Reporter: HannesHH
[Submitted to the original trac issue database at 12.09pm, Thursday, 3rd July 2008]

http://www.openstreetmap.org/traces/mine could really use some short explanation what the "public" checkbox really means. For example:

-The raw trace will always be available to anyone. If you check this box it will also show up on your user page and the Public GPS traces listing.

-'''Check this box if you want the trace shown publically in your traces listing and the Public GPS traces listing. This does not affect the availability of the raw trace for anyone.
'''

-(controls the display on the website)

As I am not a native speaker I am sure someone will come up with some better (and shorter) text. Just wanted to share ideas.

I only got told about that after a good 7 months of OSMing (and not uploading many traces for tinfoil-hat privacy reasons). And the past few days I saw confusion or ignorance about this a couple of times. For me (and apparently others too) not ticking the checkbox means "non-public" which means "private" and "private" means "for my eyes only".

Of course http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Upload needs some explanation what happens with the tracks, what people can do etc. I'm willing to do that some time. But a minor minority would read that anyways plus there is a bit of free space on the http://www.openstreetmap.org/traces/mine page. :)