[OSM-talk] Rendering power lines: black is beauty

[Sven Grüner]

Tom Chance schrieb:
> I don't think they should even be visible in urban areas like this on our
> main street map, what use are they? I can see how they would be useful for
> a walking map in sparse rural areas, but otherwise they're:
> 
> a) Not obvious (what other street map has power lines on it?)

That once again throws up the general question which purpose the
(official) maps displayed at openstreetmap.org should serve.

A) Should they be a neat, beautiful (street-) map flattering the eyes of
people who are used to the map-design of Google?

or
B) Should they be a show case of what OSM is really about, the data.
Showing off what cool features we've got that no other map supplier can
offer.

Since the rendering has great effect on what mappers do map I favour
option B. That would encourage them do make our data even richer.

Neither of these options apply to our current maps. There are many
features rendered which are pretty useless on a classical streetmap. If
I understood recent discussions correctly that's not because nobody
wants to edit the stylesheets but to avoid an overcrowded map.

The obvious solution to this seems to be layering. But I am not to judge
the technical issues of that.

regards, Sven