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Pokémon Go Players Altering OSM
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 11 May 2024
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Everything #OpenStreetMap related is welcome: software releases, showing of your work, questions about how to tag something, as long as it has to do with OpenStreetMap or OpenStreetMap-related software.
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This is the best summary I could come up with:
The game is currently in the process of adding monsters from Scarlet and Violet, and that's where this story begins.
Two of the latest additions to the Pokémon Go roster are Wiglett and Wugtrio, riffs on the designs of Diglett and Dugtrio, who live on beaches and look kind of like garden eels.
OpenStreetMap contributors have discovered "beaches" that were actually located in residential backyards, golf courses, and sports fields.
Entire blog posts, wiki entries, and presentations from OSM mappers exist to bridge the knowledge gap, explaining the purpose of OpenStreetMap data to Pokémon Go users and breaking down Pokémon Go game mechanics for frustrated OSM contributors.
As that OSM blog post implies, not every user who discovers the OpenStreetMap project via Pokémon Go ends up messing with the data.
Though many users are "truth-stretching" vandals who create nonexistent parks, beaches, and footways to encourage specific Pokémon to spawn, others become "very careful, trustworthy" OSM users who "make many worthy additions to the map" by accurately mapping out places where OSM's data is patchy or outdated.
The original article contains 406 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 58%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
One solution would be not allowing new users to tag beaches for a year or so. Or have all newly tagged or modified beaches to be confirmed by 5 long-term users.