I don’t understand this “better documented” advantage of destination= over the “poorly documented” exit_to. If there is a problem with the documentation, we can fix the documentation. If people are using exit_to inconsistently, then THAT is the problem. It might be caused by poor documentation, but THAT is the problem. It’s a much harder problem to solve, so we really need to know if it’s a problem. If it is, then an algorithmic edit is going to have to take that into account.

For the latest example, the way branching left would get destination=I-80;Cheyenne and the way branching right would get destination=I-215;Belt Route because that’s what the sign says. Using exit_to, there is no way to render the sign on the left because you’re not exiting; you’re staying on the same highway. The ref=128 node would say exit_to=I-215;Belt Route.

I’d say that the most important thing to render here is that you have a four lane highway splitting into two two-lane highways. That’s different from a three-lane highway splitting into two two-lane highways, because the middle lane gets to choose whether they exit or not.

The link anchored with “junction node” is a link to a way, not a node. I think you meant to link here: https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/352894978

@JohnDoe23 (although I’m not enthusiastic about responding to anonymous people), it sounds like you’re saying that everything that I’ve been putting on exit_to= on the motorway_junction should be moved without modification to destination= on the motorway_link.

I don’t understand the problem that is solved by destination=. Surely that is something that can be automatically discerned by examining the network to see what roads are reachable. Should I put roads there? Should I put cities there? How big a city? How far?

exit_to, on the other hand, is a recording of what the exit sign says, in conjunction with ref= which is the exit number. This allows a navigation program to say “Take exit 37 to NY-32;Lake Placid;Keene”. Or if there is no exit number, just “Take the exit to NY-32;Lake Placid;Keene”. Or if they want to be terse, then “Take exit 37”.

I’ve been working on St. Lawrence County, but I’m also working on NY Rivers, so I’m not making day-by-day progress.

Don't be absurd. If it's visible on an aerial photo that is available on the Internet, it's already published. Marking it in OSM doesn't put anybody at risk who isn't already at risk.

I don't know the voltage on the National Grid powerlines.
There seems to be no landuse=agricultural tag, so I tagged the farmland as landuse=farmland.
Landuse seems like it ought to be made up out of multipolygons.

It's too bad that OSM doesn't have actual layers. Landuse is a 'onto' relationship. Every bit of land has a use, even if the use is "natural".

Ain't gonna fight NE2 on this one. Feel free to argue with him if you want.
I'm not going to worry about name abbreviations. We need a bot to fix them; JOSM knows how to complain; damnit, a robot can fix them, then.
Pedestrian crossings? Done!
Baseball diamonds? Done!
Parking aisles? Done! (well, mostly).

Um, bullying is done when someone with more power threatens to hurt someone with less power. Since the people running OSM are using their power to threaten to delete people's contributions, it seems that it is THEY who are bulling us, not vice-versa.

Take your bullying bullshit and shove it where it will do the most good.

It's just a tool. It would be unfortunate if Microsoft chose to withdraw it. It would also be unfortunate if an Open Source tool on which many relied stopped working. It's less likely than Microsoft withdrawing the tool, but it's certainly possible. Open Source Software is better, but it is not perfect.

Where is the plugin?

I tag disused railways as railway=disused if the rails are still there. Otherwise I tag all historic railway routes, even if now a road, as railway=abandoned. If the roadway follows the railway exactly, no need for a separate way. I also tag the location of an old bridge if there remains any evidence of it with bridge=abandoned.

If it's a standard gauge railroad which simply doesn't exist anymore, I tag it railway=abandoned. If it was a trolley, I add railway:historic=light_rail. If it was narrow gauge, I add gauge=narrow if I don't know the gauge, or gauge=3feet or gauge=2feet or gauge=1m as appropriate.

It's the same way in the US. There's a town in my state called "Beaver River" which still, to this day, can only be reached by the railroad.

"miniSD"? ITYM "microSD". Mini was never very popular. Only device I have that uses one is the Nokia n810. Designers seem to have gone straight to the microSD aka transflash format.

The cab drivers, too??

Yes, point out that data released to OSM isn't going to a proprietary company that's going to profit from restricting distribution, but instead to a non-profit that wants to help locals have better maps. you know, taxpayers, citizens.

I'm doubly confused. The entirety of I-81 and I-88 in New York State has ref="I 81" or "I 88" (strictly speaking, there are a few semicolon-separated pairs in there, but you know what I mean). Shouldn't they show up in your map as completed?

i'm confused. I already fixed up all of NY's Interstates. Now I have to go thru them all againn, I guess, and add ref tags, sigh.

technically speaking, aren't all rivers below ground level? The ones which aren't would be impoundments behind a dam, and thus a lake.