Key:created_by
 changeset key: created_by
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| Description |
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| The editor or script that created the changeset. |
| Group: changeset |
| Used on: |
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| Status on changesets: |
| de facto |
This tag is used to describe the computer program (editor or script) which made the changes', similar to a 
user agent in the HTTP headers. It is automatically added by editors to a saved changeset, see also a list of other changeset tags Changeset#Tags on changesets / Proposed features/changeset tags. It was also automatically added by editors to individual elements during beginning of OSM, see #History.
As entity key
| created_by
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| Description |
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The editor or script that created the changeset, node, way or relation. Used before 2009, now only on changesets. 
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| Group: annotations |
| Used on these elements |
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| Status: discardable |
| Tools for this tag |
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It should no longer be added to individual elements, i.e. nodes, ways, or relations. Like other discardable tags, it is automatically removed by many editors. A chronological chart of the of created_by item amounts can be found here.
History
Prior to version 0.6 of the API the created_by=* tag was applied to individual objects (nodes, ways and relations and even segments in earlier protocol versions). However, with the introduction of changesets to provide non-geographic "meta data" it makes more sense for the created_by tag to be recorded there. The number of nodes, ways or relations that still have a created_by tag is slowly decreasing, since this key is silently dropped by OSM editors like JOSM, iD, Potlatch, Potlatch2 when objects get modified.
Guidance
Guidance to users
- You should not edit this value to record your own name. Your user name will be recorded anyway (and in addition) automatically on upload.
- You should not remove the created_by tag on objects you are not otherwise modifying. If we wanted to remove them in bulk we'd do it some other way.
- You may remove the created_by tag on nodes/ways/relations that you are modifying in a changeset anyway. This is what JOSM, iD, Potlatch, Potlatch2 and some other editors do automatically.
- You may use the created_by tag as an indicator for objects that have not been edited for a long time and could use a review.[1]
Guidance to software developers
The guidance to users plus:
- You should record a created_by tag on a changeset when saving changes
- The created_by tag may contain a revision number, version number or similar. This helps people track down problems if a version of your editor/script has a bug in it.
- Alternatively, potlatch2 splits information into created_by, version and build tags.
- You should not add or update the created_by tag on nodes/ways/relations.
- You can remove it silently on edited elements and hide this tag from mappers – it is widely accepted as discardable
- For translation QA : please add the 'language' version (like: de,en,es,it,hu)
Changeset search
The data from key created_by=* is used as a basis to filter changesets according to the editor software used. For example, OSMCha offers such an option (under Filter >> Editor).