[Tagging] Adding address tags to street-side containers

[stevea]

During decades of observation, what I have noticed about things like this — "street furniture," (like cable boxes), telephone poles and sometimes semi-permanent larger street side containers like dumpsters — is that these MIGHT have a number (plate, painted) on them for the convenience of the company that maintains them, so they may be identified to a "dispatcher" who might service them (rare as that might be in the case of something like a curbside fiber-optic service box).  In some cases, this number MIGHT be related to the address of other entities (like residences) on that street.  IF (and only if) there is such a number printed on the object (its "identifier," even as this might contain a full complement of alphanumerics), I think THAT is the correct value to place into any ref=* tag, should one be created for that object.

I do not believe an addr=* tag (of any sub-tagged flavor) is an appropriate key for such objects:  as has been said, coordinates suffice for location purposes and we are not mailing anything to these.

Regarding Georges' observation, there is something known as a "situs," where, for example, a parcel of (often unimproved, bare) land that might be uniquely identified is a real thing.  However, I would hesitate to create a situs=* key proposal, as the usual purpose for a situs is to identify it for purposes of legal jurisdiction or taxation, and that gets pretty close to cadastral, which OSM distinctly does not map.  If Georges' might (in another thread?) identify the purpose of where "an address may exist in a location where there is neither a building neither a post box," we might agree on a good key for this / these, but I sincerely doubt that it is addr=*.  (I could be wrong).