[OSM-talk] A plea for meaning ful changeset comments

[Ed Avis]

John Smith <deltafoxtrot256 <at> gmail.com> writes:

>Frankly I'd rather spend my time mapping than telling everyone to the
>nth degree what my life story about why I made a change.

Steady on.  Nobody says you should repeat in the comment what is already clear
from the changes made.  That would be redundant and pointless.  Only the 'why'
not the 'what' needs to be stated.  That normally shouldn't be more than one
sentence.

The only times I've needed to give a long-winded explanation is when correcting
existing data which I believe is wrong - in that case you ought to cite your
sources and explain why the new version is correct, otherwise we could get into
edit wars, which would waste a lot more time than writing a changeset comment.

-- 
Ed Avis <eda at waniasset.com>