Steve Bennett wrote:
In general I think there's some value in what you're describing here, not just for id stability, but in better understanding the history and provenance of objects, which helps with attributing authorship. Some sort of more generic meta-tagging scheme might be good (superseded_by could easily be interpreted as referring to the actual physical objects, not the OSM objects), so maybe something like osm:new_id=xxx, osm:merge_into=xxx etc.
new_id=xxx is an interesting thought especially if it can be used to manage the back linking of history when a split is instigated. So that an older id may well have several new_id tags as splits of the element happen? superseded_by only sounds appropriate where the original id does become historic redundant data?
I think people have lost sight of the start_date and end_date though? I think that still provides an important element if people ARE will to accept that there is historic data now being accumulated? Deleting a building as demolished has a date, and creating a new building on the site has a date. While they are physically located at a similar point, they are not the same object, but it is necessary to maintain the history of that change, and similar things such as change of use ...
I still live in the hope of being able to draw a map of an area with a particular date to go with my genealogical work ...
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