[OSM-talk] RFC: what are empty nodes and how should we use them?

[MP]

On 16/08/2010, Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> wrote:
> Martin,
>
>  MP wrote:
>
> > You will make some specific check for three continuous dots? Well,
> > there are areas with thousands of such orphaned nodes and trying to
> > check if there are somewhere three dots in a line in such areas
> > wouldn't be easy - either the check will be very slow, prone to
> > errors, or you will need some complex and sophisticated algorithm to
> > make it at least somewhat reliable.
> >
>
>  Yes, I think a re-think is in order regarding the validators or at *least*
> those with a direct influence on editing like the JOSM validator. When they
> were introduced, people were relatively sure about what they were doing and
> the validator was just an "ummm, not sure if this is right...?" voice, to be
> taken with a grain of salt. But nowadays, too many take the validators for
> gospel, and refrain from making legitimate edits because a validator flags
> them up. Today, validators should be more cautious about what they flag.

Perhaps alter the default validator settings and make some potentially
more destructive check turned off. In case of solitary untagged nodes,
there could be some minimum-age setting (default could be day or
perhaps few days) and validator will report only older nodes as
untagged and unconnected - since if the node is too new, there is
chance that it is part of some import and the way will be added later
(it can be sometimes even few days gap between adding lot of nodes and
ways that use these nodes in case of large imports over slow
connections) - so the node should not be deleted, at least not
immediately.

Martin