[Tagging] [OSM-talk] Proposed mechanical edit: surface=soil to surface=dirt

[Friedrich Volkmann]

On 31.08.2015 11:51, Christoph Hormann wrote:
> On Monday 31 August 2015, Mateusz Konieczny wrote:
>> See
>> http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Mechanical_Edits/Mateusz_Konieczny
>> /surface%3Dsoil_to_surface%3Ddirt
>>
>> I plan to change surface=soil to surface=dirt. surface=soil is a
>> clear duplicate of surface=dirt. It is also less popular and
>> undocumented on http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:surface .
>> surface=soil usage is slowly increasing and recently passed threshold
>> of 400 entries worldwide. It would be a good idea to retag it to
>> already documented tag before this duplicate gets more popular.

This is nonsense. The fact that this tag is getting popular without editor
support proves that there's good reason for this tag. This is a different
issue than woodchip/woodchips or customer/customers, which only differ by
spelling.

> I would be careful here - 'dirt' is essentially a very vague term which 
> probably originates from the concept of 'dirt roads' here.  'Soil' in 
> the other hand is fairly precise, see
> 
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil

I agree. Soil is not dirt. That's why I have used surface=soil myself, and I
will revert any automated edit of such kind.

> In general i think surface=ground is the most sensible tag for tagging 
> ways that are just established somewhere without notible construction 
> work when you can't be more specific - it implies that the way surface 
> is essentially the ground there in its natural state.

Yes, and surface=soil is a subset of surface=ground, which in turn is a
subset of surface=unpaved.

-- 
Friedrich K. Volkmann       http://www.volki.at/
Adr.: Davidgasse 76-80/14/10, 1100 Wien, Austria