmappers to use the note feature to see their reaction and I thik the problem is that the novice often does not understand that the (+) mark can be moved around. Here is what happens:

1. Novice finds a bug.
2. She zooms in and maybe puts the bug somewhat in the center of the map she sees.
3. She clicks add-a-note link (If she find it at, all I think the link needs to be promoted and reweorded in the future)
4. She types the note and submits it.

Are you missing something? Yes, the novice does not necesserily understand that the marker can be moved around. I think we should at least change the text which explains what to do. The best would be if there is additional step - after the user clicks on add-a-note link, only the (+) marker would appear with explanatory bubble "Please drag the the mark as precisely as possible on the problematic place." with button "Continue" which would open the text field with explanation "Please describe the bug, give information on feature missing ...."

--Jakubt (talk) 10:27, 27 May 2013 (UTC)

I confirm, that tt is getting better as the text before the note clearly explains that the mark should be moved arout. Still I think, that the two step contribution (maybe for anonymous users only) would be an improvement. --Jakubt (talk) 17:59, 12 January 2015 (UTC)

Removing Notes

I've accidentally created a note and I can't find way to remove or delete it. Can someone point to the way to do so? Thanx

I never created one, so I cannot look for such a funtion. However, it really may not be existent (yet?!). Also see https://help.openstreetmap.org/questions/23106/removing-anonymous-notes-from-map and http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/tam%C3%A1s/diary/19440 - you could mark it as "solved" and it will soon disappear from the map's layer. I guess it will stay listed in the list of notes created by your user account. If you really need it to be deleted then ask the admins: FAQ#Admin (support address mentioned there). --Aseerel4c26 (talk) 14:54, 10 June 2013 (UTC)

Can I also request the ability to remove a note (of my own). I appreciate that notes can be resolved, but as the note owner (for want of a better term) I'd like to be able to remove notes I've misplaced or mistakenly added (or indeed move their position). One of the mobile applications adds notes, but has twice placed them in the wrong place. The inability to change the note after adding means I'm no longer using this convenient application. Rostranimin (talk) 21:29, 12 July 2013 (UTC)

I agree, and will also not be using them until 'my' user experience improves. Urbanrambler1 (talk) 17:16, 20 September 2013 (UTC)

Filtration

Some bugs (on OSB) have year. Maybe black colour for older then one month? Or slidebar with time for filtration. Dotevo (talk) 06:08, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

Are you asking for OSB?! Webpage with time-based OSB filtering: http://osm.duschmarke.de/osb.html --Aseerel4c26 (talk) 13:49, 8 August 2013 (UTC)

It would be really usefull if there is some basic filtration of notes based on time. The provided link does not work for me (it does show the map, but now notes). Time filter would not only be usefull for really old notes, but also to very recent ones. --Jakubt (talk) 13:23, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

The linked page has a time selection in the top right menu. However, it is for OpenStreetBugs - not notes - and "2014 May: Last bug was fixed or copied over to Notes." --Aseerel4c26 (talk) 15:02, 18 February 2015 (UTC)

Anonymous notes notification

It seems a number of people make anonymous notes that are just try-outs of the system, or feedback about the system (e.g. ‘Awesomeland’). While I can respond to those comments in the note there is no notification to the original reporting user to get their attention. So could an optional e-mail address field be added to the Add Note input form for anonymous users so that the system has a means of keeping them involved? --Pink Duck (talk) 13:35, 16 September 2013 (UTC)

Yay, that'd be a nice anonymous send spam interface. Enter a note with a recipient address, then comment on the note. On a more serious tone, if they didn't bother to register in the first place, there's little incentive to notify them later? Alv (talk) 07:10, 17 September 2013 (UTC)

Suggestion regarding the GUI: open and close a note by hover

In OSB (openstreetbugs) and also in keepright, it is enough to move the mouse over a "note" to open and again to close the "flying window". In the new notes function, I have to open a note window by a click, also to close it, even the esc key does not work. I feel this behaviour very uncomfortable and would prefer the alternative way very much. --Franzmh

Suggestion regarding the GUI: drag the notes on the map

And it should be possible to drag the notes on the map. --Franzmh

What do you mean by that? Notes can be dragged on creation. Or do you mean afterwards (ie. location corrections by others)? --Aseerel4c26 (talk) 13:26, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

