[talk-au] Wide-ranging changeset that merges tags from addresses, shops and buildings

Stéphane Guillou stephane.guillou at member.fsf.org
Wed May 5 01:09:13 UTC 2021


Hi all

I am /respectfully /writing to hear what you think about this changeset 
from a seemingly new contributor. I definitely don't want to publicly 
shame someone's well-meaning contribution, but after commenting on the 
changeset, I want to:

  * Inform others that the area they contribute to might have been
    affected too
  * Know what other contributors think about the nature of the changes,
    given that I have very little experience with fixing / reverting
    changes that affect such large areas.

You will notice from the changeset history of the contibutor 
<https://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Australets/history> that all their 
changesets were submitted on one single day, the day they created their 
OSM account, and that they affect very distant areas around the world 
(which makes me think there isn't much local knowledge involved).

The changeset that affects the area I am familiar with is changeset 
103074912 <https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/103074912>. But if 
you live around Geraldton (WA), you might also be interested in this 
one: 103072911 <https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/103072911>.

Here is the message I wrote after I noticed the changes in my area, so 
you have a better idea of my concerns, but given the size of the 
changeset, I haven't been able to give it a thorough review.

---

Hi Australets! I was wondering about the motivation between this 
changeset, as it changed quite a few things in the area where I contribute.
What is the idea behind merging addresses, buildings and points of 
interest? I know there are different opinions on the matter, but I can 
see definite drawbacks in the merging you did, at least in some cases. 
For example, some of the resulting buildings end up having a "source" 
tag that used to refer to only the address, but now seems to refer to 
the whole object.
See for example this one: 
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/401769723/history
In other cases, the main building is apartments but now has the name of 
one single shop included in it: 
https://www.openstreetmap.org/way/444096785/history
In many cases, one single key could have a different values for a 
building and a point of interest, even though the general rule "One 
feature, one OSM element" applies. (e.g. address, name, contact, 
source...). Separate POIs are also helpful for shops to more precisely 
show in the building where it is located.
Let me know what you think!

---

Any input would be appreciated, especially tips about the way forward!

Cheers

-- 
Stéphane Guillou
http://stragu.gitlab.io/

You can encrypt our communications by using OpenPGP. My public key 4E211060 is available on the keys.gnupg.net server.

Other ways to interact with me are listed on my contact page: http://stragu.gitlab.io/contact/

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