Vectormapper

Your username

Welcome to Wikipedia. I noticed that your username, "Vectormapper", may not comply with our username policy. Please note that you may not use a username that represents the name of a company, group, organization, product, service, or website. Examples of usernames that are not allowed include "XYZ Company", "MyWidgetsUSA.com", and "Foobar Museum of Art". However, you are permitted to use a username that contains such a name if it identifies you individually (not your role), such as "Sara Smith at XYZ Company", "Mark at WidgetsUSA", or "FoobarFan87", but not "SEO Manager at XYZ Company".

Please also note that Wikipedia does not allow accounts to be shared by multiple people and that you may not advocate for or promote any company, group, organization, product, service, or website, regardless of your username. Please also read our paid editing policy and our conflict of interest guideline. If you are a single individual and are willing to contribute to Wikipedia in an unbiased manner, please request a change of username by completing the form at Special:GlobalRenameRequest, choosing a username that complies with our username policy. Alternatively, you can just create a new account and use that for editing. If you believe that your username does not violate our policy, please leave a note here explaining why. Thank you. SounderBruce 07:28, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Hello. Thanks for your recommendations.

However: My username VECTORMAPPER does not represent any brand, company or public organization. Also, this name does not represent any service, product, website, etc. This is my VERY old nickname, due to the fact that I have been working in the field of vector cartography for a very long time (more than 25 years). And of course, many people in many countries know me by this nickname - it simply reflects my profession.

I am providing the Wikipedia community with free access to some of my vector maps without any restrictions on use.

I really hope that my work on the Wiki will be useful to many people. Vectormapper (talk) 07:43, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Hello all- While I don't see any policy-related issue with Kirill's username, I do agree with Bruce regarding the unexplained addition of maps across many city articles. To my eye, they don't improve those articles, most or all of which already have the standard "Coordinates" link in the infobox that points to a variety of mapping systems that will likely be of more use to a user. One reason being that these systems tend to have dynamic, scale-dependent labeling of street names, for example. Here is the page linked in the Sacramento infobox: 38°34′54″N 121°29′40″W. Eric ^talk 12:38, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

I cannot agree with you for a very simple reason.

Not all users even understand what “coordinates” are, and most importantly, my vector files provide the ability to edit, embed in any designs of any scale, in any projects that involve subsequent printing, use in media, and others.

Maps, which are usually presented in info box on the Wiki Pages, may be visually informative at the “just look” level - but they are completely impossible to use in any way.

The city maps that I published provide users with the ability to easily edit maps in any vector editor and use maps in any media and printing projects, including cinema, television, interactive maps for Internet projects, and games. All maps I publish are fully CC-0 licensed and therefore can be used in any way.

I am confident that the city maps I provide are necessary and useful to users. Vectormapper (talk) 17:59, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Now that you bring up that point re "coordinates", I have never liked how that link is presented in infoboxes. I think the template should generate the word "Maps" instead of "Coordinates". I don't know if there is a way for you to offer your static vector basemaps on GeoHack, which appears to be part of WikiMedia; maybe you could bring it up somehow at mw:Talk:GeoHack? In any case, I suspect most users will not see simply adding your map graphics to many city articles as an improvement. Eric ^talk 18:58, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

And I don’t agree with you on this - the coordinates really don’t mean anything to “most” users. But for me and many other users, this is valuable information. But for “many others” - no. The problem with the maps presented (usually on the Wiki) such as Google maps, OSM maps is that they are intended specifically for simple viewing, but they are extremely difficult to edit and cannot be used in media projects. My city maps are clear, transparent, informative, do not contain unnecessary elements, allow you to evaluate the road/street network at a glance, and allow you to freely edit them for further use. Obviously, you don’t need such city maps - but they are NEEDED by many people who work with media, study, prepare educational materials, presentations, etc. Just like other users (for example) provide vector OVERVIEW maps in SVG formats - but these are rather not maps, but approximate diagrams - for example, on the page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sioux_Falls,_South_Dakota diagram presented https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sioux_Falls,_South_Dakota#/media/File:Minnehaha_County_South_Dakota_Incorporated_and_Unincorporated_areas_Sioux_Falls_Highlighted.svg It is useful, but you must admit, this is not a CITY MAP - which is, at the very least, ridiculous. That is, the article is ABOUT THE CITY, but there is no map of the city at all. And so I published a map of this city - and it was deleted under a far-fetched pretext. Why then weren’t all the other maps removed?

