[talk-au] Administration level for unincorporated areas

[stevea]

I'm sure it is done, as I've seen it at a smaller scale in the USA, I'll say tagging in OSM in USA isn't done for what in USA we call "special districts."  And these most specifically do NOT get tagged with any admin_level value (6 or otherwise) because they really aren't a government, what admin_level values are all about (how things fit together into a hierarchy).

In the US state of Hawaii, for example, there is a "succinct" (flattened, but deliberately) quickly-at-the-state-level (the state-level division happens among each island, sorta like shires in Oz) sense of admin_level.  It is acknowledged (by locals, people who live there, years of thinking about it in OSM) that there isn't a place in the admin_level hierarchy which are essentially, how people direct their trash collection or libraries to knit together.  That's not government, that's people buying services in a district.  If you really want to map those, I don't see why not (well, some might consider that task tedious, others might see great value in it...).  Where the cable companies run service out to?  Maybe that's useful, I don't know.

When it comes to garbage collection districts, school districts (very rarely, I happen to know) and other such "private, commercial" activity...I suppose we can map these and rarely we do (everything from "mosquito abatement district" to "public library area served for this branch of the library district").  What might be next?  Scouting Australia (I just made that up) districts?  Imaginations run wild with possibilities, but this is OSM, after all.

I'm not saying "no," (I am saying "tedious") I am saying do not merge or blend these into OSM's admin_level hierarchy.  Well, here I go with my California perspective.  You can call something like this a special district (these do emerge in OSM) you have to be specific how you might tag it so everybody knows it is a special district.  I don't think what you are talking about here are "administrative values" as OSM uses key admin_level=*.  Not at all.  Or, maybe "in the USA" (and that is as far out as my perspective does or should go further).

It is 100% possible there is something about how things truly are administratively are carved up by Parks Division and Alpine Resorts Division (as these things are actively, Crown-managed, we might say).  That's government, and does seem like admin_level, and 6 isn't a wrong choice, it seems.  These things are best not messed with by somebody a large ocean away, despite similarities in culture, common law, commerce, governmental structure, though things do diverge.  So, I'm voicing my thoughts here, I'm also stepping aside as someone who is not local.  It is a wobbler and could go either way; I'm not from there.

Thanks for an interesting dialog; c-ya later.