Thank you for your very prompt answers.
However the nature of my question is more philosophical:
Why is it not available? Will it become available?

dcp

Thanks und Danke for /für Info.
Will try new JOSM

I have never used Lanssat so your blog spurned a spark of interest in me.
I had a look in JOSM and found it to be of very low resolution and I guess
using it for OSM will mean a lot of inaccuracies i.e. up +/- a few hundred meters but it some areas of the world that could be very useful indeed. I, too, am mapping in Germany and have had to modify to forest boundaries of the forest mapped using Landsat. So be prepared to go out and check you OSM entries with a GPS logger.
Anyway just have fun!

I just put a layer tag with -1 on the ditch/stream.
i.e. layer=-1
and it seems to do the job for most renderers.

Does anybody know what the wireframe mode is good for?

I, too recommend you graduate to JOSM. It is, once you get the hang of it, far easier to use. Of course the learn curve is somewhat higher but you can always ask this wonderful community if you require advice or help: It has always responded to my woes just as it is doing for you.
The advice is: Use JOSM

JOSM 3376
Based on your combined information I depressed F12 and changed the connection from
OSM-Server URL (2nd line with a check box)
to
Standard OSM-Server-URL (with a predefined path)
and the proxy error message problem was solved.
Thanks for your support chaps.
As far as the CD\ DOS-command is concerned it just takes me to the root directory (Very old DOS which I still work in sometimes because Windows
is not always the quickest way of moving around the drives, directories, etc.
Bye

Of the 10 user shown to be living within 1000 meters of my home only two (including myself) are continally contributing to OSM.
4 of the rest have just registered without contributing anything
1 stop in 2008
3 have made just 1-2 contributions in 2009.
With such just 10 users it would be incorrect to call this a reliable statistic of the ratio of active to inactive users, but I do think that the OSM statistics should not include users that have contributed nothing or very little.
I doubt that there are more than about 15000 active contributers to OSM but I could be wrong.

The nice thing about OSM is that each mapper can do:
a. What he wants to do (like hiking ways, motorways, bridleways, MTB routes, etc.)
b. in the manner he/she is best at.
I personaly am a hiker so I specialize in tracks and paths with the associated POIs. Now a lot of forest areas have been entered by other mappers probably using aerial imagery and believe me it is often very wrong. Landuse boundaries, POIs, streams, ditches, etc. are navigational aids to hikers (all who have used Ordinance Survey Maps know that) and this information can only be gathered in the field itself.
Our GPS-gear is only accurate to +/- 3 meters but you can overcome that if you download all the GPS-Tracks to JOSM and then interpolate the trend.
Many main roads where I do my mapping have abrupt turns (i.e. not smooth bends).
This could also be a result of aerial imagery.
Think about it like this: Surveyers are in the field gathering data. The get paid for it; we do it for fun. (The second golden rule of OSM: HAVE FUN!)

Gehe zu
osm.wiki/DE:Relation:multipolygon

Hi,Gerard.
First welcome to the OSM community. I bought my GPS-gear 2 years ago and I too was very uncertain of its accuracy (even when it said +/- 3meters). It took me a very long time before I became confident that my plots were good enough to match with others. I suppose the accuracy may be dependant on the GPS-Receiver one buys: I just don't know!
What I did was to map streets many times, backwards and forewards. My plots were hardly ever exactly over oneanother, but you do get a feeling for these inaccuracies. You are probably using Potlach which everyone starts with. Try to graduate to JOSM and after you have got use to it then download the user tracks with the OSM-map data. You will then see how inaccurate the others are compared with yourself. Then you don't worry about it anymore
dcp

Thank you both for the answers. Unfortunately none helped.
The JOSM Relation Editor has been newly written. It looks really good but I could not find any instructions to use it. wieland's link is an explanation of the now redundant JOSM Relation Editor.
As I cannot figure the new editors features out I am afraid of using it in case I destroy other peoples work.

Delete it

I have used JOSM now for about 16 months. It has never crashed on me yet!!!
What I do is I upload my data after finishing a logical section. I just won't
take the risk any more that something untoward may happen.
I an just a pessimist I suppose and plan for the worst case and it cannot get
worse than losing 3 hours of work. My sympathies lie with you demi
dcp

I have been using JOSM since I started as newbie and I received a lot of help from OSM Gurus before I was comfortable applying my newly won knowledge. I cannot find fault with it. I will agree that the learning curve is a little high but once you get the hang of it you'll never return to Potlach.

I think JohnSmith is referring to the duplicate function in JOSM; I too don't know of a "duplicate relation" function in JOSM.
Is there one in Potlach.

Mittels JOSM-Plugin Measurement geht es ganz good

This is very good work. Does it update the complete planet or is it restricted in some way

I have an old Nokia (without a tracker) so I went along to the local shop for advice on updating my hardware. The guy said: "Don't update; your model is very reliable, the modern ones are flimsy in comparison".
So off I went and bought a Garmin GPSmap 60CSx (recommended by OSM) as a dedicated tracker. Luckily it was the right decision.

Hello POHB,
you have just replied to one of my help request so this is my revenge.
As I said I am a newbie and I purchase my Garmin about a month ago.
I had problems which I have ironed out. It was me of course but the handbook
didn't help.
Another thing I found out was the same as what you are mentioning.
I was storing the track data to the SD-Card. Apparently when you store to the
SD-Card the DateTimeStamp (DTS) is removed and Potlach cannot handle that.
Anyway the workaround was easy: Don't store to the SD-Card which of course reduces the functionality of the Garmin. Up to now I have never exeeded 6% storage anyway.
Bye
dcp in Germany

I love it. It should be the OSM motto

dcp