Sorry, I did not notice, that notes can be dragged on creation. So this comment can be deleted. --Franzmh

It should be mentioned in the info text in the bubble after you start the "new note" process. Isn't it there in you language or did you just not see it? If it is missing in the translation it may be an error which could be fixed. --Aseerel4c26 (talk) 01:13, 30 September 2013 (UTC)

Actually, it is there, so nothing to fix. --Franzmh

Removal of notes that aren't useful

I don't know if I am missing something but if you find a note that isn't useful, such as telling people where they think the best place to park is, you can't mark it in away to show it is unsuitable. You can only resolve them, I don't think is really that good as it is hard then to show that the note wasn't the sort we wanted on the map and instead just saying we fixed it. --awardle 21:34, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

Just add a comment about it an close the bug. "This is not a map bug. closed it." or something like that. --Werner2101 (talk) 20:05, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

Todo. Guidelines for resolving notes

In this discussion here: http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/maxolasersquad/diary/20409#comment24634 it's pointed out that we don't really offer many guidelines on resolving notes here on the wiki page. I'm not sure if I'm ready to start writing such guidelines, because as I said there, we're forging new ground with the "netiquette" around how we process notes. They're still quite new. ...but we maybe we could start with some basic advice. -- Harry Wood (talk) 16:37, 19 November 2013 (UTC)

TODO. Guidlines for adding notes

Same as of OSB we have map users and mappers that add notes. While the map users only add few Notes, some power mappers add masses of them. Some type of errors are not that usesful. e.g. "name of restaurant is missing" (this is self descriptive and mappers have tools like keepright to detect missing features. Others are "watch the contruction area", or "highway/waterway" or "bridge or tunnel".

Other mappers are using Notes to take mapping notices. You can see their bulk upload of Notes with osmand app.

Any chance to create a guideline that tells the users not to use it for mapping and machine detectable errors? --Werner2101 (talk) 20:12, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

I've just added a little bit to the red box "do's and don'ts" to cover those points a bit more, although we need to keep that box brief. Maybe we should create a separate page or section for guidelines, to go into more detail.

"bulk upload of Notes with osmand app" is an interesting kind of problem. People recording stuff via apps could offer interesting new workflows for mapping. We don't want to discourage it necessarily. I see what you mean though. I guess if somebody's going to litter a neighbourhood with 200 notes which mostly just make sense to them, and they resolve them all again soon afterwards as part of their personal "collect data->input data" cycle, then that's going to be annoying noise within the notes system, and something they could just as well keep to themselves. Hopefully I've phrased something to discourage this in the red box there.

-- Harry Wood (talk) 00:55, 29 May 2014 (UTC)

Bounding Box (in Article RSS Feed) not working

the page at the link isnt working correct, so is there an better alternative?

http://tyrasd.github.io/osm-qa-feeds/

-- User:Hakuch 20:47, 7 September 2014‎

Was it that site which was down, or the notes RSS feeds themselves? In any case they both seem to be up and running right now. Must've been a temporary outage. For that website I guess the best place to report problems is the osm-qa-feeds github issue tracker -- Harry Wood (talk) 14:27, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

Bus line off by two blocks dilemma

In the case of a bus route that is off by two city blocks, I made a note on the correct place. Alas there is no way to somehow also attach the note to the misplaced bus line, which I suppose would allow more direct notification to the original author. Jidanni (talk) 11:45, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

You can attach a note to any existing node on the wrong way you want to see modified, even if you have added the correct position in a separate node (indicate the ID of the correct node in your note for the wrong node).

Notes are not stored directly in the main OSM database, you can place notes where you want without modifying the data. — Verdy_p ^(talk) 12:07, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

I find no way to attach a note to a certain segment of http://www.openstreetmap.org/relation/5640411 Jidanni (talk) 12:29, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

I guess Verdy_p means to add a fixme tag to e.g. the relation object (not possible to attach to single segments), but I doubt this will be very effective. --Aseerel4c26 (talk) 13:04, 31 December 2015 (UTC)

best write an osm message to the relevant user (or simply one of the active, involved users) pointing to your note URL and asking for help and comment on the note. You can find an easy-to-read overview of the relation at http://osm.mapki.com/history/relation.php?id=5640411 .--Aseerel4c26 (talk) 13:04, 31 December 2015 (UTC)