[OSM-newbies] Small streams under minor tarmac roads

[Jonathan Bennett]

James Ewen wrote:
> It's pretty tough to not tag for the renderer, when the tags that are
> listed are implemented by the renderers... I prefer to use tags that
> are already defined and in common use rather than create a unique tag
> that only I use, and will probably never be implemented by anyone
> else, or the rendering engines.

If those tags don't accurately describe the feature you're mapping, then
you shouldn't use them. Try not to think of OpenStreetMap as being a
single rendered map, but more of a digital description of the
geographical world.

The point about tagging for the renderer is:

1) A different renderer may use a different style for the tag you've
used, and hence you won't get the same effect as the renderer you've
tagged for.

2) Not all applications of OSM data involve rendering a map. If someone
queries the DB to find out how many km of tunnels there are in Great
Britain, your incorrect tagging will make the answer inaccurate.

With regards to new tags, you have a chicken-and-egg situation. If
no-one ever uses them, they'll never make it into the renderer, but if
the renderer doesn't show them....

When I was mapping my home town, I came across lots of turning circles
in roads. I tagged these as highway=turning_circle, and wrote a wiki
page for it. Now there are over 110,000 of them. If I'd have taken the
approach that they weren't rendered, so I shouldn't use the tag, that
would never have happened. This is the real power of "Any Tags You
Like", and it's what makes OSM work.


-- 
Jonathan (Jonobennett)