[Tagging] RFC: Removal of Eruvs from OSM, and further boundry=religious

[stevea]

I’m very much with Greg’s channeling of a “learn how to look” spirit being the important point not to be missed here.  Because as we see new things, we might even map new things.

I didn’t know what an eruv was a few days ago, and my recent post of (roughly) “I don’t even know if one of these is around here or if I can even see it, but if I were to discover one was, I can easily imagine that spark growing into a fire of excitement that not only might I be able to map a local one, I might inspire others to do so in a wider area.”  All the while, I imagine “getting buy-in” (generating the same kind of excitement from the local religious community for whom this is important) that OSM can have a wonderful, positive attitude about adding these anywhere on Earth they might be.  And there are good ways to build community between OSM and local religious groups, sharing how the actual mapping experience can be fun, a cultural exchange, useful in the end for people who have a precision map of something useful to them where they didn’t have one before (or only had something vague or unknown before OSM got involved…) and so on.

Because that is how I see OSM:  a cultural exchange (even if it is a couple or few people), a positive experience of “technology meets community, with positive, useful results" (and some friendships made) in the end.

The entire attitude of “what the heck are we doing adding something so barely-visible and esoteric?” is something I can understand might occur to some OSM Contributors, but I find it puzzling and a bit foreign to the spirit of our project.  While I always leave wide latitude for many attitudes by the many of us that make up the fabric of our community, I do find myself disappointed when I see evidence of exclusion, rather than inclusion.

OSM has always (in my experience) had a wide, welcoming nature of so many aspects of Earth’s natural, as well as human endeavors, from geology to architecture and so much in-between.  Speaking for myself, if somebody wants to map something (even if they are not a part of OSM), if I can help them do so, I will.  I might have to educate them that “we don’t map that sort of thing,” but that particular “sorry, no" hasn’t happened a single time yet in my many years of volunteering here.  I don’t really understand that when it does with others, but I do keep listening to our wide, wide community.