[Talk-GB] elsan_points

[Bryce Nesbitt]

On Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 12:00 PM, Colin Smale <colin.smale at xs4all.nl> wrote:

>  Is there any intrinsic difference between one for boats and one for
> motorhomes? If they are actually pretty much the same thing, maybe the
> difference would better be expressed by "*access=customers*" or purely
> *geometric*/geographic properties
>
Yes, there are intrinsic differences for marine and land facilities.

And *access=customers* has a specific different definition here, as it is
common for a pump-out or dump station to
be restricted only to paying overnight guests at the facility (e.g. you
can't even pay to use it unless you're staying overnight).

Purely *geometric* properties don't work, as fuel station tagging shows.
Proximity to the water's edge or a marina polygon does not itself
disambiguate the feature type.

----

The new tagging style covers a lot of bases: maybe not all, but many more
than any of the dozen or so informal methods.
The terms were also chosen carefully for worldwide use.  "Chemical Dump
Point" or CDP was found in the UK, and
"Dump station" is well recognized in the USA Australia and NZ.  Sanitary is
a pretty icky word, but not nearly as rude as
excrement, for the USA.  Elsan was objected to as a brand name not a
generic type.  Of the 200 or so stations I found in
searching note, description, and recycling tags, most used some form of the
word "dump" for land station and "pump" for marine
pumpouts.  A small group of nodes are tagged "Elsan" along British canals.
The term "human effluent" did not come up in that discussion, but would
also be suitable (though "effluent" is likely never taught in the public
schools in the USA)

The choice of the exact wording of the tag is not as important as seeking
common tagging for a common feature.
Where would we be if every country used it's own word for "highway".

Marine and land facilities are different, but there's no on the ground
difference between a "comfort station" and a "toilet".
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