[Tagging] designation=* is a mess in Germany

[Martin Vonwald]

Your translation is a good and very needed start in my opinion. But to
prevent frustration just don't look at the tags for a while and maybe
pray a little. Maybe people adjust and use the tag in a more
consistent way. Or they don't. Only time will tell.

Martin

2012/10/23 Ronnie Soak <chaoschaos0909 at googlemail.com>:
> Hi,
>
> I've recently stumbled upon some confusing usages of the key
> designation=* in my area, so I tried to find out what it really means
> and how it is used correctly.
>
> I haven't succeeded.
>
> Of course there is the wiki page [1] at
> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:designation
> which explains that it is used for the local classification of roads in the UK.
> But on the same page the usage as a descriptive tag for nature
> reserves is also documented.
>
> Looking at taginfo [2] seems to harden the case for road
> classification, but also shows 'shed' in 5th rank.
> But I was curious about how this is actually used outside of the UK.
>
> So I did a OverPass-Api query for 500 ways on designation=* with a
> bounding box of Germany [3]
> and fed that through a 'grep designation' which gave me a horrifying list [4].
>
> Seems like I can delete my fresh wiki page translation [5] and replace
> it with a 'just tag anything you want with it'.
> Now this might be unfair, as OverPass sorts by way ID which might be a
> bad choice for a random sample. But I actually didn't find even one
> correct example of usage in there.
>
> I'm so baffled by this, I don't even have a decent question to ask.
>
> Where to start? Modify the wiki according to usage? To what usage?
> Modify the tags? All of them? To what?
> (I said 'decent'. Not that I don't have questions ...)
>
> Or just slowly walk away from that topic?
>
>
> Regards,
> Chaos
>
>
>
> [1] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:designation
> [2] http://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/designation#values
> [3] http://overpass.osm.rambler.ru/cgi/interpreter?data=%5Bout:json%5D;way%5Bdesignation%5D%2846%2E845703125%2C5%2E185546875%2C55%2E634765625%2C15%2E46875%29%3Bout%20500%3B
> [4] http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=ymViH17J
> [5] http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/DE:Key:designation
>
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