<div dir="ltr">It is a difficult choice, I agree. In my own tagging I use shop=hardware if tools and fasteners are the main items sold. A doityourself shop, like Home Depot, also sells these things but has a wide variety of building or construction materials that are the main items being sold. Judging which category less well known shops fall into is often only a guess.<div><br></div><div>When I was younger Home Depot and other large shops like it didn't exist. There were only "hardware stores" where one could buy tools,nuts, bolts, locks, and assorted kitchen and bath furnishings. For anything beyond that one had to go to a building supply store. Now we are in the era of superstores and distinctions have gotten fuzzy. Maybe providing guidance in the Wiki about how to tag certain well known chains would be useful? For example, I would tag Ace Hardware as a shop=hardware while Lowes and Home Depot would get the shop=doityourself tag.</div><div><br></div><div>This is not the answer you're looking for but I'm not sure there is one correct answer to this issue.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div>Dave</div></div><div id="DDB4FAA8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2"><table style="border-top:1px solid #aaabb6;margin-top:30px">
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</table><a href="#DDB4FAA8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2" width="1" height="1"></a></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Feb 9, 2016 at 6:39 AM, Matthijs Melissen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:info@matthijsmelissen.nl" target="_blank">info@matthijsmelissen.nl</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Hi all,<br>
<br>
We currently have separate tags for shop=doityourself (37 857<br>
instances) and shop=hardware (24 674 instances).<br>
<br>
The OSM wiki gives the following definitions:<br>
<br>
Do-it-yourself:<br>
| Do-It-Yourself-stores (DIY for short) are similar to hardware stores, except<br>
| they are generally larger and stock a wider range of products.<br>
| Products sold may include hand tools, power tools, self-assembly furniture,<br>
| decorating products, bathroom and kitchen furniture and fittings, garden<br>
| furniture, electrical goods, fencing, flooring, and more.<br>
<br>
Hardware:<br>
| A hardware store, sometimes known as an ironmongers shop in the UK, is<br>
| where you can buy screws and bolts, nails, hooks and other metal materials as<br>
| well as metal tools.<br>
| A hardware shop will often stock a wide range of products which can include<br>
| building, electrical, plumbing supplies, garden tools, power tools,<br>
kitchenware,<br>
| homeware, locks, keys, and a key-cutting. Where these types of product/service<br>
| are supplied in isolation, a different tag may be more appropriate.<br>
<br>
As you can see, these definitions are quite similar. Not surprisingly,<br>
taggers have problems with these definitions too. Some examples<br>
* Home Depot in the US is tagged home depot 1161 times as<br>
shop=doityourself, but also 148 times as shop=hardware.<br>
* True Value, according to the wiki a prototypical American hardware<br>
store, is tagged 74 times as shop=doityourself and 106 times as<br>
shop=hardware.<br>
* The Dutch shop Hubo, which might fit the Hardware definition better,<br>
is tagged 23 times as shop=doityourself and only 4 times as<br>
shop=hardware.<br>
<br>
Would it make sense to keep distinguishing between shop=doityourself<br>
and shop=hardware? If so, how could we make the difference more<br>
precise?<br>
<br>
-- Matthijs<br>
<br>
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</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">Dave Swarthout<br>Homer, Alaska<br>Chiang Mai, Thailand<br>Travel Blog at <a href="http://dswarthout.blogspot.com" target="_blank">http://dswarthout.blogspot.com</a></div></div>
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