[OSM-talk] Abandoned Rails

[Russ Nelson]

Mateusz Konieczny writes:
 > On Wed, 9 Sep 2015 01:54:20 -0400
 > Russ Nelson <nelson at crynwr.com> wrote:
 > 
 > > Why do you persist? You can't win, because you're wrong.
 > 
 > Please, stop treating it as some zero-sum game. I am not trying to
 > "win".

You're arguing with me, and you don't expect to win the argument?? Why
would you bother? In particular, it *is* a zero-sum game. If you get
to delete abandoned railways, I don't get to see them in my own
rendering or in OpenRailwayMap.

 > I am trying to ensure that editing of OSM will not be made
 > harder by presence of ways representing completely destroyed objects
 > or ridiculous relations containing features approximately following
 > track of former, no longer existing objects.

That's the sticky problem: the railway still exists. Part of it may be
an embankment, or a cut, or a bridge, or a straight line of trees, or
a track. Part of it may go through a field where the farmer has plowed
it away (but I can point you to fields where you can still see
cinders). Part of it may go through a housing development (but I can
show you tree lines where it went). Those latter two parts should be
tagged railway=dismantled.

 > Editing OSM is already complicated, there is no good reason to make it
 > even harder by adding confusing features editable only by experts.

Here's how to make it less hard: Don't delete things you didn't
add. (Oh, and don't edit coastlines).
Isn't that easy?

Now, it's not always true, but it's a simple rule of thumb that will
allow everyone to add their favorite thing to OSM, whether stores,
park benches, fire hydrants, trees, cliffs, etc.

Are there other problems that you fear will occur when people map all
the parts of a railway?

I'm thinking that maybe what we need is a censoring OSM API, where the
people who would be confused by dismantled railways could say "I want
the censored OSM", and then they wouldn't get any dismantled railways
in their data download.

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