[talk-au] JOSM filtering image/map tile URLs

[David Murn]

On Sat, 2011-01-29 at 23:51 +1000, John Smith wrote:
> I was sent a link to this thread on the JOSM dev mailing list:
> 
> http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/josm-dev/2011-January/005185.html

Interesting thread.

> ... since those pushing for this change seem to want to make JOSM
> difficult to use for anything but OSM allowed sources.

This worries me a little.  It seems like there are some within the
community who are adamant to split the users.  It seems some people are
trying to do the best they can, to achieve forks within the project,
while others are running along behind them trying to repair the damage
and lost morale.  This wouldnt be such an issue, if those who were
pushing to break the project up werent in the (perceived) highest levels
of power.  When people suggested that these tools might have uses other
than for OSM, the response always came back as 'well, fork it and host
the project yourself'.. which leads to...

> Thankfully the main author of the software seems to want a more
> general editor, not just one that works with OSM specific APIs etc.

This makes me wonder.  Dirk has stated that he does not want the feature
implemented, while Frederik has stated that he has already implemented
it.

Is that not the rudest form of vandalism in OSM (even worse than
vandalising a part of the map)?  To force someone to take changes to
their program because of your position.  If an athiest decided to remove
any references to religion/churches in JOSM, and forced the community to
take their patch, what would happen?  Are we expected to just lie down
and take it, because we should respect one persons opinion, or should we
look at the bigger picture and send OSM in the direction the community
wants, rather than the direction a few foundation board members want.

So, what happens now?  Has Frederik appointed himself as top-dog in the
JOSM project, above and beyond the maintainer?  What would happen if the
maintainer (or someone else following the OSM communities wishes)
reverted that patch?

David