[OSM-newbies] Nodes v. Ways when adding amenities

[Tac Tacelosky]

Better no outline than an inaccurate one.   Hmm.  How about if there were a
tag to indicate that the outline is an estimate and needs further review?

I recently added a new grocery store that opened in my neighborhood:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/node/807746578

It's a mid-sized store, and takes up most of the building on that corner,
it replaced the Safeway that used to be there, which is reflected in that
building's history:

http://www.openstreetmap.org/browse/way/66834804

I'd like to associate the new market with the building.  Should I simply
name the building and add the tag shop=supermarket?

Even with great aerial photography, it's often difficult to determine where
one store ends.  DC is fortunate to have the footprints of many of our
buildings in OSM because the data was made available.  But I'm working on a
section in New Jersey now where there is no data beyond the TIGER import.
 I have geocoded photos (that I took) of a few dozen shops, and I'd like
add them to OSM, but it feels like adding them as a bunch of points (nodes)
will be worse than looking at the size of the storefront and drawing a
series of little boxes that reflect the relative sizes.   I don't have
building information at all, so I don't know the address.

Maybe it'd be better to add  these unknown shapes as circles?  Then it
would be obvious that this is a just a big node with some relative size
information?

Thanks for the suggestions.

Tac

Tac



On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 7:22 AM, Dave F. <davefox at madasafish.com> wrote:

> On 09/05/2013 11:42, Tac Tacelosky wrote:
>
>> I'm about to add a few shops in a shopping center.  Is it better to add
>> them as ways so that the renderer has some idea about the footprint and
>> relative size?  Or as nodes, which seems to be the more common approach?
>>
>> The tiny nail salon is right next to a large supermarket, and the gas
>> station on the corner is in between those two as far as size, while I can't
>> do an exact outline, I can draw a box to indicate relative sizes.
>>
>> Are both approaches correct, or is one way better?
>>
>
> Both are correct. It depends on you really; whether you have the time or
> patience to draw a full outline or simply add a node. Many areas now have
> fairly accurate aerial imagery that can be traced. As renderers are
> allowing greater zoom levels I've been upgrading POI's to polygon areas. A
> problem you may run into however is multi-storey shopping centres. There's
> never been a satisfactory way to map/render these as area & you may want to
> keep them as POI's.
>
> Dave F.
>
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