[openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website] Combine Export and Share panels (Issue #6575)

[Minh Nguyễn]

1ec5 left a comment (openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website#6575)

Since a more targeted solution is undesirable, I’m going to think out loud a bit:

> But that's an argument for removing the Edit link from the main menu too. After all, if I'm on the communities page, and then click Edit, it "defaults to [editing] whatever they last viewed on the map, probably something unrelated to their current task."

That’s a good point. We used to have more of a distinction between full-fledged pages and half-pages that side next to the map: Edit, History, and Export all looked like tabs, or later like buttons, while other things were just links sitting next to those buttons. Now that we’ve restyled everything but Edit to look like a normal link, we no longer make a clear distinction, leading to confusion like #6506.

> This is a key thing for me. We originally had three primary buttons, for putting data in (Edit), seeing what's there (History) and getting the data out (Export). Don't get me wrong, History and Export are far from perfect, but this data accessibility can be seen as the entire purpose of OpenStreetMap, so hiding it away would be a big step.

Don’t get me wrong, I deeply value OSM as a reusable dataset, but the Export page is probably underselling that aspect of OSM. If we think about all the people who could be using OSM data, only a small subset would use an OSM XML extract or realize that “export” is the function for getting started. Should we place Query and Embed links beside Export, to emphasize those other ways of using OSM data? Those are currently hidden away in side panels and context menus.

> For example, there's no need for the export page to look the same as the home page - it's on a different URL, for a start. It could look like an article (c.f. the welcome page, which looks like an article yet takes URL parameters) but with a form at the bottom for choosing your area (c.f. home locations). Or it could keep a similar layout to currently, but we make the map turn into wireframe mode to indicate that you are in the "raw data" mode (c.f. xray mode on kosmtik, maputnik etc). Or something else.

The site navigation has one other link that could signal our data’s reusability, but it’s called “Copyright”. It leads to a page that briefly introduces OSM before skipping forward to the steps you have to take after you’ve successfully created a project based on OSM. Of course we need a direct link to the Copyright page, but we already have one in the proper place at the bottom-right corner of the map. What about replacing it with a “Reuse” page that covers this aspect of OSM more directly? It could be something interactive like you suggest, or for the time being it could be a compilation of the existing reuse functionality. A more prominent tie-in to switch2osm would be nice. Meanwhile, if someone is literally looking for the word “Copyright”, we could add it before the © symbol in the attribution string.

There’s a lot of possibilities here. But since this discussion split out from the one about moving Donate to site navigation, do you see an overhaul of site navigation as a blocker for addressing that more clearly defined issue?

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