[OSM-talk] Making editing public by default

[Stefan Baebler]

On 7/20/07, Tom Hughes <tom at compton.nu> wrote:
>         Stefan Baebler <stefan.baebler at gmail.com> wrote:
> > The announced irreversibility of the action turned me away couple of
> > times. But luckily i was tempted enough to try it. Why exactly it needs
> I assume that it is not reversible because we can't effectively
> reverse it - although the flag in the database will be changed and
> all future API queries will not include the user's name, it will
> still be there in all the old planet dumps.

Are you sure that user is included anywhere in the dump?
So far I've noticed only a reference to the mapping software used, like:
<tag k="created_by" v="JOSM" />

Indeed, someone should download _everything_ via API to get usernames,
and do it regularly to catch those who change their mind and decide to
be anonymous from some point on.

If we go for "public by default", and use this logic that users cant
be hidden once it was public the proposed "opt-out" cant be done.

We can't force the user to make this decision when first creating the
OSM account, without the possibility to change it later.

Stefan