[OSM-dev] The wiki defines the database (was: relations)

[Matt Amos]

On Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 10:46 PM, Erik Johansson <erjohan at gmail.com> wrote:
> COn Tue, Nov 4, 2008 at 6:16 PM, Richard Fairhurst <richard at systemed.net> wrote:
>> The people doing the "defining" are, in many cases, not the ones who
>> are doing the mapping. There are plenty of people voting on things
>> just because they like voting.
>>
>> If people refrained from discussing and voting unless they had
>> _personally_ come up against the problem that the proposal was aiming
>> to solve, I think the process would have a lot more respect.
>
> Real mappers don't document; their tags are enough.  Wannabe mappers
> read documentation and follow templates. So how should you become a
> mapper if there is no documentation. There is a lack of people who are
> willing to write something on the wiki, not too many.

there have been occasions when "real" mappers have documented their
tags on the wiki, only to have the wiki pages overwritten by someone
else's "better ideas". maybe this puts some people off?

> Sure the wiki doesn't really define the database, it tells people how
> to tag stuff and that is a lot more important than anything else.

you're absolutely right - the wiki should help document the database
and help spread knowledge of tagging culture. maybe we should be
encouraging "wannabe" mappers to look for tags on tagwatch and, with
the help of the mailing lists / IRC / local meet-ups, document them on
the wiki?

cheers,

matt