[OSM-talk] Contacting OSM editors

[Tom Hughes]

In message <438915.34763.qm at web30801.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
        Mikel Maron <mikel_maron at yahoo.com> wrote:

>> Perhaps you could have an automated web form and/or API call which takes a
>> way or node id, and has a text area for a message.  It would require a
>> login to minimise abuse/random webcrawlers and allows messages from a
>> particular OSM user to be sent on to the email address of the person who
>> last touched it.  If that doesn't always pull out the problem edits then
>> I guess it could send to all people who edited a way/node using history.
>>
>> Something like that gets around the data protection concerns.  I'd
>> suggest they be archived somewhere that admins at least can see.
>> 
>> Is that possible?
>
> An alternative .. couldn't OSM broker anonymous messages between
> users? There would be no obligation to respond, but they could
> communicate if they wish. Ignores could be set if the anonymous user
> didn't want to receive more messages. This would be very easy to add
> into Rails.

It does have that functionality, but you have to know a user's display
name to use it, and that is the identifier that you send a message to.

The problem is that in at least some cases the display name itself
reveals significant information about somebodies identity.

Yes, we could have "send a message to the last editor of way #NNN" to
get round that I suppose.

Tom

-- 
Tom Hughes (tom at compton.nu)
http://www.compton.nu/