[Tagging] "Feature Proposal - RFC - (office=courier)"

[John Willis]

Javbw

> On Apr 25, 2017, at 4:17 PM, Tobias Wrede <list at tobias-wrede.de> wrote:
> 
> operator or brand


This is about scope, not brand or operator. 

If I search for a supermarket and you send me to a 7-11, you failed. 

Post offices have different scopes in different places, ways we usually separate by tag, because we separate "duckiness" by tag. This varies by region, so we need a way to represent both, and we have existing tags as well. 

If it were me, national post, (inter)national delivery, and local-regional currier would be three different things. You go to different ones for different reasons. What about freight? People who ship crated engines around are none of the three above (AFAIK). They are freight services. Shipping a 300lb transmission across California doesn't use any service provider any of us have heard of before. So because they "deliver" stuff - is all freight also a courier too? Armored trucks? 3rd party food delivery? What about bulk goods? They "deliver" 500 tons of wheat via a bulk carrier - why are they different? A tanker of crude oil or a ship full of cars? This is not something left to "operator". Brand is for separating similar items - a Burger King vs a McDonalds - not to separate steakhouses from a butcher shop. We are deciding where to draw the lines on scope, like convenience stores, markets, supermarkets, and malls. 

The sticky point seems to be that because nationalized post services and commercial courier services are available in different places *beyond* the traditional offices - buying stamps at a gas station, box shops that ship via post and courier systems, etc, that the "amenity" of a location that offers post/courier service is blurred in many places, or the post''s importance in some places has dwindled, relegating it to be a courier. We should be figuring out how to handle assigning the "amenity" of those services (similar to how a hotel has a workout room, but that doesn't make the hotel a gym) to other kinds of businesses, in a way where we can have multiple values. A hotel has parking, a pool, gym, etc, but it is foremost a "hotel" with various amenities. Having a dedicated courier or post office tag isn't so much of an issue - in many places with a traditional post system, it is still different enough to warrant separate tags. it's adding these courier/post options to other businesses or shops that needs to be worked out. Mashing post offices and courier services together is not going to solve that issue nor improve OSM tagging in any appreciable way. 

As an example, when I renew my visa, I have to purchase a 4000yen revenue stamp to affix to my paperwork. I can purchase that stamp at a post office. But when paying for regional services, I have to buy regional revenue stamps at very certain convenience stores.  

Of course one can buy stamps at a post office - but where are one of the few convenience stores that also sells special revenue stamps? It's pretty rare.  Which are shipping points for which couriers? Each company offered different ones. 

Having a tagging system to add that onto another shop sounds like that is what people are looking for, if I understand correctly.  

Javbw.