[OSM-talk] Hashtags are not sufficient changeset comments

[Stephan Knauss]

On 18.04.2021 14:22, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> On 4/18/21 13:22, Frederik Ramm wrote:
>> Hashtags can be used in addition to a good changeset comment but they 
>> can never replace it. A changeset comment with 10 hashtags that aren't 
>> documented anywhere is worse than no changeset at all.
> 
> "worse than no changeset comment at all"

not entirely. If a changeset full of lowest-quality edits has something 
like #hot, #tm, #missingmaps or similar, this already tells me that it's 
not worth wasting time to try starting a conversation with the mapper, 
as there is 0 response to such comments.

So removing such edits before starting to re-map is much easier.

Same goes for changesets that read "add 2 tourist attrations", "add a 
viewpoint" or other nonsense that maps.me auto-generates in areas 
popular with tourists which use the app to store markers of interesting 
points or plan their trip with it.

Organized edits have to ensure that there are enough experienced 
validators who review the edits. And they make sure that the email 
address is monitored and not silently discarded.
The same validators can also monitor that changeset comments are 
meaningful at least a bit.

How about auto-blocking accounts for edits if more than three changeset 
comments remain unanswered? Auto-block accounts which fail verifying 
their email once every six months, either manually or by actively using 
it to reply to messages?

You are right in that OSM is a community. Those who map and run are not 
part of the community.
How many of these "bad" changeset comments are from active community 
members in this definition? I would say a very low amount.

Changeset comments are important in case of "unexpected" edits. If a 
highway classification is severely changed, it helps to understand why. 
Fixing obvious problems with tags can do with a simple generic comment 
just stating that.

Stephan