I propose, to remove the tagging of name_1 and alt_name_1 from the wiki. Most mappers reject tagging with _x suffixes and it makes no sense to have them in the wiki as a scheme for good mapping.
[I also started a discussion in the wiki: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Names#Removing_Tags_name_1_and_alt_name_1_from_wiki] **better use diverse name-tags** Mappers should be motivated to use semantic more rich name-tags like loc_name, old_name, short_name and so on. If theere is a name that does not fit in this scheme, alt_name can be used. If there are multiple names that does not fit, alt_name can be used with semicolons. **semicolons instead of _1 suffixes** Semicolons for multiple values have already been established even though some mappers don't like them. Precise tags should always be preferred (like the mentioned diverse name-tags), but we should not use _1 suffixed tags instead of semicolons. Their only advantage is the better legibility for human eyes, thats a reason why some people may favour them over the semicolon. But for mechanical computation, it is easier to regex the semicolon than crawling through all possible existing suffixed tags. Furthermore the semicolon is already established and has been accepted for such special cases with multiple values. **iD-Editor problem** unfortunately, the iD-editor is creating such prefixed tags and is training newbies to use them as a good tagging practice. When you use the raw-tag-editor and tries to add an already existing tag, iD does not throw any error or information but adds the tag with a suffixed number like _1 or higher. It suggests to the unexperienced mapper, that this is a usable method to add multiple values, although this suffixing is only made to prevent the user of deleting data. We still couldn't convince the developer, that this suffixing method leads new mappers to bad practice (https://github.com/openstreetmap/iD/issues/2896). **how the name_1 and alt_name_1 came to the wiki-heaven** But actually, my intention was to propose the removing or marking of name_1 and alt_name_1 tags in the wiki (the iD problem should be discussed in a new topic). Inititally, the alt_name_1 tag has been added by a Nominatim developer in Nov'14. The origin for this decision can be found in this discussion on talk (https://www.mail-archive.com/talk%40openstreetmap.org/msg50648.html) that took place in Sept'14. There, a member of the HOT team described a problem, that their manual massedit caused the tags alt_name:2 and alt_name_2. Now he wants to have a mechanical edit to change all alt_name:2 to alt_name_2, preferably worldwide. That also caused a readable discussion about the sense of suffixed tags. But already before starting that discussion, the author asked the nominatim team for adding the alt_name_x tags to the nominatim search. And the Nominatim developer did so and consequently added it two month later to the wiki. Today there are over 5500 alt_name_1 tags. But only a few of them outside of the mentioned HOT-area in western africa. Nearly half of them, are NOT combinated with alt_name! The tag name_1 was not proposed in any way, this one has only been added in Aug'15 because it exists in the database. By comment "Document de-facto name_N variant". That is true, currently there are about 800.000 tags with name_1. But when you look on the taginfo map, or the combinations, you can see that almost each of them results from the Tiger-Import (https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/name_1#map, https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/name_1#combinations). That tagging-scheme should not be proposed in the wiki for using. It even makes less sense to have alt_name_1 AND name_1 because they do not differ in any way. **tl;dr** I propose removing the name_1 and alt_name_1 from the Map Features or rather marking them and to explain that and why they should not be used. And after that we can convince iD Editor to stop creating them automatically :) german readers can also take a look into this discussion in forum: http://forum.openstreetmap.org/viewtopic.php?id=53223
0x3CBE432B.asc
Description: application/pgp-keys
_______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
