[Tagging] Rules (was: Feature proposal - Approved - deprecate embassy=embassy)

[s8evq]

On Thu, 3 Feb 2022 13:09:40 +0000, Andy Townsend <ajt1047 at gmail.com> wrote:
> It's perhaps also worth remembering that OSM, with its hands-off "any 
> tags you like" approach has succeeded where other initiatives from 
> around the same time (e.g. Wikimapia) have been less successful.  

I'm sorry, but that's not a valid argument. There might have been other factors that caused OSM to be more successful than other projects, "despite" the hand-off approach. You just can't make that assertion so easily.


> So far you've tried this (at least) on Telegram and 
> tried this here, but have received significant pushback in both places.

On the topic of pushback, I would like to comment this: here on the tagging list, there are some old-timers that want to keep OSM the way it's been going forever, as it's the "correct" way. Opposition gets quickly shouted down by the louth-mouths. If only people would take a few seconds, and wonder: "What if the other person is actually right?"
You write that only a fraction of the OSM contributors are active on this mailing list. How is that, you think? There's no open atmosphere here.

These old-timers fail to see that a big group of contributors come to OSM with good intentions, and make it a better project, with better, cleaner data structure. They fail to even consider the thoughts and ideas of this large group. I have the feeling these old-timers don't even think it's anywhere remotely possible that these new contributors might possibly have a point. 

Just consider that a rather large group of contributors thinks a clean data structure is important (more than tag-anything-you-like), and you'll have to do more than just keep repeating "You're wrong".