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[–] 133 points 2 years ago (46 children)

the biggest problem I have with switching is that Google Maps is a business directory. open street maps is empty where i live. it works okay for navigation, but not so much for finding a coffee.

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  • [–] 48 points 2 years ago (7 children)
  • [–] 17 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    It says “page not found”, maybe because I'm not in EU.

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  • [–] 48 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    there are ways to make it easier; it's been gamified:

    https://github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete

    Available on FDROID.

    When my partner stops to play pokemon go, I complete some Open Street Map info quests...

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  • [–] 15 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Street Complete is a great app for quests regarding existing features, but also consider the feature might not exist at all yet in OSM.

    Map Complete is great for adding new features. It also asks a bunch of optional simple questions about the feature which gets converted into the relevant OSM tags. It's browser based but you can just add a shortcut to your home screen to have it quickly accessible.

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  • [–] 35 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    As many have already told you, you can contribute to OSM, I have put in it almost all the establishments in my area (Not at Big area but...). Although soon I have to update them

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    im on board with the idea in general, but im not going to do this. it would be an endless effort to the benefit of almost nobody. places go up and down so fast here that google maps is often out of date too. it's filled with stale information and im flagging missing places constantly. every digital community in this country is a garbage pile.

    the ride share apps here do use open street maps though, and im making corrections to building addresses when i find something isn't right. it's great.

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  • [–] 31 points 2 years ago* (2 children)

    Umm...it benefits loads of people.

    On OSM you don't have to just flag something. You can edit it directly, so it leads to more accurate information.

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  • [–] 33 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    You can contribute them!

    There's a pretty barebones editor in Organic Maps, but you can also check out Street Complete and Every door (more advanced and less user friendly, though insanely efficient)

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    I use Vespucci, it's advanced but still pretty easy if you just want to do basic editing. https://vespucci.io/

    P.s. how do you link to an app on fdroid?

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Same issue here. I really like their maps in general, but my local area in OSM is about a decade out of date

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago

    Yeah, it's interesting to look through the edit history over the years. With StreetComplete I recently fixed ~8 stores that were many years out of date, during an hour walk.

    It's fun to find a real hole-in-the-wall that even google maps doesn't have.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago

    I felt the same however Organic Maps did have many businesses. And with Street Complete I can correct any errors when I visit.

    It may simply be my area, but I so recommend organic maps over Osmand for business and POI lookups

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Yeah trying to find anything on any of the competing apps is basically impossible. I mean ffs OSMand literally couldn't do address lookup!

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (10 children)

    i think openstreetmaps only works in big countries honestly

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  • [–] -2 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    What does the size of the country have to do with it? Which good big and bad small countries are you talking about?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    Most people don't use openstreetmaps on these small countries like with low/medium population it feels like apple maps on there

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Can you give an example? Because I've just looked at Luxembourg, Nepal, and Aruba, and they're all littered with named buildings and landmarks. Pyongyang even has a fair bit filled in.

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    didnt rlly try it but might try tbh but idk since i see people here where i live use google maps

    edit: tried it and it really is quite outdated my house does not show up and idk if waze is even privacy respecting

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  • [–] 0 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    You can add the POIs and fill the gaps!

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    And then in the web app, you need to do this complicated hold-LMB-then-select-from-list to select something, making just browsing really difficult.

    Or is there a better way of doing that? I lack a good way to just browse Openstreetmap.

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