If you write about the messy reality behind "free" internet services: we're seeing #OpenStreetMap hammered by scrapers hiding behind residential proxy/embedded-SDK networks. We're a volunteer-run service and the costs are real. We'd love to talk to a journalist about what we're seeing + how we're responding. #AI #Bots #Abuse
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OpenStreetMap Ops Team (osm_tech@en.osm.town)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Jan-2026 04:43:20 JST
OpenStreetMap Ops Team
- Rich Felker repeated this.
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InsertUser (insertuser@en.osm.town)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Jan-2026 09:24:23 JST
InsertUser
@osm_tech The proxy SDK providers need to be treated like the DDOS providers they are and prosecuted.
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Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Jan-2026 09:27:48 JST
Rich Felker
@InsertUser @pietervdvn @osm_tech It goes against their whole ideology. The ideology says trust the machine to do what it copied from scraped Stack Overflow posts. If you try to intervene to make it do better, you're not trusting it.
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InsertUser (insertuser@en.osm.town)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Jan-2026 09:27:49 JST
InsertUser
@pietervdvn Because that would involve a human using their brains or having a shred of conscience and those both go against the basic principles of the companies doing this.
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Pietervdvn :mapcomplete: (pietervdvn@en.osm.town)'s status on Wednesday, 28-Jan-2026 09:27:50 JST
Pietervdvn :mapcomplete:
@osm_tech ugh.... why don't they use the exports...