OpenStreetMap
I have been mapping on OpenStreetMap for a little over 11 months now. However, OpenStreetMap is not where my love for mapping started. 7 months beforehand, I started editing Google Maps. Every time I had a minute of free time, whether at my computer or on my phone while going to school, I would trace roads all around the world. I completely stopped doing anything else for fun other than fixing and creating roads.
However, this craze of mine ended on August 12th, 2025. I found out that more than 50% of my edits were being rejected by Google when I knew that all of them were OBJECTIVELY correct. I decided that I was done with Google Maps, but I needed something new to fill the hole that mapping had in my heart. That’s when I discovered OpenStreetMap 15 minutes later. I knew I had heard that name somewhere, so I decided to check it out.
Before I even completed the tutorial, I was hooked. While before I could only map walking paths, now I could map literally anything I want. Even the concept of mapping buildings was something I had to get adjusted to due to how small the number of things I could map on Google Maps was. I spent the rest of my day figuring out the mapping capabilities of the iD editor. The next day, I spent the entire day mapping and seeing what others had already mapped (spoiler alert: a lot).
My love for mapping on OpenStreetMap has never really ended; If anything, it has grown. I went out of my way to drive from Virginia all the way to Madison, Wisconsin for State of the Map 2026. Now, I have accumulated nearly 3,000 changesets and a little under 200,000 contributions to the map. I have made so many edits in Virginia to the point where I run into features I’ve edited nearly every day. I edit in school, on the car ride to school, while procrastinating homework, while having nothing else to do at home, and everything in between. I’ve recently even seen the iD editor haunt (bless) my dreams. My mind can’t go more than 5 minutes without thinking about mapping.
I’m not writing this to ask for help or anything, I just wanted to share everything on my mind and if at least one person reads this then I’m happy.
Discussion
Comment from Aeiouau on 23 July 2026 at 06:46
I think we can agree that that is one of the lesser harmful addictions one can have. Your passion and drive to map things not only fulfills your own needs, you also contribute meaningful and valuable information to the open source world, immortalizing your positive impact on the world. Whenever you feel sad, remember how many people your changes have directly and indirectly helped.
Huge respect and hope to see you continue to enjoy this hobby for a long time to come :)
Comment from watmildon on 23 July 2026 at 23:05
I edited one park 6 years ago and my experience has been similar. It’s a great way to explore, get out and do things, learn stuff, solve puzzles and curiosities. A tremendous way to putter around and have fun!
Comment from rphyrin on 24 July 2026 at 09:02
Funnily enough, this was actually the same reason I switched my contributions from Google Maps to OpenStreetMap in late 2016.
Everything was fun and games after that, until I took an arrow to the knee (i made a few enemies here over tagging disputes).
Comment from Marcos Dione on 24 July 2026 at 09:37
It’s a good thing you’re asking yourself this. Try not mapping for a day, see how you feel.
But personally, I think you’re more than fine.
Comment from Koreller on 24 July 2026 at 20:42
You really capture the joy of mapping, and you haven’t even discovered JOSM yet :D
Comment from greatnameguys2472 on 25 July 2026 at 00:23
I’m lowkey pretty addicted too, its so satisfying to me to add landuse and see the blank white spaces get filled in with stuff. I never really bothered with google since it would take weeks for me to find out if my edit was accepted or not which was super annoying
Comment from derFred on 28 July 2026 at 06:37
Welcome @Nile_thebest As @koreller quite rightly points out, you haven’t yet discovered the great joy that JOSM can offer you. … I hope you read the news on weeklyOSM every Sunday too. It was only through this news blog that I really got to know the diversity of the OSM universe. … And finally, as a former teacher of pupils your age, I have to say: homework is important for consolidating what you’ve learnt at school. So do your homework first, then have a lot of fun with OSM. ;-)
Comment from F5987 on 2 August 2026 at 18:47
I go through huge bursts every few months and learn more every time I come back. It’s certainly unique as far as addictive content goes but it’s all for the better in the end.
Comment from palamito on 5 August 2026 at 17:10
I view the osm envinronment more as entertainment than an actual task, it’s like playing solitaire or any other videogame except I am actually contributing to a greater project which is a plus. I could pass an entire day mapping in osm but lately I dislike spending too much time looking at a screen, so what I end up doing is recording gpx tracks which ultimately ends up in the same osm envinronment so it is a win eitherway, or go walk to an interesting place I saw trough satellite imagery using CoMaps so I end up using the same map I contributed editing