Is the problem that the changes he's making outright wrong? I honestly don't see a problem with bulk fixing names and typos en masse without running it past the world. How many 7-Eleven locations get added misspelled as 711, 7-11, 7/11, etc? On Jun 10, 2014 8:49 PM, "SomeoneElse" <li...@mail.atownsend.org.uk> wrote:
> An OSM user seems to be on a mission to replace a large number of the low > usage tags in OSM - mostly in Europe, but also elsewhere: > > http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Markus59/history > (hit "load more" a few times and you'll see the extent of it). > > Let's leave aside for now the issue that in some cases tags are being > replaced with others that simply do not mean the same thing: > > http://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/22839601 > (that example has been reverted; I'm sure that other similar ones will > have been too) > > I'm talking here about less problematical changes - things like this: > > http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/243539765/history > (car_repair=MOTs to car_repair=MOT) > > Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that the latter is the "more > correct" (or at least more common in OSM); what then is the problem with > changing it automatically? > > > Well: > > 1) People may well be expecting the previous form in OSM data that they're > using to make maps with. Whether it's "right" or "wrong" is irrelevant; if > data no longer appears in selections from extracts of OSM data it looks > like it's been deleted (this is similar to what happened with the > "substation/sub_station" JOSM farce and the standard map stylesheet - data > disappeared from maps for no good reason). > > 2) Mappers creating the "incorrect" data will continue to do so until > they're told otherwise. > > 3) There's an explicit policy designed to prevent edits being done in this > way: > > http://wiki.osm.org/wiki/Mechanical_Edit_Policy > > precisely to avoid problems (1) and (2). > > > So does this mean that tags in OSM can never change? Of course not - > mappers who are using "rare" tags to tag exactly the same thing as a more > common tag simply don't know that the more common tag exists (I've done > exactly that myself with "outside_seating" and "barrier=horse_stile"). If > data consumers know that tag X is to be replaced with tag Y, they know to > change what they extract. Someone who suggests, as per the Mechanical Edit > Policy, that car_repair=MOT and car_repair=MOTs be united in one tag (or > other similar change) is not going to be met with any resistance - provided > that data consumers have fair warning, of course. > > > I've previously tried to contact the user concerned, but I think that it's > fair to say that communication did not occur. They tried to instruct me in > the meaning of the English word "cobblers" based on their understanding > from a German web-based dictionary; I ended up quoting Brewer's back at > them. More seriously, my suggestion that there should be discussion before > worldwide tag edits and that the particular changes that I'd contacted them > about were just plain invalid fell on deaf ears. > > > Cheers, > > Andy > > > _______________________________________________ > talk mailing list > talk@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk >
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