[OSM-talk] Night of the living maps 07.02.2012 - Avoid API congestion

[Roland Olbricht]

Dear JOSM users,

Mapping events have in the past often triggered an API block from the admins 
due to too much download traffic. See e.g.
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/API_usage_policy

To avoid that, I've just started the JOSM plugin "mirrored_download". This 
plugin allows to download OSM data into JOSM from both instances of the 
Overpass API and thus avoids download requests to the main API at all.

As an extra bonus to all plugins users, Overpass API is almost always faster 
than the main API. As both Overpass servers have still only a load of 5%-15% 
even at peak hours, there is much room for more download traffic.

Just install the plugin (under preferences > plugins > mirrored_download), 
restart JOSM and then use "Mirrored download > Download from OSM..." instead 
of "File > Download from OSM...".

If you run a readonly API yourself, feel free to add that one in the JOSM SVN 
at
josm/plugins/mirrored_download/src/mirrored_download/UrlSelectionDialog.java 
after line 101.

Best regards,

Roland Olbricht