[openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website] Make contribution heat map opt in (Issue #5804)

[Minh Nguyễn]

1ec5 left a comment (openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website#5804)

Who is this widget’s intended audience and what’s its purpose? https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/5373#issue-2714677416 frames it this way:

> The current user profile page provides a detailed summary of contributions but lacks a visual representation of activity trends. A calendar heatmap, similar to GitHub's user contribution calendar, would make it easier to understand user engagement over time at a glance.

Going back further, https://github.com/openstreetmap/openstreetmap-website/issues/5356#issue-2691128594 opens with this problem statement:

> We want to enhance the OSM profile pages with more engaging and informative features, similar to HDYC.

I’m not sure I agree with the premise that the profile page had a detailed summary in the first place. But putting that aside, all I see is a desire to match the visual attractiveness of GitHub profile pages and Pascal Neis’s How Did You Contribute? tool, and to track “user engagement”. As user engagement isn’t a meaningful metric for OSM as a project, I think this feature could’ve benefited from more detailed consideration of use cases. For example:

* If it’s for the user to track their own edits, it probably belongs on their dashboard, which is visible only to them. That should mitigate the privacy concerns expressed here, even if we extend the feature to make it easier to reminisce about a changeset by date.

* If it’s for the user to show off their editing streak to others, as a light form of gamification, then there should be an option about that. At the very least, some community members don’t view their changeset history as a fair portrayal of their value to the community. I hear griping about that almost every year when OSMF board candidates’ heatmaps get posted on the wiki for all to see (even nonmembers).

* If it’s for others to gauge at a glance whether the user is actively editing these days, then I don’t think this level of granularity helps very much. I don’t need to know whether the user edits on weekends in order to predict whether they’re likely to respond to a direct message promptly or complain about their work getting reverted, or whether I should be concerned that my ~~friend~~ follow is drifting away from the project. A simpler all-time line graph would convey this information more effectively (irrespective of any privacy considerations).

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