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<p>Hi,</p>
<p>I will probably reopen an explosive case but I would like to know
where we are reguarding shop=estate_agent vs office=estate_agent.</p>
<p>On the discussion page for the original proposal (<a
href="https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Proposed_features/Estate_Agent">https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Talk:Proposed_features/Estate_Agent</a>)
there is already some debates on this one but because the tag
office was not yet created, shop has been prefered. And probably
also because concensus was not strong enought toward office.</p>
<p>Several years after this debate, the wiki page of the approved
one (shop=estate_agent) have been tagged as "to be merged", both
shop and office are documented and here are the statistics:</p>
<ul>
<li><a
href="https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:office%3Destate_agent">office=estate_agent</a>
(status in use) => 17 227 use</li>
<li><a
href="https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:shop%3Destate_agent">shop=estate_agent</a>
(status approved) => 3 818 use</li>
</ul>
<p>On editor side both JOSM and ID use office=estate_agent
(unofficial) and do not recognise shop=estate_agent (official).
This will definitively not help the approved one to grow.<br>
</p>
Consequently it looks like the "in use" one is killing (has already
killed?) the "approved" one.<br>
<br>
=> Is there any ongoing plan to clarify the situation? Any up to
date discussion page/proposal I did not found yet?<br>
<br>
If one ask for my opinion, I would tend to say that we shall not
think by purpose of the company but by purpose of the place we map
(OSM is all about mapping right?):<br>
<ul>
<li>a shop is where you can buy something, regardless it is a desk
in the midddle of a room or nice rows of shelves with products
and prices. Consequently a "place" at the corner of the street
where you can enter and buy a real estate would be a shop.<br>
</li>
<li>an office is where people are working, usually at desks, and
are not primarily dedicated to wait for customers, welcome them
and sell products. Consequently, the headquarter of this real
estate chain (or a building dedicated to an administrative or
internal service) would be an office.</li>
</ul>
<p>If everything (selling and administrative) is at the same place,
I think that shop should be prefered (but one can use both on the
same object).<br>
</p>
<p>This is like the HQ of a bank or a post company: it's more an
office than an amenity (and sometimes there is no counter nor ATM
inside).</p>
<p>In this scenario shop=estate_agent and office=estate_agent would
coexist, each one with its own meaning (or another mecanism to
differenciate an open shop from a limited-access office, both
working to sell/manage real estates, would be devised). Same
principle can be applied to insurances, law firms... which are
suffering from the same issue.<br>
</p>
<p>Yours,<br>
</p>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
LeTopographeFou</pre>
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