And, of course, they are ugly, and this is good and informative? Vectormapper (talk) 19:49, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

I think infoboxes can tend to get crowded up with maps and pictures, but is there another place that they could go, such as the in a relevant location in the body of the article? Nice work on the maps btw! PersusjCP (talk) 03:06, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Let me explain. My logic is very simple. If the article is dedicated to a city, a map of this city in acceptable quality with the ability to use a file must be MANDATORY. A city is, first of all, roads and streets and water bodies (rivers). A city map is its MAIN portrait, to a much greater extent than a photo of a building, even a wonderful building. It is also obvious that, for example, an article about chipmunks should contain a photo of a chipmunk, and an article about George Washington should contain a portrait of George Washington. (not a tiny picture of Washington's crib). It is RIDICULOUS to publish an article about a city without a map of that city. I would understand the objections if some other (not my) city maps were published, but no. There are Google maps, OSM maps - which are suitable for viewing, but impossible to use. And so I add QUALITY vector maps of cities with full rights of use by all users - and someone comes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:SounderBruce - and does not write me any intelligible comments or questions - he simply deletes my maps cities from articles. It is not right. Vectormapper (talk) 03:29, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

And one more thing about the username. "Vectormapper" is exactly the same legitimate username as, for example, "cook" or "fitter" or "doctor" or "archaeologist" - it accurately reflects the user's identification. The idea that the name "Hannibal_Lecter_666" is more acceptable than, for example, "Philatelist" seems ridiculous to me. Vectormapper (talk) 20:02, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Kirill, the underlying premise of your above declarations seems to be that Wikipedia articles on cities should be the place where potential map-makers come looking for a basemap. I think you might find that not everyone here agrees with that premise. Eric ^talk 12:36, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Of course no. Cartographers already know where to get the geodata they need and how to make a visual map of it. Try to answer the question “Should an article about a city have a map that is sufficiently informative and suitable for any use?” And in general, a city map is more important information regarding the city than any other information. The maps I provided for use on the Wiki are the so-called “overview” maps, easily scalable without loss of quality, in the SVG vector Vectormapper (talk) 17:19, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

I'm not sure we're getting anywhere here. You might want to seek more input by moving this discussion to one of the talkpages of the pages linked here: Wikipedia:WikiProject_Maps#Scope. If you do want to move it, these templates can be useful: {{Moved discussion to}} and {{Moved discussion from}}.

Out of curiosity, could you briefly explain how this map of Wintherthur, depicting a mostly unlabeled road network, provides someone with "more important information regarding the city than any other information"? Eric ^talk 18:25, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Maps and promotion

Welcome to Wikipedia. There are a few things about the site's culture that should be explained, which are rather routine on-site but may appear strange to outsiders: the BRD process, in which a revert is not an outright rejection but rather another part of a cycle that builds consensus (the next step being discussion); the rules on watermarks, of which the maps do not meet; and the guidelines for U.S. city articles, which specify that infoboxes should only have a limited number of maps so they are not bogged down.

The addition of watermarked maps that aren't clear in scope and have captions that seem to be straight from SEO spammers' playbooks ("Seattle and Bellevue Washington US street map vector SVG editable") would get any editor to perk up. It is not appropriate to do this en masse without discussing with the relevant projects, especially from a username that implies a level of self-promotion. While the images are licensed as CC-Zero and thus wouldn't lead to profit, it can create influence that unduly benefits the creator, whether intentional or not.

We are not here to be antagonistic; the message posted above is from a template that is standard for any username that appears to be from an organization rather than a person. There was no "fictitious pretext" as described in the DRN request, nor am I "out to get you". There just needs to be a discussion before major changes like this are made across many highly-watched and highly-read articles, the same for any user. SounderBruce 00:10, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

I have stated my thoughts. You have stated yours.

You see self-promotion in my publications.

This is a misconception. The author's signature on the author's product is NORMAL. They've been doing this for hundreds of years. My ancestor, Johann Georg Schreiber (*1676 – 1745) (I attach a picture [1]https://vectormap.net/wp-content/webp-express/webp-images/uploads/2016/05/schreiber_sign.jpg.webp ) - put his signature picture with his name in the corner of the map in the same way.

So, as you can see, we have been drawing maps since the 17th century. In every generation in my family there was at least one person who designed maps.

Publishing on the Wiki does not bring me any direct or indirect benefit - I just found it possible to share my product with the Wiki community for free use.

I failed to convince you, and you remained with your opinion and your suspicions. I outlined all my thoughts above. Briefly:

1. I'm bad because I have a nickname that speaks about my profession.

2. I'm bad because my cards have a tiny signature of my logo.

3. I'm bad because on my user page it says what I do - cartography. And it’s not written that I love cats and scuba diving.

4. Free vector maps of cities are not needed in articles about cities, because (sorry, I can’t think of a reason for this), and also because “most users don’t need them.” The last statement is strange, because... You obviously didn't poll several thousand users to get a representative sample.

Try conducting a survey to see if articles about cities need a map of the streets and roads of the city. The answer is obvious.

As a result: Wiki users were left WITHOUT city maps. Are you satisfied? Vectormapper (talk) 17:32, 25 June 2024 (UTC)