[Tagging] type=* tags on trees

[Minh Nguyen]

Vào lúc 16:43 2021-08-18, Casper Kersten đã viết:
> There are 630 different type=* tags used on trees for a total of just 
> over 5,000. Most of these tags only exist once or twice and are clear 
> tagging mistakes of other tags. You can see the full list if you 
> download the data.
> 
> The changeset itself will be the documentation. Duplicating the 
> documentation on the Wiki for 630 different tags will take ten times 
> longer than finding the right replacement will take, so this would be 
> insanely inefficient and time consuming for no added value.

If the goal is to rid the database of these homonymous [1] uses of 
type=*, I applaud your effort and I'm sure others would agree. But this 
doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing, now-or-never proposition. As Mike 
pointed out, people gravitate toward type=* because it's such a generic 
word, so someone will need to periodically perform this same task, 
perhaps long after you've moved onto other, more interesting cleanup 
tasks. Showing your work would be much appreciated.

Your message at the top of this thread lists several examples, so 
presumably you've already come up with a longer list. Perhaps you could 
dump that into a wiki page? I don't think anyone's asking you to create 
a full-fledged Tag: page for each individual value you come up with. 
 From everyone else's perspective, a single wiki table or a spreadsheet 
would be far more efficient than reverse-engineering your changeset(s) 
to figure out what type=somethingorother became.

If there are a bunch of little-used type=* values that you're unsure 
about, you could skip those for now and rest easy knowing you've at 
least chipped away at the problem. Or you could post a spreadsheet with 
empty cells and set a deadline of, say, a week for the community to help 
you fill it out before you make the first round of changes. Given the 
recent shrub tagging discussions, I suspect you'd find some interest 
among this list's subscribers, no matter how insignificant the plant. ;-)

[1] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Homonymous_keys

-- 
minh at nguyen.cincinnati.oh.us