Is it ok to upload and delete data for learning and teaching

General talk
1

Uploading data and deleting after sometime. Sometimes commenting in changeset like xyz training, “test upload” but deletes objects, some with no comment but added ways and deleted nodes. sometimes mentioning something but that doesn’t say about the delete.

What types of problems can we face for uploading data to map server for training purpose?
I found these:

  • It loads the server unnecessarily
  • Someone can download the data for offline purpose and use it for months while the data has already been deleted
  • someone can update the data and add new information but whole thing is going to be deleted
  • we would get a mess in changeset history
  • statistical data wouldn’t be correct. Tolerance would be big.
  • you can mistakenly upload wrong data and later forget to delete
  • ?

I found these benefits with questions:

  • we can teach others [Do I really need to upload?]
  • we can learn [Is this the best method? I don’t know really, I’m still learning and want more. But am I sure that I’m teaching others the correct method, while my own data has errors and mistakes?]
2

No, most definitely not. Data uploaded to OSM is immediately live data to the world. Thus uploaded fiction would immediately corrupt any maps compiled with that data.

You can save test or personal data to your PC or any offline storage device without uploading it to the OSM database. This is easily done via JOSM which I see you use. But you must still be very careful not to inadvertently upload.

Please see :- https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Sandbox_for_editing for other ways to test data. One of which is OpenFiction :- https://opengeofiction.net/#map=5/55.863/52.954 where you can add to an entirely fictional map to your heart’s content.