[Talk-us-massachusetts] Should we delete source, attribution & massgis:way_id from massgis highway import?

[Greg Troxel]

"Alan & Ruth Bragg" <alan.ruth.bragg at gmail.com> writes:

> When highways were imported from the Mass GIS database they included three
> tags that are of no importance.
>
>    - source (both ways & nodes are tagged)
>    - attribution (both ways & nodes are tagged)
>    - massgis:way_id (only the way is tagged)
>
> These artifact tags are a burden
>
>    - Increasing the size of the database.
>    - Increase the length of the JOSM "Tag/Membership" window enough to
>    require the user to frequently scroll or re-size the window.
>    - The massgis:way_id adds an additional step when combining road
>    segments. (id's must be deleted or combined)

I agree that it would be nice to have them vanish.  Two thoughts:

This really is a case where a fully automated scripted edit makes
sense.  Both to make sure exactly the right thing happens, and to save
mappers the drudgery.

> The data should only be deleted for users:
>
>    - "MassGIS Import" MassGIS Import is the user id for the original import.
>    - "NE2" (inactive since 2013)
>
> NE2 Five years ago edited 4,150 ways. The changeset comments were:
>
>    - correct maxspeed tags from MassGIS import to use mph rather than km/h
>    - replace bogus names like "Unnamed Road" with noname=yes
>
> This preserves the id of the person who did the most recent edit as seen in
> edit history (JOSM Ctrl-H)

I was at first not following, but I think I see now.  You are proposing
to leave the tags in other cases, so that ^H shows the immediate editor.
But it shows the whole history, and a bot edit is pretty easy to skip if
you are trying to figure out the last real change.

> I suggest these updates be preformed by the user:"MassGIS Import" if
> someone has the password.

Sure, or a new account that is for automated edits.

> The Piece-meal Process

This seems like a lot of effort to clean the state.

> I volunteer to do the peace-meal if there are no script writers with time
> available.

I think there are existing script frameworks.   I would expect that if
you intend to clean the whole state it's still a mechanical edit
requiring plan/approval, which seems like as much work as a script.

> Current users could change the overpass query and update their own data
> thus retaining their edit history.

I'm not really following why you think the last actual editor being the
last editor that made a non-mechanical change is important.

Someone already did some of this:

 https://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/21388696

> Was NE2 the only person making a mass edit?

Maybe not.  When the roads were imported, they were from per-town
shapefiles.  The roads looked connected, because there was a node at the
border that was in both towns' shapefiles.  But there were two nodes,
instead of the two ways sharing a node.  There was an automated edit
(2010? 2011?) that merged those nodes (which really had the exact same
coordinates), which made routing work.  I do not really rememeber how it
happened, and I can't really find the edits.  But I remember discussing
it.
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