[Tagging] RFC - More sensible values for fountain=*

[Davidoskky]

Hello,

in this message 
https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/tagging/2022-October/065805.html 
I proposed two different ways to go about the inability to well describe 
features that provide water through pipes.

The first idea proposed was focusing on using the subtag fountain=* and 
defining some sensible values that could easily be extended.

The second idea proposed was the creation of a new tag that would 
include all non-decorative fountains.

I also proposed the deprecation of man_made=water_tap.


I have observed the discussion and changed my mind, I do not believe 
anymore that man_made=water_tap should be deprecated but rather 
redefined to only describe the tap of a fountain and not the whole 
fountain. Please don't discuss about this specific point here, I'm just 
describing the background information.

It appears to me that people in this mailing list prefer my first idea, 
as I also do. It doesn't create a new tag and forces some order in the 
fountain=* tag by solving the problems with overlapping tags.

The second idea was brought forward and a proposal about it was made, 
which was quickly withdrawn since there was strong opposition and many 
affirmed tags were being changed or deprecated.


I have written this as a RFC, but after a few comments I do actually 
want to make a proposal. I have never made one, so I would appreciate 
some advice on how to go about doing it.


*Proposal summary*

amenity=fountain describes both decorative fountains and utility 
fountains, such as drinking fountains, small fountains for washing 
clothes, fountains to clean people or provide water to animals; this 
would not include large facilities with one single scope in mind: for 
example a building where people go to wash clothes would not fall under 
this tag.

Introduction of the key fountain:style=* that accepts as values all the 
ones currently listed in the wiki as "Specific types of drinking water 
fountains"; translation of the definition of all those fountains to 
fountain=drinking, fountain:style=*.

Introduction of the key tap=yes, used to describe if the flow of a 
fountain can be controlled by the user.

Introduction of the generic value fountain=decorative, that ensures the 
fountain is decorative.

Introduction of the generic value fountain=utility, that describes the 
fountain as non-decorative.

Deprecation of fountain=drinking_fountain in favour of fountain=drinking.


The idea is that fountains not covered by the current values can still 
be tagged as either decorative or utility even if a specific tag does 
not exist.

This proposal does not change the man_made=water_tap tag, but keep in 
mind that a redefinition of that tag would greatly improve this proposal.

The specific names of the values I proposed can be changed, but please 
don't start a world war between British and Australian English.


*RFC*

I'm unsure fountain:style is the best name for the key to describe those 
fountains; if you have a better name in mind, please propose that.


You can propose other values for fountain=* but I guess those will come 
with time anyway, since the idea is to make this easily extensible.


I would propose the deprecation of the value fountain=stone_block since 
it could be tagged as fountain=driking, material=stone. This tag impedes 
tagging the fountain with a specific value in order to describe its 
material.


I'm unsure whether fountain=bottle_refill should be kept.

In the wiki it is decribed by this image: 
https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/File:Fairmont_Sonoma_Mission_Inn_August_2019_-_Sarah_Stierch_09.jpg

The water does not come through pipes, but from a nearby water 
container. I'd rather tag it as its own amenity.

This said, this is not the main point; please discuss the main points of 
my proposal and let me know if I can publish this on the wiki.