Andy, This is a good question. I'd hoped to write the blog post about the feature before it went live, but it didn't happen. I did end up writing it, and in my blog post, I presented several use case scenarios for it:
https://blog.openstreetmap.org/2014/11/02/introducing-changeset-discussions/ As for utility vs PMs, I'd argue that a majority of the time when communicating to someone about something OSM DB related, this should be the preferred method. You can think of this as something akin to the Discussion page on a wiki. If you compliment someone on their work, make it public. If you have a question, make it public, etc. I'd say the need for PMs in OSM should be greatly diminished with the introduction of this feature. - Serge _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
