Hi,
Anthony wrote:
So do I... I just think it's unrealistic to expect it every time.
It is also unrealistic to expect good OSM data edits every time. Still
it's good if people try, and good if the software helps them with it.
IMO the job of the software should be to make sure the person knows
the software has the ability to use comments. Not to make it
difficult for them not to use comments.
The software should also try and make people understand what comments
are good for, i.e. why it is good to enter one, and perhaps give some
information on what constitutes a "good" comment if the user is
interested. Just saying "and by the way you can enter a comment here if
you feel like it" is not enough.
If we decide as a community that all edits *must* have comments, of a
certain length, (and we shouldn't), then that should be enforced in
the API.
I think there is room for things not enforced by the API but by an
editor. Also, if we leave out "enforcing" and switch to "strongly
suggesting" - which is exactly what my change did, if you remember, I
removed JOSM's enforcing the 3 characters and replaced it by a nagging
if you enter less than 10 -, then we leave API terrain altogether
because the API has no way to do that.
OTOH, if we're trying to get people to make comments that explain
something that isn't evident from the edit itself, then 1) that's
clearly unrealistic;
I disagree.
and 2) the changes to the software aren't really
geared to that anyway (as no technical rules really can be).
You are right if you say there is no metric to measure the usefulness of
a comment in software.
However, I have just randomly selected 100 comments of less than 10
characters from the current end of changesets, and 100 comments of more
than 10 characters, and there was a very noticeable correlation; in my
non-representative sample, I found about 70 of 100 long comments useful,
and I found about 10 of 100 short comments useful.
So while the software cannot *ensure* that people place a meaningful
comment, it can certainly help with that by reminding the user if it
seems likely that his comment is one of the "10 of 100" rather than one
of the "70 of 100".
Bye
Frederik
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