[Tagging] is the wiki descriptive or prescriptive?

[Minh Nguyen]

Vào lúc 09:37 2021-11-16, Christoph Hormann đã viết:
> The way you formulate your question: "Is the wiki descriptive or
> prescriptive?" is already part of the problem.  My answer to that
> question would be:  The wiki is neither because there is no consensus
> on what it *should* be.

I'd contend that it's an unholy mix of both. What is OSM if not 
inconsistent?

Would-be consumers of tagging documentation have a range of 
expectations. I know some mappers who get exasperated at some wiki 
pages' penchant for weasel words and diplomatic language aimed at 
satisfying competing schools of tagging thought; they'd prefer to 
consult a prescriptive guide and move on. On the other hand, other 
mappers want to know all their options so they can choose. There's 
probably an analogy to be made about choice in the grocery store aisle. 
The wiki's audience also includes software developers and QA people who 
find value in both prescriptivism and descriptivism at different times.

Regardless of the wiki's overall philosophy, we'd all benefit from pages 
and sections that are more transparent about which approach is being 
taken. Sometimes unilateral wiki edits aren't even backed up by mapped 
features at all [1] or are contradicted by preexisting usage [2]. But 
the passage in question got reverted despite a preface of "While not 
officially proposed/approved". At least it describes something that 
occurs frequently. Statements like these are commonplace enough that 
summarily reverting them can seem like a cover-up.

The wiki is quite prescriptive in one way: the vast majority of tags are 
documented on pages named after primary feature tags, which optimizes 
for mappers who use raw tags over those who map in the vernacular via 
presets. I suspect we'd see a little less controversy and indecision 
about the particulars of tag spelling if the article naming convention 
were structured around preset names instead.

[1] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Special:PermanentLink/2165157
[2] https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2019-July/046668.html

-- 
minh at nguyen.cincinnati.oh.us