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

[Andy Robinson (blackadder)]

David Earl [mailto:david at frankieandshadow.com]wrote:
>Sent: 17 December 2007 11:25 AM
>To: Andy Robinson (blackadder)
>Cc: 'Frederik Ramm'; talk-gb at openstreetmap.org; 'Abigail Brady'
>Subject: Re: [Talk-GB] [OSM-talk] "Unsurfaced road" and "Byway"?
>
>On 17/12/2007 11:16, Andy Robinson (blackadder) wrote:
>> David Earl [mailto:david at frankieandshadow.com] wrote:
>...
>>> 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.
>>>
>>
>> This is why I think deriving the list from planet would be much better.
>The
>> majority of tags in use already have descriptions on the wiki that can go
>> against a listed tag. Where an item doesn't it offers the opportunity for
>> those using the tag to add something. If nothing gets added then it's
>> probably a pretty useless tag as you say, in which case nobody will use
>it.
>> If when a planet list is periodically dumped it lists with it the
>statistics
>> of use then it provides all, including newbie's, with a clear indication
>of
>> whether it's a tag they should be using or not.
>
>
>I think that's fine as a means or achieving consensus, but I really
>think it needs to be augmented by some definitions.
>
>(I'm reminded of the famous Unix anecdote about the syntax for awk -
>that the developer hacked it up one evening to try it out but it
>couldn't then be changed to something more friendly because by morning a
>hundred people were already relying on it).
>
>Should we dispense with the voting system?
>
>David


I've always said I don't agree with the voting system as it is a barrier to
just getting on and doing stuff. But some people like to vote on things so
I'm happy to let them do that. It won't affect my creating and using new
tags on my own though.

Cheers

Andy