How to avoid entering duplicate entries in OSM with a customized OSMContributor App?

[sfkeller]

This OSMContributor App is awesome! It tested successfully the current beta http://osm.mapsquare.io/#/map and generated an Android App (.apk) which is about entering a POI (e.g. "amenity=restaurant"). How do you make sure, users don't enter duplicates, i.e. nodes which are already in the OSM database? Do you assume they check it visually by comparing to the base map? If yes, what can an app creator do, wenn the POI is not rendered in the base map (like e.g. "xmas:feature=tree")?

[loicortola]

Hi @sfkeller thanks for the feedback!
Let's consider the restaurant you talked about.
When you generate an OSM Contributor, all the amenities=restaurant POIs are also built into the app (+ updated real-time).
The first alpha version did not make any restriction for zoom levels, meaning we would fetch lots of vector data from Overpass.
Indeed, fetching 1500 restaurants at zoom level 12 is kind of useless.
If you zoom after zoom 18, and wait for a few seconds (overpass enjoys taking its time :) ), you should see all the current restaurants around your position.
This way, you can see your POIs, but also other's POIs. You can add/ or even edit existing restaurants within the app.
If you don't see any other restaurant in your app, it may be a bug from our side, in that case let me know :).

For xmas:feature=tree, it would be the same. All the POIs of the same data type will be fetched automatically and should be visible on your map (have you looked into the filters view? Slide from the right to the left).

In the upcoming version (tomorrow, or wednesday latest), we have improved a lot on our early mistakes.
Now, the user can choose satellite imagery or base maps, and no crazy query is made. you choose when to load the POIs near you, and everything is easier.

Let me know about the restaurants, if I have to declare a bug or not.

And thanks a lot for trying the app and giving us this useful feedback. it helps a lot!
Don't hesitate if you have more.

By next week, I will publish the roadmap associated with the app so that it becomes fully transparent for everyone, and who knows, even get improvements 👍

[loicortola]

@sfkeller , Would you mind referencing this issue on the https://github.com/mapsquare/osm-contributor repository so we can track this? I will copy-paste the answer and close this one.