[Tagging] General tagging system problems

[Daniel Koć]

W dniu 13.05.2015 23:56, pmailkeey . napisał(a):
> Orchard. Natural or man-made ? Does it even matter, it's just orchard.
> Building IS man-made but does not come under man made.

And building is also kind of area (especially if it's large)...

Regarding this and removing amenity=* namespace - yes, that is exactly 
our problem with "top-level" namespaces.

First thing - they are not really top-level: "highway=footway + 
area=yes" is just a conventional notation, but one can see it also as an 
"area=yes + highway=footway", so the area=* may be perceived as the 
top-level (just like "building=yes + shop=kiosk" - form goes first and 
then the function follows).

Second thing - I don't think it's a problem with amenity=* alone, it's 
rather compulsory categorization habit we have in OSM.

Of course amenity=pub can be just pub=yes, and while natural=tree seems 
to be common sense assumption, there can be also really man_made=tree (I 
know one - it's an artwork, but looks like a tree and now it's just one 
of a famous city emblems), so simple tree=yes would also do if one is 
not sure. The same with natural=peak - the hill can be artificial also. 
The same with natural=wood and landuse=forest (or even orchard=yes) - 
sometimes we can't be sure and we should stick to area=trees.

But when we're sure what type it is in most cases, why we have to 
explicitly put it in the key? That way we are bond to some categories 
even if we can find better (or just different) way of categorizing. 
Which would be beneficial now, because we have many new objects with 
unexpected properties.

I think we should relax using categories in namespaces. The problem is 
that one can easily do it - everyone can just start (re)tagging with 
pub=yes - but the whole project has its own inertia, so the validators, 
editors, renderer and many other tools in OSM ecosystem may not follow. 
I have no clear idea what we could do to make transition as painless as 
it gets, but I'd like to.

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