[Talk-us] Blame me for JOSM yellowness

[Alan Millar]

> can you give a single example where this info is helping?

It may not help you anywhere.  It helps me everywhere, in my personal
mapping process.

> the tiger data is terrible wrong in some places. it's more important
> to fix the data instead of spending time on a useless tag.

Of course the Tiger data in OSM is terribly wrong in many places.  It is
also subtly wrong in many places, which can be harder to find and correct,
or can be acceptable.  It is also correct in many places, some of which
were correct in the original Tiger, and some of which have been corrected
by OSM mappers, sometimes by me, and sometimes by somebody else.

You are free to edit as you prefer, but I need a way to keep track of
this.  I don't go on comprehensive mapping expeditions like my UK
colleagues.  I do incremental edits based on various trips that are
incidental to the rest of my life.  I try to clean up the map on and
around the GPS track that I captured, based on what I saw and what I know
of the area.

If I see a nearby street on the map that I or another mapper has looked at
before, I don't need to scrutinize it.  If no OSM mapper has looked at it,
I will check it out.  Sometimes by aerial photo if I know the area or the
pictures are clear with few tree obstructions.  Sometimes I have to go
visit the street, but I may not do it soon, or somebody else might do it. 
For this process, I find the tiger:reviewed=no tag to be VERY useful. 
Perhaps this is is the example you were looking for?

Calling this tag useless is completely subjective.  Much of what I see in
other countries is full of useless tags.  Mapping mailboxes and postal
codes?  No use to me, but very useful for people in another context and
need.

> and what is correct in a project like osm? correct name, all
> attributes, the location.
> correct location? accuracy  +/-  1km, 1m, 1cm?

This is the basis of ALL of OSM.  Accuracy is up to the mapper, or
collective mappers.  All of OSM is dependent upon the good-faith efforts
of mappers editing based on what they know and observe, to subjective
standards that most reasonable people would hopefully consider "good
enough", and then revise and improve over time.

There is no absolute correctness which any of this data will EVER achieve.
 However good you think it is, somebody else will consider it inaccurate
or incomplete.  But reasonable people often can produce a consensus on a
relative standard of "good enough for now", within a defined scope or
context.  For this, the tiger:reviewed tag works for many of us.

>  there are 2 solutions. delete
> it on all ways as soon as data is downloaded to get rid of it or hack
> the josm source.

There is a completely valid third option you did not list: do like the
rest of the planet.  Completely delete the TIGER imported data in the area
you surveyed.  Start over from scratch with fresh GPS tracks and some
Yahoo aerial photos.  Of course, how will we know *that* is correct?  Just
because somebody claims it is?  Hmm....

If you don't like the tag, you don't have to use it.  But I have been
waiting for this highlighting feature for a long time, but never got
around to figuring out enough in JOSM, so I am happy to see it.  To each
his own; there is room for all of us in this project.

- Alan