[Tagging] Current status of the key smoothness=*

[Warin]

On 13/03/2015 7:00 PM, Martin Vonwald wrote:
> Hi!
>
> 2015-03-13 2:06 GMT+01:00 David <dbannon at internode.on.net 
> <mailto:dbannon at internode.on.net>>:
>
>     > No, numeric values are not a good choice - really not. I also don't like the values much, but at least
>     it's clear that "good" is better than "bad".
>
>     But Martin, its not a "good" or "bad" situation, thats the point.
>     Some people seek out extremely challenging roads to traverse.
>     While dead smooth is good while getting there, why bother to go
>     there if its going to be smooth all the way ?
>
>
> That's not what I meant. If someone has no idea about the meaning of 
> the values and just look at the existing tags, one may guess 
> correctly, that "good" means smoother than "bad". But what is 
> smoother? grade1 or grade5?
>
> And please do not claim that everyone will look in the wiki what the 
> values actually mean. Please stay realistic ;-)
>
> And to answer the next argument: but if people don't know the exact 
> meaning and also don't look in the wiki, we can not be sure that they 
> use the values correctly. Yes. We can also not be sure that they use 
> the values correctly IF the look in the wiki. But the chances that we 
> get more appropriate values is much higher with smoothness=good than 
> with smoothness=grade97, because a "good smoothness" will have a much 
> wider common understanding than "smoothness=31415whatever".
>
> Best regards,
> Martin
>
> P.S: I'm aware that we will not reach consensus about this on this 
> mailing list ;-)
>
>

I'm for verbal description rather than a number - easier to understand.
If I come across a road marked 'smoothness=medium' and later come across 
a road with worse smoothness I can see which way to go with the verbal 
value, if the value was a simple number I'd nave no idea..and may skip 
the data entry due to time limits, laziness and added complexity.

Some decades ago I looked at road classifications .. for 'off road' 
vehicles, I was after erosion problems at the time ... I think there may 
be some classification system for smoothness .. certainly there was for 
the load bearing of a terrain. Some US military publication had some 
tech data in it .. amonst some 40 odd publications I skimmed through at 
the time. Might try to look that up? Depends on how easy it is to find 
it in the library catalogue ... it is better than google .. but they 
have a different system of course.

------------------------
Photos help ... but I'd like some word guidance too.
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