[OSM-talk] Orphaned Relations

[Sarah Hoffmann]

On Mon, Jul 18, 2011 at 10:28:54PM +0100, MP wrote:
> On Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:05:29 +0100, Ed Loach wrote:
>>> Relations
>>> without
>>> members can be used intentionally,
>>
>> Can you give an example, please? Because I've tried and failed to
>> think of any. Perhaps I'm just getting hung up on the name "relation"
>> as something which groups its related members in some way defined by
>> the relation's tags (while not being used as a category).
>
> For example in Prague there is relation for transport network which  
> contain empty relation for some tram lines - those are not operational  
> currently due to some constructions, but once these constructions are  
> finished, they can be easily restored to previous state (just dig up  
> some older version of the relation from history, check it and save it)

You might just as well delete the relation while the tram line does
not exist. You are still able to restore an old version from the history 
later. There is no difference in the process. Relations should not 
be used as a garbage dump for information that might be interesting in the 
future.

Sarah