[OSM-dev] created_by considered harmfull

[bvh]

I'd like to seek a consensus on the created_by tag. In my opinion it
is worthless. Not only are they handles differently by each editor 
(some add them, some don't; some change them; some don't) but it 
also seems some users are confused by it and substitute their own 
name as the value for that tag.

For the non-advantage that created_by brings, it is rather costly.
I did some tests on random areas and it takes up, pretty consistently,
around 10% of all transfers. A typical example for an area of a few
square km's with a good deal of ways and regular classifications
is 624k with created_by tags against 550k withouth created_by tags.
Underdeveloped areas or those edited extensively by Potlatch alpha
instead of JOSM the situation is even worse. I believe at one point
I saw a case where a whopping 25% of all 'information' was created_by
tags.

So here is my proposal with the most immediate action first

1. all authors of editor software stop adding created_by tags to new nodes
in their next release
2. all authors of editor software silently surpress the created_by tags
when uploading edits to existing map features in their next release
3. optionally we run a query on the database to delete all existing
created_by tags.

At least Merkaartor is already doing 1 and I plan on doing number 2
after this discussion if there are no compelling reasons brought forward
not to.

cu bart