[Imports] "readonly" tag for imported data (ask "simple" editors to not modify)?

[Jan Iven]

On 26/04/11 15:55, Richard Fairhurst wrote:
>
> Jorge Gustavo Rocha wrote:
>> [...]
>> No one is saying that it shouldn't be editable.
>
> Jan said "pass the message to editors such as Potlatch that they need not
> bother editing these features". I'm replying that Potlatch will not honour
> such a request, and explaining why.

Coincidentally, my suggestion was meant to improve life for the potlatch 
users (incl myself) - having such "external" data on display is useful, 
but being able to edit it is not (unless "upstream" feeds of OSM). For 
me this is a bit like the aerial photography - useful input for editing 
(and display), but I wouldn't want to repaint bitmaps (especially not if 
these would then change underneath and discard my edits).

Please don't get me wrong, this wasn't meant to drive a censorship 
thread, but rather in favour of making relevant edits easier - by all 
means allow a user preference to override such behaviour. I would think 
of this setting as an "are you sure?"-dialogue - useless for the power 
user, but often a helpful addition for the occasional user. And for me 
Potlatch is the tool of choice for these users, so the default could be 
to ask (or rather, honour such a flag).

As I have now learned, this magic flag does not exist yet, and whatever 
consensus there might be on the subject (external DBs for external data, 
common API for display?), it appears to be still sometime away.
So I'll go back and try not to add points to odd long+straight lines too 
often..

Best regards
jan