When we run mapping parties as part of the HOT work, we see lots and lots of newcomers mapping for the first time. Increasingly we’re getting them using iD which is very easy for them to get started with.

One little issue I noticed in sessions is that for HOT we ask people to use very specific changeset comments - essentially to “tag” the changesets as belonging to a particular labelled task. It was very easy for people to spend half an hour mapping and after half an hour have no memory of what we said about copying-and-pasting a specific comment. Workflow problem!

Now, the team who create the iD editor kindly added my feature request which means that the HOT Tasking Manager can now “pre-fill” the changeset comment in the iD editor. So no need to copy and paste, it should be there when you click through from the Tasking Manager.

What does this mean? It means that in future, HOT mappers using iD will not need any reminding about what to put in the comment box! Easier mapping, easier training, more consistent changeset comments.

Thanks everyone who helped put this through.

(P.S. There is one little technical niggle to resolve - if the comment contains an equals sign then the pre-fill doesn’t work on firefox. Hopefully sorted soon.)