I agree that population is not necessarily the only factor but, in practice, population correlates closely with the services and facilities available in a location which is effectively the "relative importance", isn't it?
I presume you are considering putting bigger dots and bigger writing on the map for small settlements in isolated areas. Map renderers can do that for themselves if they wish. It is more important for OSM to show on-the-ground truth. If a small settlement has few services, then showing it as a town is misleading. Windorah Qld and Ivanhoe NSW are both currently shown as "town" in OSM but neither has more than rudimentary health service (if any), a hotel, small primary school and service station. I couldn't buy a coffee in either place last time I visited. I don't think either place had even a small supermarket or convenience store. Unlikely to find a doctor. Probably wouldn't find a car mechanic, couldn't buy a new tyre if you needed one. The locals all travel a couple of hundred kilometres for shopping, health care etc. I find it very misleading to label these places as towns, just because they are the largest settlements in their respective vicinities. The towns are the places where people go to get the goods and services they need. On Wed, 27 Sep 2023, at 2:18 PM, Graeme Fitzpatrick wrote: > Have just raised this for discussion on both the Forum & Discord, so > also throwing it out here. > > https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Australian_Tagging_Guidelines#Tagging_towns_by_relative_importance%2C_not_just_population_size > > Any thoughts or comments welcome, in any place! > > Thanks > > Graeme > _______________________________________________ > Talk-au mailing list > Talk-au@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-au _______________________________________________ Talk-au mailing list Talk-au@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk-au
