[OSM-talk] Editor without relation-support makes sense?

[Tirkon]

I found some discussions within OSM, that it would make sense to offer
an OSM editor especially for beginners. To make it easy enough, they
should not confuse the beginner with complicated stuff like relations
and thus not show and support them. But does that make sense? 

The user, who does not know about relations, will not have the chance
to see, that some nodes of the street have got an important function.
Such a node could be a member of a straight way i.e. a street: 
o.....o..o
From the view of the user of an editor without relation-support the
node in the middle has no function. So he can move or delete it
without problem. But this point could be the a beginning point of a
route relation or member of a relation. 

As far as I can see at the moment, an editor, that does not show
relations, is dangerous for OSM-data. Ich want to state reasons below:

It is really hard, to setup in particular a long route relation. You
need excellent knowledges of all places in detail. Because this is not
possible i.e for an e-road with about 5000 km length, people set up
projects in the wiki in order to establish this relation within month'
and years as teamwork. The same applies i.e. to the public transport
net, which is collected in many towns nearly complete, the relations
of motorways, national- and other referenced roads, the boundaries (of
towns and suburbs) or by relation splitted lanes of multilane roads
with left-turn, right-turn-function etc etc. One of the most important
advantages of the cycle- and hiking-map are the routes, which are long
in many cases as well. With destroyed routes these maps lose much of
their sense of exist. 

And all these routes can be destroyed within seconds by "harmless
editings" and shoot down this long lasting work within seconds. For
example it is really hard, i.e. to insert a short OSM-way. at the
correct position of the relation, if you do
not have excellent knowledge 1) of the object and 2) of every place in
detail. Try it and you know, what I mean. That means, you have to wait
for a person that has both and finds this dispersed way. And that
could last very long. If the one, who established the route possibly
in a rurely area, does not come back, the chances are good lasting
years. If one founds this mistake in his home-area, he has no chance
to heal it, if he has no clue i.e. from this bycycle-route or the
public-transport. 

Thus an editor, that does not show relations, is dangerous for the
OSM-data. 

Is it possible to establish an editor, that is easy enough for
beginners without being dangerous for OSM? I think, yes. But excluding
the relations is not the solution. However really helpful for
beginners would be, if an editor could make the relations graphically
editable or make their use as easy as tags.

Pros and Contras are welcome.