[Tagging] How to overcome lack of consensus

Paul Churchley paul at churchley.org
Wed Sep 18 13:44:45 UTC 2013


I think that the "seafood" example is a classic case of why this will
always be an issue and why there can never be concensus. A "seafood shop"
to me, a Brit all my life, not only sells shellfish but other kinds of
seafood. The difference to me is that a "fishmonger" only sells raw fish
whereas a seafood shop would sell raw fish and also sell seafood ready to
eat such as the shellfish Phil describes. Who is right? Surely we both are?
To me, theses kinds of subtle differences in meaning are often local and it
is incorrect to consider one anymore correct than the other. Both tags
should be available and people should tag them as they see fit. If someone
looks at an item that is tagged as seafood and believes they are a
fishmonger then why not tag it as both?

I am a newcomer to OSM but as a newcomer I do not see the so called "lack
of concensus" as any kind of issue. People call things by different names
and whereas it is of benefit to have concensus on the framework items I can
see no issue regarding the use of locally accepted tags for items in
general.

The bookmaker/betting shop example is easily resolved because one is a
person (bookmaker) the other is a location, usually a building. I see no
confusion in that case. You would expect that a betting shop would have a
bookmaker inside it! On the otherhand, at a race track it is possble that a
bookmaker could have a stall out in the open without having a shop.


On 18 September 2013 13:53, Philip Barnes <phil at trigpoint.me.uk> wrote:

> On Mon, 2013-09-16 at 16:41 +0200, Matthijs Melissen wrote:
>
> >
> > - Should we use shop=betting or shop=bookmaker?
> > - Should we use shop=fishmonger or shop=seafood?
>
> Actually I think this provides an insight into where problems are seen,
> and damaging mass edits occur, when in reality there is no problem and
> separate tags are in fact correct.
>
> In British English seafood generally refers to shellfish. So a seafood
> shop will be a shop, usually at the seaside, where you buy prawns,
> mussels, cockles and things that are ready to eat, with vinegar, as you
> walk along the front. To tag this a fishmonger would be misleading.
>
> A fishmonger on the other hand, sells fresh fish that you take home to
> cook. Cases do occur, where a shop does both.
>
> Again, and I am no expert on betting, but my understanding is that a
> bookmaker is someone who can agree bets and set odds. A Betting shop is
> a place where you place a bet with odds set elsewhere.
>
>
>
> Phil (trigpoint)
>
>
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