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

[Christoph Hormann]

On Thursday 11 February 2021, manday at openmail.cc wrote:
> [...]
>
> I would like to point out that no argument other than the ~100k
> difference for removing `water=river` in favor of `riverbank` has
> been presented. [...]

I have no interest in engaging in this discussion which is a reiteration 
of a discussion we have already had countless times on this list and 
elsewhere.  But since you seem to be new here (and probably new to OSM 
in general) a little piece of advice:

Do not conclude from the fact that people do not engage in a discussion 
with you that there are no arguments against your views of things.  
That people do not present you arguments only means that they don't 
think presenting them would have any benefit.  As Frederik recently 
mentioned repeating the same points over and over again just wastes 
communication bandwidth for everyone.  Not to mention this English 
language mailing list is only a small and highly selective cutout from 
the global OSM community.

Why it is a good idea to make the distinction between standing inland 
waterbodies and flowing inland water as a distinction in primary 
tagging has been explained many times over the years.  You either

* know this and accept this being a valid reason for a distinction in 
primary tagging between lakes and riverbank polygons.
* know this and reject the relevancy of this distinction.  Then 
repeating that point again will not make a difference.
* don't know this (because you are new to OSM or to the topic of 
waterbody mapping and tagging).  Then you should not start off a 
discussion clearly stating you have already made up your mind what the 
results of the discussion should be.  Instead the prudent thing to do 
is asking - with an open mind - why people prefer tagging riverbank 
polygons with waterway=riverbank or natural=water respectively.  Then 
you would probably have received an explanation for both sides.  And 
even if you did not it would still be prudent (and also advisable under 
the principle of "assume good faith") to assume that those who prefer 
waterway=riverbank (as evidenced by its ongoing use) have a good reason 
for that.

-- 
Christoph Hormann
https://www.imagico.de/