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by matkoniecz 1479 days ago
> The harder you make it for them to edit, the less volunteers you’ll get.

And that is why dedicated area type (rather than representing areas with lines or special relations[0]) could help new mappers and new users of data.

There would be very significant transition costs, but maybe it would be overall beneficial.

It is possible to have objects that are both area and line at once. Or area according to one tool/map/edtor and line according to another.

And many multipolygon relations are in inconsistent state and require manual fixup.

Also, complexity of entire area baggage makes explaining things to newbies more complex. You can either try to hide complexity (used by iD in-browser-editor) leaving people hopelessly confused when things are getting complex or present full complexity (JOSM) causing people to be overwhelmed.

See https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Area#Tags_implying_area_... for a start of a complexity fractal.

[0] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Area
1 comments
pramsey 1479 days ago
1000 times yes! I am a spatial data expert but only a some-time OSM editor and I still have yet to figure out how to create a polygonal feature more complex than a single building footprint. The theoretical advantage of a unified topology model of just nodes/edges where polygons and lines share core geometry is nullified by cultural rules that say "don't do that" to editors (I had a bunch of parks that shared a boundary with a road reverted with nasty notes). The current setup is not just hard for processors, it's hard for non-experts to understand and therefore a higher barrier than a simple polygon model would be.
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matkoniecz 1479 days ago
> how to create a polygonal feature more complex than a single building footprint

In ID (default editor) you can mark area and area inside or select two disjointed areas and press right click on the and select "Merge". Or press "c" while selecting areas for combining.

In JOSM there is equivalent "create multipolygon" (or "update multipolygon")

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Relation:multipolygon#Ho...

> parks that shared a boundary with a road

FYI, that is because highway=* road line represents centerline of carriageway - and unless park somehow ends in the middle of road and includes half of its surface it will be not correct.

It also makes future editing quite nasty.

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