[Tagging] Tag definitions in the OSM wiki and Wikipedia references

[Martin Koppenhoefer]

For some tag definitions in the OSM wiki there are cross links to
wikipedia. I think that this is problematic for at least these
reasons:

1. Wikipedia articles are permanently changed. Does this imply that
also our tag definition changes? This could be fixed by linking to
distinct versions of WP articles, but it is mostly not how it is done
today.

2. it makes our definitions rely on external ressources, which we don't control

3. our tags are sometimes not exactly congruent with the meaning of
the English word by which they are representated. Often WP links are
added later to the osm pages hence changing implicitly the current
definition (this is probably a distinct problem: unilateral changing
of the definitions of tags in widespread use).

4. Wikipedia articles are often very complex (e.g. linking also to
other pages)  so this way of defining tags requires a lot of research
to get the actual meaning

5. Wikipedia articles are sometimes contracting themselves or might be
contradicting additional text in the definition in the OSM wiki

My plea is to avoid these links to external ressources and to define
all necessary settings in our own wiki.

cheers,
Martin