[OSM-talk] Was the deletion of Null Island reasonable?

[stevea]

On Jan 9, 2022, at 11:48 PM, Maarten Deen <mdeen at xs4all.nl> wrote:
> You know that already because it is point 0,0. You don't need a node there to know that.

Since you ask (I was getting ready to retire at midnight here), I'll answer.  I am aware that OSM doesn't NEED a node there "to know that."  However, that is but one simple fact that "we don't need a node there to know that."

I'm suggesting (as are others) that we deliberately PUT a node "there."  Just one, just once.

> And by the way, how does this relate to "Null" which in computer science usually means "not existing" or "missing".
> 0 is not Null.

"Null" is a coined name.  It isn't meant to mean something exactly, precisely, it is a "handle" to the place.  It could be called "Map Origin," or "The Zero Point" or "Node 0,0" or a variety of things, it seems to have settled on the curious and delightful name "Null Island."  I, for one, like this name.  It doesn't have to "mean" something, this is why having a wikidata link on the node would be helpful:  click it to read up about it.  Names of places (or things on Earth) don't necessarily have to "mean" anything, even as some of them do (equator, poles, tropics...).

>> Well, it IS where OSM says Earth Starts Here, along with a variety of 
> 
> And again, I don't agree with that, again because it is not OSM that says that. It is not OSM that invented the crossing of the equator and the 0 meridian as coordinate 0,0. We merely use it the same as everybody else because it would be foolish to invent something new.

We agree.  I never said we invented this concept.  I do say, as do you, that we use it.  That's all.

> But then I come back to my point: what purpose does having a node at that point serve? Being the origin of the coordinate system does not require a node to be there.

No, it doesn't require it.  However (again, this is one person's opinion), I think it would be nice if it did, if for no other reason (and it is a perfectly valid and even good one) that when I "bumped into it" that one time, it made me smile and prevented some erroneous data from entering our map.  I recall discovering (in 2009) that OSM has (had?) "only two rules:"  they were (are?) "don't copy from other maps" and "have fun."  Null Island, at the cost of precisely one, single node to denote our origin, is a small bit of fun (and perhaps even redundancy, if we're being pedantic).  There's no harm in that.  Or, very, very, very little (in the sense of one single node "cluttering" up our data).