[josm-dev] Another 66 relations bite the dust

[Richard Fairhurst]

Sebastian Klein wrote:
> Richard Fairhurst wrote:
>> I don't want to get into an editor argument here
>
> Right, don't start a fight you can't win. :)

:)

> Have you talked to the user? If he remembers how it happened there
> might be a tiny chance to identify the cause but otherwise there
> really isn't much one can do about it. If we had more reports of this
> kind, it would be a different matter.

I've mailed him, yes: no reply as yet but then it's early days.

But it appears to be a similar issue to these postings which posit 
possible causes:
   http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/josm-dev/2010-April/004276.html
 
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-gb/2010-February/005359.html
 
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-gb/2010-February/005363.html
 
http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-gb/2010-February/005368.html

FWIW I suspect it isn't a _bug_ as such, but rather that the UI is 
unclear (at least to novice users) such that it is too easy for the user 
to mistakenly delete/blank the relations. Again, deleting many (66) 
relations that you haven't intentionally touched, or entirely deleting 
large (893-member) relations, is likely to be an error in most 
circumstances: the user should be made aware of what they're doing in 
terms they are likely to understand.

cheers
Richard