[Tagging] The current problem with tagging

[Mike N.]

>> the wiki allows
>> people to easily document things, but you can't easily find them and
>> I'm talking about everyone here, especially those that are only likely
>> to use the map features page.
>
> Can you give an example here? I actually don't know what situation you
> are thinking about. Answering "what does tag x mean" is easy. "How do I
> tag y" can usually be answered using the wiki search (or browser search
> on Map Features). Tags that can used in addition to a given feature/tag
> are listed, too, and it's not that hard to just manually add a new tag
> there. So what's missing here?

  The case I run into is "How do I  tag y" - the wiki is well laid out, but 
the answer is often not as accessible as it should be.  I tried to tag law 
offices in a meaningful way.  Searching for Lawyer, Legal, Barrister even in 
the proposed pages brought up nothing.  I can't believe I'm the first person 
to want to do this.  I should have used Google because there is a tag called 
shop=lawyer on the 'Abandoned' Wiki pages.

  The point is that scholarly research is time consuming, and most people 
don't have the patience and we're possibly discouraging mappers who would 
otherwise contribute.   It also promotes tagging with the first thing that 
pops into the mind, which may be the wrong tag  ( drinking fountain -> 
fountain = wrong  ).   The JOSM preset "More information about this feature" 
has saved me from tagging things wrongly a number of times.