Related Study

Case Study
Vandalismis the intentional destruction or damage of cultural and historical monuments, and other cultural and
material values, private and public property.The term vandalism comes from the name of the ancient German tribe
Vandals,themembersofwhichattackedRomancitiesandtownsandruinedeverythingontheirway.Vandalismisa
seriousproblem,whichstillexistsinthemodernsocietyandisbasedonthedamageoftheimportantmonumentsand
cultural and material values.Vandalism is divided into two major groups according to the time: vandalism in the war
timeandpeacefultime.
Whenthewarisinitsactiveprocessvandalismisnotasurprise,becausetheconqueroralwaystriestodemoralizethe
opponentandruinstheimportantmonumentsandothermaterialvalueswhichcanbeimportantandsacralforhim.

PREVENTING AND
CONTROLLING
VANDALISM

Part of the vandalism control strategy suggested withinRural Systemis to promote the
conceptthat"vandalism"ismuchtooinclusiveanidea.Onceadequate,thewordnowincludes
too many acts or events and thereby can slow or hamper cost-effective control efforts. The
moneyspentonpreventingdumpingofurbanbuildingmaterialscannoteffectivelybespentif
amajorobjectiveiscontrollingpeoplewhodestroyforestroadgatesorsetspitefires.Weplan
a committee action to name a reasonable group of major types of vandalism, then to direct
actionandlimitedfundstoeachtype.Thisaction,webelieve,willthenencouragereportingof
successesincontrolbytype.

To reduce or control vandalism, a multi-faceted, simultaneous strategy is needed. The proposed

approach is clearly systems oriented and starts with objectives. These need inspection and improvement
but,asastartingplace,therecommendationsare:
Tominimizevandalismevents.
Tominimizetheconspicuousnessofevents.
Tominimizethemagnitudeofanevent.
Tominimizetheestimatedfinancialloss(direct).
Tominimizetheestimatedcostofcleanuporreplacementofeachevent.
Tominimizetheestimatednumberofpeoplenegativelyaffectedbyanyknowledgeoftheevent.
Tominimizetotalcostsofavandalismreductionsystem.

Vandalism and other types of bad editing

Vandalisminthepurestsense,wouldbeactsof"graffiti"onthemap,carriedoutwiththemotivationofchildishfunorasapurposeful
attempttodamageOpenStreetMap.It'srelativelyraretoseeoccurrencesofpurevandalism.OpenStreetMapisanot-for-profitgood
cause,andthemapdatais"ownedby"thecommunity.Onthewholepeopletendtohaverespectforthat.
Therearevariousother typesofbadeditingwhichareverysimilartovandalism,carriedoutwithvariousmotivationsbeyondchildish
fun,butresultingintheneedforthesametypesofremedies.Theseinclude:

Copyrightinfringement

DisputeswithintheOpenStreetMapdatabase(editwars)

Disputesonthewiki

InappropriateuseofBots

Persistentdisruptivebehaviour

Spamming

Purposefulremovalordegradationofdatathatareknowntobecorrect.

Simplemistakesandeditingerrorsarenotvandalism,althoughsomemayneedtobereverted

Normal revert
Iftheextentofthevandalismislocalandimpactfortheoverallcommunityislimitedthenmakepolitedirecthuman
contact via OSM Messaging assuming good intentions and wait for 24-48 hours for a response. If a adequate
responseisnotreceivedthenitmaybeappropriatediscusstheissueonanappropriateemaillist(normallythelocal,
nationalorregionallist)orwithtrustedindividuals.Ifsomeeditscanbeproventobecounterproductiveandhelpful
editsarenotobviousthenthechangesetsinquestionshouldbereverted.
It may be appropriate to set up a log of reversions. Within England/Wales/Scotland there please put requests on
theGBrevertrequestlog.

Speedy revert
If a significant numberof edits to ways can be definitively proved to be malicious, obscene, libelous or it is
considered that they might bring the project into disrepute then it is important to respond immediately and
revert first and ask questions to the contributor in parallel. It may also be appropriate to contact the Data
WorkingGroupatthesametime.
Dobeawarethatitisonlypossiblecurrently(Aug09)torevertchange-setswherenofurthereditshavebeen
madetotheelements.
Virtual ban
Whenacontributorissubjecttoa"virtualban"(seenotesabove)thenalltheirpastworkmayberemovedand
allnewworkwillberevertedwithoutreviewuntiltheypossiblycontacttheDataWorkingGroupandrequesta
reviewoftheirstatus.