Yes. As much as all this "you can use any tags you want" creates an environment open for innovation, it creates a horrible mess when you use it without coordination and on existing features. Also, no-one seems to ask a question "How it that problem solved in other maps?" when proposing tags or other solutions. No need to re-invent the wheel. Look how others do it and you may find an elegant or just practical solution.
Some people in Poland (the ones who never browse community forums) maniacally tag every dirt road as highway=track, even if it should be residential+unpaved (Like short named streets at suburbs) Another prevalent thing is tagging every place such as out-patient clinic as amenity=hospital. Lack of discipline is very annoying because correcting these is a Sisyphean task. Also, I think that editor presets makers should really implement *all* approved tags (barring some specialized stuff like OSM-3D, indoor mapping etc) because not featuring a tag makes some people tag things not exactly correctly, just to map it. Michał On Thu, Jan 15, 2015 at 5:08 PM, Kotya Karapetyan <kotya.li...@gmail.com> wrote: > Now that the water_tap proposal discussion is over, I'd like to join > this important discussion. > > My opinion: Since OSM is a *map*, we should *map* things. That means, > we should tag what actually exists on the planet, not what is implied. > Sometimes things are tagged in real life. For example, motorways are > marked with special traffic signs, therefore we can tag a road as > motorway. In other cases, we should use common sense to call the > things by their names. I am usually asking myself: How would I explain > to a tourist how to find his way? I will use something like "Pass by > ..." or "You will see ...". This "..." is then the name (hence tag) to > be used. > > A good example of the contrary is amenity=drinking_water. Though the > original intention is clear, I believe the solution is suboptimal: a > tourist wouldn't know what to search for (since it is not drinking > water but rather its source that is actually visible in a given > place). A mapper may also have hard times identifying whether a > specific water source provides potable water or not. > > So, my answer would be we should map what the things *appear to be*. > Taking the example of Japanese roads, I would also add "with > reasonably common knowledge". It does leave some space for > uncertainty, but this uncertainty is also present in real life, so it > can appear in OSM as well. > > > Warin's question also identifies a problem I'd like to discuss. There > seem to be no "formal" agreements on how to create OSM. Things are > documented in the wiki, which is subject to uncontrolled changes and > no review and which is not always read by the mappers. Data is then > used by software development companies in the way they find > reasonable, without any foundation for consistency. It may be cultural > but I am looking for some sort of more robust, maybe even enforced, > agreements. They may be subject to changes, but their mere existence > would help. What do you think? > > > Cheers, > Kotya > > > > > On Wed, Jan 14, 2015 at 1:28 AM, Warin <61sundow...@gmail.com> wrote: >> This comes from the tap discussion but has implications elsewhere. >> >> What is the basic philosophy of OSM tagging at the top level? >> >> Are 'we' tagging for >> >> What things are? eg highways >> >> OR >> >> What things are used for? eg amenity >> >> ---------------------------- >> Explanation? By example; >> >> Highways are used for transport so would be better tagged as >> transport=motorway, sub tags for vehicles etc. >> >> OR >> >> amenity=drinking_water would be better tagged as water=blubber >> >> -------------------------- >> Is there an FAQ on this? Or has this never been documented/though of? >> Have fun with this :) >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Tagging mailing list >> Tagging@openstreetmap.org >> https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging > > _______________________________________________ > Tagging mailing list > Tagging@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
