[OSM-talk] Disable Potlatch finally.

[David Earl]

On 16/12/2008 15:58, Richard Fairhurst wrote:
> Magically giving JOSM to newbies doesn't stop them making mistakes. It just
> means they make mistakes with JOSM rather than with Potlatch.

That is indeed true.

However, what makes Potlatch particularly susceptible to people making 
mistakes is the live editing. In that respect it is very unforgiving.

You've gone some way to addressing this for people who don't realise 
this is what they are doing, though I suspect some still don't read 
what's in front of them.

Throwing out a tools because it is "too easy" isn't the answer though. 
Improve it - and JOSM and the rest too, yes. But we could also work on 
Quality Control. We could be authoritarian and have edits checked before 
release - but people won't like that. Or we could make sure people are 
doing sanity checks on the area they know.

On the whole people who make gross mistakes either are vandalising or 
misunderstand what they are doing and are easy to spot. There are many 
more subtle changes that look reasonable that only a local can check. 
These are much more pernicious and often arise because someone is 
convinced they are right and the original surveyor is wrong. (They _are_ 
sometimes justified, but sometimes haven't actually gone to look for 
themselves relying on casual memory, or misinterpret signs).

No amount of making software better is going to deal with those kinds of 
changes.

David