It's worth pointing out that once Pokémon Go players found out about OSM, we saw a massive increase in new users as well as those contributing to OSM so that the maps would better reflect the areas they played in.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/334378297_How_an_augmented_reality_game_Pokemon_GO_affected_volunteer_contributions_to_OpenStreetMap

Unfortunately there are always a few that will try to game any system. In this case they're essentially vandalizing OSM for their own selfish reasons.

It blows my mind people still play this game. It was great, in 2017.

Also doubt this game will be the only source of bad data. We need better safe guards and checks so that some person can't just delete France.

Why does every article fail to mention that the ingame map only updates once every 3 years or so? And that this griefing is most likely done once per person, until they find out that the game isn't updated? (Because it's not sensational)

Nothing new. People doing this for years.

I know my neighbour who take photo of the god altar in his house and put as location on google map.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The game is currently in the process of adding monsters from Scarlet and Violet, and that's where this story begins.

Two of the latest additions to the Pokémon Go roster are Wiglett and Wugtrio, riffs on the designs of Diglett and Dugtrio, who live on beaches and look kind of like garden eels.

OpenStreetMap contributors have discovered "beaches" that were actually located in residential backyards, golf courses, and sports fields.

Entire blog posts, wiki entries, and presentations from OSM mappers exist to bridge the knowledge gap, explaining the purpose of OpenStreetMap data to Pokémon Go users and breaking down Pokémon Go game mechanics for frustrated OSM contributors.

As that OSM blog post implies, not every user who discovers the OpenStreetMap project via Pokémon Go ends up messing with the data.

Though many users are "truth-stretching" vandals who create nonexistent parks, beaches, and footways to encourage specific Pokémon to spawn, others become "very careful, trustworthy" OSM users who "make many worthy additions to the map" by accurately mapping out places where OSM's data is patchy or outdated.

The original article contains 406 words, the summary contains 172 words. Saved 58%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!