Recurring non-permanent information boards

urk · April 17, 2026, 4:17pm

Langwarder Groden is a nature trail with many information boards. A few of these are particularly vulnerable to flooding during the winter months and are therefore regularly removed from October 15th to April 15th. This information isn’t posted on-site but only appears in a note on the local handout map for the trail. The trail itself, however, is open year-round. For half a year, these panels are not on-site, making it tempting to delete them or at least mark them with the prefix “removed:” (as I did before reading the map note). At the latest, when Street Complete starts checking whether the board is still there, other mappers might also fall into this trap.

In previous posts on the topic of “permanent,” I found the suggestion to use “opening_hours” for this. I find this inappropriate because it’s not about accessibility, but about the mere fact of existence.

My approach is to set “seasonal=Apr 15 - Oct 15” for this purpose. It’s rarely rendered correctly, but in my opinion, it’s better than “opening_hours” (which is also periodically checked by SC and then very likely changed incorrectly).

Is “seasonal” the appropriate key in this case?

Are there other, better tags?

Fizzie-DWG · April 17, 2026, 10:58pm

I would say so, yes, together with a description saying that the boards are removed over winter.

Mateusz_Konieczny · April 18, 2026, 10:15am

BTW, seasonal with values other than no will stop CheckExistence quest in StreetComplete

github.com/streetcomplete/StreetComplete

app/src/androidMain/kotlin/de/westnordost/streetcomplete/quests/existence/CheckExistence.kt

4bf81ba9a


      
                )
                and (${lastChecked(10.0)})
              ) or (
                (
                  traffic_calming ~ bump|mini_bumps|hump|cushion|rumble_strip|dip|double_dip
                  or traffic_calming = table and !highway and !crossing
                )
                and (${lastChecked(14.0)})
              ))
              and access !~ no|private
              and (!seasonal or seasonal = no)
              and (!intermittent or intermittent = no)
              and (!permanent or permanent = yes)
          """.toElementFilterExpression() }
          // - traffic_calming = table is often used as a property of a crossing: we don't want the app
          //    to delete the crossing if the table is not there anymore, so exclude that
          // - postboxes are in 4 years category so that postbox collection times is asked instead more often
          // - bicycle parkings, motorcycle parkings have capacity quests asked every
          //    few years already, so if it's gone now, it will be noticed that way.
          //    But some users disable this quests as spammy or boring or unimportant,
          //    so asking about this anyway would be a good idea.

Maybe it also should stop board name quest and board type quest (which IIRC offer to delete nonexisting objects)

urk · April 18, 2026, 11:10am

So there’s nothing wrong with entering a specific date reference instead of the values documented in the wiki (no, yes, common terms for seasons), if applicable?

Fizzie-DWG · April 18, 2026, 11:36am

The “problem” with that is does it mean that it’s there Apr - Oct, or not there for that time?

urk · April 18, 2026, 11:57am

It is my interpretation of seasonal=(from - to) that the object is on-site for the mentioned period. I think the meaning is the same as seasonal=summer: the respective object is not there if not summer.

Would it be more clear using

seasonal:conditional= yes @ (Apr - Oct)

? - don’t think so.

Mateusz_Konieczny · April 18, 2026, 12:28pm

Yes, it would be more clear

I seen seasonal used in both ways

urk · April 20, 2026, 8:05am

After some thought: “seasonal” in itself seems to me a something similar term to “conditional”. “:conditional” describes a limited validity of a specific property (tag), “seasonal” stands for the fact the whole object at all is generally present – just not always on-site. Therefore I would refrain from using seasonal:conditional.