Hi, On 24.12.2017 21:03, Colin Smale wrote: > The real challenge here is not for the coders, but a perennial challenge > for the OSM community. How do we get to such a consensus about tagging > patterns, that we can actually say "this is correct" and "this is wrong > enough to warrant correction" without upsetting a large number of > people?
Even upsetting a *small* number of people could be considered a problem. If you look at this from the much-touted diversity perspective, why should German mappers who are a majority by numbers, dictate to a small group of mappers in Peru which tags they should be using? Why should men who are a majority by numbers, decide which tags women should be using? Etc. Some decisions are necessary for the project to function, and hence taking them is important, even if the mechanisms by which they are taken may be flawed, and suppress minorities. But we should be careful about applying our necessarily flawed decision making mechanisms to *too many* aspects of mapping; every time you narrow down the envelope of "acceptable" tagging, you could be using your superior numbers power to put someone somewhere at a disadvantage or deprive them of a voice. People sometimes say that every decision not taken contributes to a vacuum that decreases the quality of mapping; but it is equally valid to say that every decision not taken contributes to the freedom to map what you want, how you want it. As always, the truth is somewhere in between. Bye Frederik -- Frederik Ramm ## eMail frede...@remote.org ## N49°00'09" E008°23'33" _______________________________________________ talk mailing list talk@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk
