Validation: Create map notes from skipped items

[danieldegroot2]

Allow authors to create map notes from skipped -and any other- items to possibly get them resolved. (See also StreetComplete "Unable to answer ..." map notes)

[mvexel]

Can you elaborate a bit? Would the note be pre-filled? With what? Would the user be required / able to tweak the note text?

My concern is mainly that notes get produced at a much faster rate than they are resolved, and I would hate for MapRoulette to become a source of notes that are just considered noise by the community. So while I am not opposed to the idea, I am going to be really careful in considering it, especially because it's not trivial to implement.

See also #1711

[danieldegroot2]

Depending on the challenge, the note could be partially or fully free-form. It will be mostly free-form though, as there are usually no set options specified, like with StreetComplete. You may provide fields for the author to specify if they want challenge title(, challenge blurb, sources used), issue type (check imagery later, survey, resolve issue, additional improvements, other), issue description (free-form). Each issue type could optionally have a prefilled text to make clear what the issue type means.

Types of notes;

• Check imagery later; the author has validated but i.e. something may have looked like construction landuse; this could be solved by checking back on aerial imagery later. (these may be avoided, as they're less quickly solved)
• Survey; notes which require local knowledge should be avoided, just like it is for the challenges themselves. In some active areas, there may be cases where they can still be useful to make.
• Resolve issue; a user has done something wrong, but the author is unsure of how to fix it. (for experienced users)
• Additional improvements; some other improvements were found but are outside the scope of the challenge.
• Other; -- a task is too large to fix quickly. (for experienced users); or -- doesn't fit one of the above.

Reasons for unresolved notes;

• inactive/unreachable areas
• notes from surveys which mappers resolve themselves, which they may forget to do. These are mostly StreetComplete users (a.o. Ireland (2), Jersey (1)); I've reminded some of these users to resolve their notes. -- opening/closing of many notes at once may influence how much progress there seems to be at a certain point in time.
• POIs; are not a focus of the OpenStreetMap community; they would preferably be verified by survey first (they tend to be submitted anonymously).
• clutter; all notes which users have already seen and/or can't be resolved in the immediate future. Most users are not oriented towards (others') notes and may be unaware of tools to filter them (or not willing/able to spend time on this). -- most notes are from the past few years, in which OpenStreetMap had a popularity spike. It will decline eventually. -- some notes have duplicates to indicate the trajectory of a road segment with the same name/ref. I am not sure there are any statistics available for this.

Some ideas;

• The feature could be made an opt-in (or region blocked, which is harder to implement) to avoid creating redundant notes.
• Users could be reminded to solve their own notes where possible.
• Users could be reminded to contact active users where possible.
• Users could be given the option to create new challenge(s) based on and/or from the notes they create, as to get a better overview (can already be done indirectly).
• Create challenges (and seperate 'MR-created only' ones) for areas (and discuss/communicate) with local communities where appropriate (possibly pre-filtered). The ones I know are: Indonesia (OSM Indonesia, HOTOSM Asia-Pacific), Nepal (Kathmandu Living Labs), Bangladesh (Open Innovations Hub/OSM BD/HOTOSM Asia-Pacific), Tanzania (OSM Tanzania/(HOT)OSM Africa), Nigeria (Geohazards Risk Mapping Initiative/OSM Nigeria/(HOT)OSM Africa),..

It may need input from other mappers first, of course. (label feedback wanted). There's probably some best use cases I can't immediately think of - excuse the lack of such when opening this issue.

---

1711 is a good start, especially when filtered to smaller areas or specific themes. Notes can also already be picked up by a.o. MapComplete and NotesReview.

[mvexel]

Keeping this open as a future idea and tagging it as such. Thank you @danieldegroot2 !

I would love to consider this as part of a bigger solution / streamlining for the happy mess that is OSM notes. In isolation, it is not something I would want to take on at this point in time.