[OSM-dev] created_by considered harmfull

[Andy Robinson]

bvh wrote:
>Sent: 09 August 2007 8:57 AM
>To: dev at openstreetmap.org
>Subject: [OSM-dev] created_by considered harmfull
>
>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.
>

The amount of percentage overhead for the created_by tags varies depending
upon the number of tags on an item. With time I would expect the number of
tags per item to grow substantially so the created_by tag becomes lost in
the total volume.

I would accept though that the created_by tag is of little use since JOSM
for instance does not amend the tag (as far as I recall) if a created_by tag
already exists, so that means later edits to the object do not reflect the
editor used. Is this still the case, does Potlatch do the same?

Cheers

Andy

Andy Robinson
Andy_J_Robinson at blueyonder.co.uk