There are a number of automated changes that get made to the OSM
database (bots). Some are straightforward (correcting common
misspellings), some less so (changing one form of tagging to another,
removing incorrect data*, removing single-node ways).
Would it be possible to suspend automated changes until a little time
after the activities defined here
<http://blog.osmfoundation.org/2012/03/27/service-schedule-march-april-2012/>
are fully complete?
When the rebuild has completed (i.e. immediately after "to be
determined" on the linked page), there will be data in a number of areas
that will require human intervention (e.g. a way with nodes from a
decliner in it removed, or a node with tags contributed by a decliner
removed). What remains may well normally trigger an automated change
via a bot. In the post-licence-change situation, however, it surely
makes sense to give human mappers a chance to assess the situation
without having to plough into pre-bot history, at a time when the OSM
servers are likely to be busier than ever.
So please, no bots until the date announced on 9th April?
Cheers,
Andy
* This may at first glance seem OK, but I came across a problem with
exactly this recently. A newbie editor had merged two ways with
different layers to create a way with layer "1; 0". The bot changed
this to "1" when the correct action would have been to investigate which
ways the newbie editor merged and ensure that the correct layer was
applied to the correct parts of the new way.
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