[OSM-dev] Why are so many changeset so large?

Tom Hughes tom at compton.nu
Wed Oct 17 00:28:30 BST 2012


On 17/10/12 00:04, Alex Barth wrote:

> - What are the recommendations for change set sizes?

Personally I tend to put everything that is logically grouped together 
in one changeset where possible.

But by that I mean that I'll spend a few hours out collecting data in a 
small area and then probably upload that in one changeset - sometimes 
more than one if I take a break while editing and it times out.

> - Are there technical reasons why changesets should tend to be large? Are they expensive on some level?

I believe it's entirely because we've got so many people doing 
mechanical or semi-mechanical edits.

That includes bots but also things like people using xapi or overpass to 
download all objects matching some set of tags, then change those tags 
and reupload.

> - Could editors encourage users to do more and smaller changesets?
> - What else could be done to encourage smaller changesets with meaningful comments?

Encouraging people to go out and do actual local survey based mapping 
instead of trying to enforce their tagging ideas on the whole world with 
mass edits.

Tom

-- 
Tom Hughes (tom at compton.nu)
http://compton.nu/



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