[Talk-GB] Routing and other problems west of Uttoxeter

Steve Dobson steve at dobbo.org
Fri Aug 12 09:50:02 BST 2011


Hi Lester

Thanks for your reply.

On 12/08/11 09:32, Lester Caine wrote:
> Steve Dobson wrote:
>>> I think it would be much better if he didn't keep deleting ways when
>>> >  he wants to alter them and instead altered the existing way, to avoid
>>> >  creating all these unconnected roads (and also make it easier to see
>>> >  the history of the way).
>> Even though I'm a relative newbie to OSM (&  and very much to this list)
>> I think that this kind of activity needs to be discouraged.
> 
> I think this is highlighting the need for an improvement being discussed
> on the main talk list ...
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/new_id]
> 
> It is interesting looking at the history for some changes and seeing
> what 'collateral damage' is being done to additional information by
> people who have yet to fully get up to speed with all the finer points
> of editing.

Playing devils advocate here - one man's 'collateral damage' is another
man's improvements.  As a newbie how do I know that my edits are `good'?
 One joins OSM and gets full edit rights to the database.  I didn't have
to pass any tests to show that I know what I'm doing.  I've just looked
at what has been none in other areas of the map and aped it.

>             At least the addition of a tag which links the deleted or
> earlier related material would allow others to backtrack and 'repair the
> damage', perhaps we need a merge tool so that tags from the older id's
> can be restored to the new one? Whilst scanning history I've noticed
> many places where items HAVE been deleted and replaced with in essence
> the same item, but with things like disability access lost.
>
> Personally I would prefer to see 'delete' removed altogether, and
> replaced with 'end_date', since in many cases the historic information
> IS as important as the current view. Current map rendering simply
> ignores anything with an end_date older than today, but we can still
> render maps for previous time frames :)

>From a tracking point of view I completely agree with you here.  The
new_id proposal will only work if people know about it and use it -
which will not happen universally.

Steve


-- 
Steve Dobson



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