[Tagging] Feature Proposal - RFC - defensive structures

[Georg]

Dear all,

Graeme wrote:
>     And where to draw the line between historic and currently used defensive
>     structures? For example, are bunkers of WW II historic? And of iron
>     curtain? And of any more recent conflict/precaution? Does it only matter
>     when a structure was originally built or whether it is still in use by
>     military? IMHO difficult :)
>
> I'll turn this question around a bit & ask one that I raised a while
> back, but didn't get a response on.
>
> Should historic (WW1 / WW2) bunkers & similar structures be labelled as
> military=bunker etc?

https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:military tells

> used for buildings and land used by the Army, Navy, Air Force and
> any other kind of military or paramilitary service

so it's about _current usage by military_ and thus is pretty clear. Not
even all active bunkers may carry the tag, e.g. bunkers for the public
operated by the community/city (i.e. not military!). But they might also
not qualify for historic=* as they are too young or of too little impact
on history.

Conclusion: It does not matter from which end (historic=* or military=*)
you ask for the end of scope, AFAIK there is a gap between both scopes.
Hence, mappers need to either "intentionally wrongly use" any of the two
tags or do not map at all. The newly suggested tag
historic=defensive_structure with refinement defensive_structure=* would
not solve that issue and as written I'd not support that, BUT if
defensive_structure=* was an _independent / top level tag,_ the gap was
filled _and_ makes tagging more clear also for existing tags => I'd
support that

Off topic: When thinking about how to tag defensive structures, I became
aware how thankful I am to live in a region & time where bunkers etc are
only relevant for the contemporary life of few civilians like craftsmen
maintaining them & earning money, while dozens of generations before me
fought bloody battles at exactly the same spot as its geology
predestines it as battlefield.

So long,
Georg