[OSM-talk] Giving everything a unique ID

[Maarten Deen]

On Wed, 2 Jun 2010 17:52:25 -0700 (PDT), Simon Biber
<simonbiber at yahoo.com.au> wrote:
> Gregory <nomoregrapes at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> If I'm mapping I try and keep nodes intact and edit the tagging
>> to preserve the ID and history, but there are cases where this
>> can't happen.
> 
> Another example where ID and history are lost is when we change items
from
> single nodes to areas, as we get higher resolution photo maps (like
> NearMap) or more accurate GPS / inertial positioning devices. Recently I
> have been deleting nodes and recreating them as areas for playgrounds,
> tennis courts, swimming pools, etc.
> 
> Apart from the loss of ID and history, this also affects clients such as
> Mapzen POI Collector. Once a point of interest is no longer a single
node,
> Mapzen does not consider it as a point of interest or allow it to be
> edited. It even disappears from the map entirely for several weeks,
until
> Mapzen's base layer is re-rendered to show the area.
> 
> Does anyone have a good solution for this?

Keep the node (not because of the ID, but because of the POI meaning) and
add the area as a non-named area with only tags to indicate usage.
Optionally add them all in a relation.
That way you keep the POI for POI collectors, you can use the POI to
position the name on the map and still have the site visible as an area on
the map.

Other solution: have POI collectors rewrite their code to consider areas
too (and use the average location of all points in the area as the POI
location). 

I must say I have not always mapped according to the first rule myself.
But IMHO this is a point that needs discussing, for the POI collector's
sake.

Maarten