The key to IODb's usefulness is collaboration: by using the stored offsets, you indirectly interact with other mappers to share the work.
Direct interaction was made possible with the GeoChat JOSM plugin. You see somebody having the same area open in JOSM — you say hi. Also helps avoid conflicts.
The protocol and the server are very simple (and hosted on OSM dev instance), I'm suprised it still works. Maybe somebody should remake it for modern age and mobile editors...
How much do you like mapping? Do you map every day? Do you WANT to map every day?
Inspired by other streak-tracking tools, from Pascal's HDYC to github, I have made a simple game: submit a changeset every day, and gain points. A bonus point if you do the task.
http://streak.osmz.ru/
The healthy thing would be to reach several hundred points and drop this. Please make breaks in your mapping! Tomorrow I'll show you how I did it.