Geocaching Australia

Just a heads up for people who use OSM maps:

Due to a mass redaction of data for license reasons there are now huge amounts of missing streets and roads n all parts of australia (particularly data entered a few years ago)

This means OSM routable maps generated from today onwards may be sub-par.

In Tasmania whole suburbs have been deleted, with Hobart being the most affected.
Launceston is OK(ish) as I mapped a fair chunk of it and I'd agreed to the new licenses, but a lot of older streets done pre my involvement are gone and the map is a mess.

I'd be careful advocating OSM maps for a while as the maps have taken a huge step backwards in a lot of areas

I won't be repairing the damage on Tassie maps and I won't be adding to the map anymore. This has turned a hobby in to a job. Re-work and tidying up is a JOB, and not one I'm prepared to do. Hopefully someone else will do.

A lot of places seem ok though, your area of the world might be ok, but if you find roads with holes in them then this just might be the reason:

http://blog.osmfoundation.org/2012/07/0 ... ion-ready/

Example of how it now is (Kingston Tasmania):

Ugh. Just ugh.

we you can rebuilt

MapQuest (the default on gc.com) seems to be unaffected...

Snuva wrote:Ugh. Just ugh.

This little duck is quite depressed today.

There was no way of even knowing what data was going to be pulled, so there was nothing that could be done as a preventative measure.

Laighside Legends wrote:MapQuest (the default on gc.com) seems to be unaffected...

It's not using only OSM data, plus it isn't using 'live' OSM data, it seem to take a few months for any edits I've done to be seen on there.

Hi. My immediate area is OK but some neighbouring estates look a bit dodgy. Was just going to ask what are the criteria for exclusion of map data, but I see you've answered. Maybe before a certain date, the data is allowed to stay?

PesceVerde wrote:Hi. My immediate area is OK but some neighbouring estates look a bit dodgy. Was just going to ask what are the criteria for exclusion of map data, but I see you've answered. Maybe before a certain date, the data is allowed to stay?

the user who created the street/nodes had to explicitly accept the new license for the data to stay.

Some people didn't accept, some just have moved on and probably don't use their old email, so their work may have been trashed without them knowing!

Roads that they created, but people like me have then edited have also gone, that's the bit that hurts.

It's rather heartbreaking that it has come to this. A small consolation is that the FOSM maps are unaffected, but now it's a true fork from the OSM data, and support effort will be split across the two projects

Some things I did around Sandringham are still there, but big chunks of Brighton are missing <sob> and I notice a number of nearby streets have sections missing.

The version of OSM that OziExplorer has access is not affected for now, as far as I can see, around Melbourne SE suburbs anyway.
It must be a server copy. I guess it will go eventually.

Just checked the Kingston Beach area shown above however, and it is the crook version so it's rapidly degrading too.

Oh no

I have lots and lots and lots of OSM maps on my gps. East Timor was great for my trip, as was Tokyo and I was planning more. I think I'll just keep all the ones I have now and not update. See what happens from here......

Thanks for that update CraigRat, otherwise I might have foolishly 'updated' my OSM maps that i run on my laptop and found that half of my local suburban streets had disappeared! Luckily i have a version from a year ago which I'll just keep running for the foreseeable future. Never thought I'd find myself AVOIDING updating to keep things accurate...

The last openmtbmap.org OSM-based maps I uploaded to the GPS were the last before the license change apparently. I had wondered what all the fuss was about, now I know... I shall hold off for some time (or at least continue keeping the previous version as a backup) before upgrading the maps again if this is the consequence!...

I just noticed the last set on the OSM Australia site indicated they were last generated on the 17 July, so hopefully that precedes the downgrade. I'm quickly downloading them now in the hope that they're fine....