[Tagging] How to overcome lack of consensus

[Martin Koppenhoefer]

2013/9/18 Matthijs Melissen <info at matthijsmelissen.nl>

> Don't change the wiki definitions of established tags without discussion,
>> even less if its a very widespread tag. Many of these edits are part of the
>> problem.
>>
>
> Do you also see a problem with changing the wiki to reflect actual usage,
> or are you just warning against changing the wiki away from current use?
>


I see a problem in determining actual usage. Are you suggesting to visit
all these places/features that have a certain tag in order to see what it
was used for? IMHO if there is a definition in the wiki and someone then
tags something with this tag you have to believe that he followed that
definition, at least until you can find a consensus to change this
definition. The most you should do is add a hint to the wiki that there is
a similar tag in use and link to it, but you shouldn't imply that the
similar tag has the exact same meaning as long as you don't know it for
sure.

As you can see from this thread, it is not useful to add definitions to the
wiki without consulting on the actual usage (see betting / bookmaker).

One issue in this context is also OSM definitions that rely on external
definitions (e.g. "see Wikipedia: foo"), because these external definitions
might change without that OSM will be taken into account ;-)

cheers,
Martin
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