Nodes or POIs?

General talk
1

Hi everyone,

I am doing first steps in map editing and have a question.

I am going to add places where you can find water to existed backpacking trail. What is better to use for this purpose, map nodes or POIs? Same question - how better mark places for tent?

More generally, when shoud I use nodes and when POIs?

Thanks,
Borys

2

What editor are you using? I never heart of POIs in OSM.

3

POI (Point of interest) is not a technical feature in editors.

In editors you have nodes (points) which you mark with a suitable feature.
For example with: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:drinking_water

4

As you can see from the above link for drinking_water this is mapped as a node only (not an area), so it’s what you call a POI.

For tent sites please see:- https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:tourism%3Dcamp_site note that the tag drinking_water=yes/no can be added to a campsite.

5

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Points_of_interest

Some popular OSM mobile apps have editing capabilities limited by adding POIs. My hiking buddy used POIs to add sources of water by OsmAnd, but I have doubts that it’s a good idea, that’s why I wrote this post.

6

Now I see. So if I add a POI in OsmAnd, I can open this place in normal editor and see it as a node with some additional tags, yes?

7

Hi bormal, Yes, just add the tags as you have done with the iD editor, drinking_water=yes and it should be OK.

By the way, I wouldn’t join the drinking_water=yes, natural=spring node to the footpath node. That is unless you do actually walk through the spring. Placing it on one side or the other of the path would more precisely guide the water seeker, especially its difficult to find.