• 2 Posts
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Joined 10 months ago
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Cake day: June 23rd, 2024

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  • The map is a community effort and the lack of social features, which caters to introverts, keeps focus on the end goal - an accurate map of the world. Other platforms are suitable for social activities and you can link to your OSM trace from there.

    Yes, seeing the trace geometry only with no map is a letdown. That’s why I suggested the visualizer in another comment. It would certainly improve the shareability of traces.

    OSM doesn’t produce any hardware. They are a wiki-based world mapping effort. In addition, they run a PNG tile provider (so you can embed their map on a website), an article wiki for how to edit the map etc. and the trace repository.

    You can use OSM and record traces using various apps mentioned on their wiki.


  • Come to think of it, OSM traces include timestamps and elevation for each recorded point, plus maybe other data from the uploaded GPX file. Maybe someone will create a Strava-style visualizer that serves HTML, SVGs or PNGs from trace IDs with a map, speed and elevation profile for easy sharing. Imagine your trace is https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/hagu/traces/11959920 and you change openstreetmap.org with perhaps openstreetmap-traceview.org and get a nice sharable overview that also has a PNG for preview on socials. Maybe even a page with a list of activities by user including kilometer stats by month, mode of transport etc.


  • That’s the neat part, there isn’t. Post about your trips where you want, you can then refer to the OSM trace.

    People have given consent for you to improve OSM with that data though. For example, one GPS trace can be pretty inaccurate (especially under a canopy where aerial imagery also doesn’t work) but you can compile a dozen (get them with a location-specific query) and get a very good average. You can message people about those edits, and add notes.

    Also, StreetComplete gives you achievements for completing quests and uploading traces. They are automated but it makes it look like actual people are grateful. Of course most people who use OSM will never actually thank the contributors but you’re still doing a great service by improving the map around you.