[Tagging] Deprecation - waterway=riverbank vs water=river

[mail at marcos-martinez.net]

Let's try to separate topics. 

1. The water tag 

At this point and after the approved 2011 voting current "legislation"
states we have to use area with natural=water instead of
waterway=riverbank. For me this means riverbank should be deprecated,
JOSM preset removed, Wiki updated and all stakeholders
(renderers/consumers etc) informed. After a reasonable adaptation period
mass edit should be performed. 

Those who for whatever reason think the change is a bad idea (I have no
clear opinion whether this is true or not) should make a new proposal to
be discussed and voted upon, taking into consideration all factors
including IT ramifications. Once we have a final decision the
corresponding result should trigger the process described above. 

2. Voting process 

There may be very good reasons for criticizing the circumstances and
conditions how this particular vote or other votes have been carried
out. But it is the process we currently have. If we think it can be
improved, perfect, let's discuss efficiently and adapt. Until then we
need to stick to what we have. If a voted for proposal is considered a
mere "recommendation" we very much can deprecate voting overall so
everybody can tag as he/she pleases and we all enjoy an artistic jungle
of tags that describe the same element. Personally, I consider this a
nightmare. OSM is a database, not a a picture or diary where you can
express yourself artistically as an individual. 

3. Change implementation 

First: I am no IT or database expert. Second: I see a great need in
enabling us to implement any change or improvement without risk of a
meltdown. Imagine that in any time in the future we agree an a tagging
scheme that finally solves in a widely accepted manner the never ending,
historical debate about "forest, wood, landcover trees - and lately
forestry boundary". Would we be able to mass edit? If not, would it mean
we'd have to live for the next 20 years with all the old tags and the
new scheme in parallel? Again, a nightmare. 

It can be monumental changes as the mentioned above, it can be minor
ones such as renaming an existing word to improve comprehension but we
need to be capable of implementing it right away. Otherwise at some
point in the future OSM will become not maneuverable and explode in slow
motion. 

Have a nice day, 

Marcos Martinez 

Am 11.02.2021 09:45, schrieb Martin Koppenhoefer:

> I'd also like to add: the proposal dealt mostly with the introduction of the water-key for refining natural=water, the idea to deprecate at the same time waterway=riverbank was coupled to this, but even if you were not agreeing with it, you could still have accepted the proposal, because everybody voting knew that this was leading at most to a recommendation, but not to automatic retagging.
> 
> Cheers Martin 
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