Hi all, I want to point attention to the potlatch-funtion tidy-points (similar to JOSM simplify way). I encourage everybody not to use these functions (at least not on data someone else entered) as it harms severly the data. IMHO OSM is a project about drawing a collaborative map, not about computers drawing it. They don't know the world, e.g. don't know and can't know, where there is a curve and where the street is straight. For this reason, they will never be able to do the job of generalization as good as humans can do. Therefore it is not just about optimizing the algorithm of performing this action, but it is generally not possible for computers to do it. Of course an elaborated algorithm (that knows for example the functions usually used to design curves in streets, ramps, minimum radius, etc., probably even considerating the road class and speedlimits) could do a much better job than the current one, but it will still be "guessing" and not "knowing" about the optimal geometry. I think that the respect for the work of the comunity requests us to ban these functions or restrict the use to ways drawn but not yet uploaded.
An example from the result of the current tidy-points-function here: http://trac.openstreetmap.org/attachment/ticket/2148/090808_potlatch_tidy-points_.png I'd like to start a discussion about which automated functionalities we want to allow and if there is a majority in the community for setting some limits to what should be possible by automated interaction. What if I scripted my own tidy-up-function that allows to specify a location, radius and tag and then deletes all these tags inside the radius. Might be useful in areas to start certain things from scratch where data is not reliable (I'm obviously not serious, that's probably an extreme example, but there might be other functions that in some cases are useful, in others they aren't). I know that some people like this tidy-points-function to work on TIGER-Data, but I tell you: if the TIGER-Data is not good/precise, it won't get better using this function ;-) cheers, Martin _______________________________________________ talk mailing list [email protected] http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
