[OSM-talk] [josm-dev] Change to changeset comment handling, RfD

[Frederik Ramm]

Anthony,

>> The way I like to think of this is: If you speak to another mapper later that day, and they ask you "what
>> you've been up to?" and you answer them in one sentence - that's what you should put as a changeset
>> comment.
> 
> Sounds like a better place for that would be a diary entry.

If there were a way to link changesets to diary entries on upload (i.e. 
instead of selecting a changeset comment, select an existing diary entry 
to link this changeset to), that might be an idea. However, diary 
entries tend to be lengthy and unsuitable for display in a table view.

Also, I think this would be more of a burden on the mapper, not less.

>> "fixed soandso junction from aerial imagery"
>> "added POIs from motorcycle survey"
> 
> Be even better if the "aerial imagery" and "motorcycle survey" were in
> a "source" tag rather than a "comment" tag.  And at least in the
> latter case, I'd say skip the comment tag. Just "added POIs" isn't
> helpful, and the "from motorcycle survey" part would be better off in
> a source tag.

Arguably, the changeset comment could be split up in a number of 
individual tags. Currently, people use it for different things - they 
say something about the source, about their method, about where they 
worked, about why they changed something, or about whether or not the 
area still needs work... again, as long as we have difficulty in even 
getting people to describe their edits in *one* tag, it might be too 
much to ask of them if we asked them to fill in a *number of tags* in a 
structured manner. I think it would be counter-productive at this time.

The changeset comment tag as we have it now gives us, I believe, the 
most value for the smallest investment on the part of the mapper.

I'm taking this back to the talk@ list, it has nothing to do with JOSM.

Bye
Frederik