Disabling anonymous edits
From OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap allows anyone to create an account and edit the map. You can choose any username you like - let's say "Mapper32". No-one need find out who you really are!
Originally, you could edit completely anonymously. In other words, your changes would not even be attributed as "Mapper32".
Unfortunately, this meant that anonymous mappers - usually accidentally - could delete other people's hard work, and it was impossible for anyone to contact them. If experienced OpenStreetMap users had the chance to contact such users, via the site's own message system, then they could help them to avoid such mistakes, reducing the chances of work being deleted.
As of November 2007, this has changed. You are no longer permitted to use the online editor anonymously. Before using it, you have to have clicked "Make my edits public" (on the user settings page).
So how do I make my edits public?
Log into the main site as usual, then click on your username at the top right of the screen. Click "my settings", and scroll down. At the bottom of the page, click "Make my edits public".
What about my privacy?
For now, you can use JOSM or Merkaartor instead of Potlatch if you don't want your edits to be attributed to a screen name.
Your e-mail address will still never be made public. It's only your mapping username that is associated with changes to the map. If you don't want anyone to find out who Mapper32 really is, they won't.
Your username is also never associated with your GPS tracks, unless you expressly click "public" for each track. This ensures that people can't find out where you live.
The change brings us more into line with successful communities like Wikipedia. If you have an account at Wikipedia, your username is always described in the history of pages you edit, and people can send you messages. Even if you don't have an account, your IP address (your computer's unique identifier on the Internet) is marked, which people can use to send you messages via Wikipedia.
What does this affect?
To begin with, this change only affects Potlatch, the online editor. However, as there has been widespread support for the change throughout the OpenStreetMap community, it is quite likely that it will apply to all other edits (e.g. using JOSM) in time.
If you want to read up more about the debate concerning this, it has been extensively discussed on the mailing lists, most recently on the 'talk' list in October 2007.
