[Talk-GB] [OSM-talk] "Unsurfaced road" and "Byway"?

[David Earl]

On 17/12/2007 10:51, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> Andy R., Andy A.,
> 
>> And map features is not a voted-on only list. Anyone can add what  
>> they like
>> and others can change what they like. It's a wiki page. I just added
>> landuse=military btw. If someone doesn't like that one then they  
>> are free to
>> change/delete it. Same applies to any other tag.
> 
> I'm totally with you on this. However many newcomers, and many  
> Germans, and most of all the intersection between these two groups,  
> really really crave a world where there is a right and a wrong. ("We  
> have to use identical tags the world over, otherwise routing will  
> never work" and so on.) There's not one week on the German mailing  
> list without someone presenting his ultimate reasoning which roads  
> are to be tagged what.
> 
> It is really very difficult do convey the idea of total tagging  
> freedom, especially to newcomers. It just sounds like it's never  
> going to work and so people don't believe you. It is a real challenge  
> to explain how and why it works nonetheless. Maybe we have to create  
> a FAQ somewhere for this ("But how is it going to work if everybody  
> can just do what he likes?").
> 
> As for the voting process, I think it has to be taken with a grain of  
> salt. Some people are doing a lot of work in that field and we  
> shouldn't disregard their work completely - it is ok to have a  
> structured process, also makes people think about what they want and  
> encourages discussion. But of course it must not claim exclusivity  
> (exclusiveness?).

If tags come about by simple use, fine. But people have to know about 
them (and what they mean - it may be obvious to the inventor, but it may 
not be to others, and there are always variations and nuances the 
original author hadn't thought of).

For example, man_made=mast. This is recognised by JOSM in that it has an 
icon, and presumably it is in fairly widespread use. But it isn't on 
map_features or proposed_features. So what does it mean? I've used it 
for telecommunications towers (mobile phone masts, TV transmission etc), 
but maybe the originator had in mind only one of those (or something 
bizarre like ship's masts for all I know!). (I think I might add this to 
Map_features).

But if people use random tags to describe objects for which consensus 
already exists, then we have anarchy and the map will be completely 
unusable.

What is conditioning this at the moment is the map rendering. If someone 
uses, say, highway=private_driveway then it won't show up, and it won't 
get adopted if no one sees it, knows about it or uses it other than the 
originator (or if circulated a small clique who happen to read the 
mailing list).

The ability to see results is what is forging a reasonable measure of 
standardization together at present, though what tends to happen is tags 
get chosen in order to get a result on the map rather than strict 
accuracy (whatever that may mean).

David