Looks good!

The best way to tag NCN routes is using relations - there's lots about it on the wiki. I've added relations for your Marlborough routes - have a look and see if it makes sense.

osm.wiki/index.php/Osmxapi

1. I tend to be fairly 'full on' about hobbies and this is another example of that, in a way. It's also something I take part in as a (semi-pro) cartographer, but unfortunately the amount of use I, or anyone else, can make of OSM in this way is limited until we get the licence sorted out.

2. For me, it's mostly for the social side. Mapping parties are generally about housing estates, and sometimes I'll take part/organise one because I'd like to see the place in question mapped - but by and large, if I'm going to spend a day mapping, I'd rather go out on a rural cycle ride on an uncharted bit of the National Cycle Network than go up and down countless residential cul-de-sacs.

Yeah, I find that (users accidentally obliterating the ncn_ref tag) a fair amount - had to repair NCN 8 through South Wales recently for exactly that reason. Turning it into a relation helps: in Potlatch, at least, it's rendered differently, so people can see if they've changed something wrongly.

osm.wiki/index.php/FAQ#How_can_I_close_my_account.3F

Press '-' on a node to remove it from the currently selected way only. Potlatch has actually been able to do this for a lot longer than JOSM has ;)

That's right, hovering over the way turns the nodes blue, and you can join to them.

Of course, clicking anywhere else on that way will make an intersection.

highway=footway just means a walkable path. There is a school of thought that the extra 'foot=yes' means a right of way - because if it were permissive you'd have foot=permissive, and so on. So probably best just to tag as 'highway=footway' without adding an extra osm.wiki/Tag:'foot='.

Exactly. "Map what's on the ground" is a guiding principle of OSM - it works very well in this case.

In that case that's 100% fine. Worth posting your conversation somewhere on the wiki for posterity, and adding a source= tag for any edits you make.

I think that's pretty much it. Basically the key question is "do you [the aerial photo people] claim any copyright in tracings from your photos?". If the answer is no, they just claim copyright in the photos themselves, then you're free to go ahead.

But really, you shouldn't "save" your tracks on a Garmin anyway - it loses vast swathes of detail. Better to use a more conservative recording setting (e.g. every 3s rather than every 1s, or one of the "auto" settings).

Assuming you're using Potlatch (the online editor), click the point where you want to split, then either press 'X' or click the scissors icon.

smsm1: "Loading ways takes ages" is nothing to do with Potlatch - that's an API thing.

It's from the Lettrist International - a bunch of French ne'er-do-wells from the '50s who walked around Paris and made utterly impractical maps. Their journal was called Potlatch. They later became the Situationists who are a bit better known.

In turn they got it from a Native American custom - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potlatch - which was a highly effective subversion of normal economic laws, based on giving everything away. I thought that was quite appropriate for OSM.

Plus there's a section on the Wikipedia entry called "Potlatch ban" which might appeal to talk-de. ;)

I'm a Mac user too and would second Donald's recommendation for the HCx. I spent my first few years' surveying (before OSM existed, even!) with a yellow eTrex. I then bought a Geko 201 for the extra tracklog memory. But last Christmas I got an HCx, and the difference is enormous.

Not just in the recording capability - good resolution and, with a £15 MicroSD card, pretty much infinite capacity - but the ability to upload OSM mapping is something you really don't appreciate until you've tried it. If you think you're going to be remotely serious about this OSM thing, the HCx is definitely the unit to get.

ndim: There is an undo (though not redo) function, but I'm aware it's not perfect. If you identify any bugs in it please do report them via trac - it'd help enormously.

egore911: First of all, I do appreciate that you make a distinction between "Potlatch" and "newbies", too many people don't.

For the three specific points, different rendering for bridges will be addressed in an upcoming version - probably the next few weeks. The vaildator plugin per se is not appropriate for the Potlatch audience, but there's clearly a need for a more interactive display of "what you're doing, and how it could be improved" to accompany editing, and that's planned for the medium term.

On the 'Save' button, I've said several times that I'm not against it per se. In fact, I think it would be quite helpful to expand the practice mode of Potlatch to have a Save button. That way you'd have the choice of editing live (as at present) or session-based editing with Save.

The problem is, though, that I really don't have the time to do this. A Save button will require a lot of thought and coding, because you have to implement conflict resolution (i.e. what happens if someone else has been editing the ways in the intervening period). The UI for that needs to be good - and by way of illustration, last time I looked (though this was a long time ago), JOSM's conflict UI wasn't intuitive enough for the Potlatch audience.

However, right now I also have on the 'to do' list: fixing the long-standing issue with duplicate nodes when the server's slow (which will be a lot of work); a new tagging UI; a new interactive help system (which ties in with your point about the validator plugin); and about eight zillion trac tickets (take a look). There's another big expansion I've been asked to do this autumn which'll take several weeks' coding. Oh yes, and Steve wants me to recode the whole lot in ActionScript 3.

I can't do that all on my own. I'd be hard-pushed to do so if Potlatch was my paid job - which clearly it isn't, it's just one of several hobbies.

So if you want a Save button, either you're going to have to code it, or you'll have to find someone else who can. Potlatch is all public domain; it compiles with a free compiler; ActionScript 1 is exactly the same language as JavaScript but with a different API; and I'm very happy to help by explaining how it all works. It's not really difficult. But, I'm afraid, it's not going to happen unless someone steps up and helps.

Somehow, even before clicking the 'map' link, I knew that had to be in the Fens.

Hope you're going to tag it farmer=hostile, shotgun=yes.

Hi Markus,

Thanks for the comments, appreciated as ever.

I'm not sure from them whether or not you've ever used Potlatch but, if not, it would be worth you doing so. You'll see, for example, that ways get larger as you zoom in which (by definition) increases the click area.

Please see http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2008-August/028988.html for a more detailed explanation of the duplicated node issue. I do note your comparison with JOSM but the editing model of the two is completely different, so it's not just as simple as borrowing its behaviour. Because JOSM uploads modally in one (user-prompted) operation, the connection is already made by the time the node is uploaded, so there's only one ID. But because Potlatch uploads modelessly, the connection hasn't been made at the time the node/way is initially uploaded.

As the message explains this will be fixed but is not a five-minute job. However, it's then reasonably simple to write a bot which iterates over the planet file and automatically fixes any duplicated nodes at the same position created by Potlatch.

For untagged ways and osm.wiki/Tag:key=, the intention is ultimately to have an integrated help system that provides suggestions as you go along. Potlatch doesn't "block" the user by throwing up modal dialogs every time something, that's contrary to its design - for example, untagged ways are very strongly favoured by some people (see wiki passim). The aim is to make the user aware of what they're doing and how to fix it, but allow them to do differently if they want to.

Until then, remember these are human beings doing the editing, and they can be contacted! You can use the site messaging system if you see someone making the same mistake repeatedly. OSM's a friendly community: people are generally receptive to suggestions if phrased nicely!

Final note, it really really helps if you can use trac for bug-reporting; having to monitor the diaries, diary comments, talk@, dev@, the forum, the national mailing lists, the wiki, IRC, my personal e-mail, and doubtless some other channels I've forgotten, gets really wearing... if it's in the same place then things are less likely to get forgotten. Trac's also much more efficient for the developer (you can assign bugs as duplicates, for example) so means I can spend less time discussing and more time coding. :)

cheers
Richard

Still, lovely part of the world to explore...! (The Lleyn, that is, not Croydon.) And you might be able to trace the roads from NPE, perhaps?