[Talk-GB] place=village/town/city

[Andy Townsend]

On 12/02/2016 13:15, Colin Smale wrote:
>
> According to Wikipedia, ...
>

... I wouldn't assume that what wikipedia says has any particular 
relevance with respect to how something is mapped in OSM.  The language 
used in the English wikipedia is a mix of American and English (and 
other) usages, and how things are mapped in OSM doesn't always match 
"common [British] English usage".

> it is country-dependent.
>

That, however, is entirely correct.  The Irish, for example have a very 
clear idea of what their "cities" are.  It's less clear on this side of 
the Irish Sea.

> In the UK of course it is a matter of status to be called a City, and 
> there is an unambiguous list of cities. 

That's the legal definition, not the OSM one.  Perhaps you are 
unfamiliar with the previous discussion, but this has been done to death 
before.  See these threads among others:

https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-gb/2014-February/thread.html#15867

https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-gb/2014-April/thread.html#15982

and particularly this post:

https://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk-gb/2014-April/015983.html

which makes it clear why using the "legal city definition" might not 
make sense in OSM _across the board_.  It might in some places (it's 
essentially what the Irish do, I believe), but I'd argue it doesn't here 
because of e.g. St David's (see below) and Telford, which despite its 
size doesn't really feel like a city to me - although if someone more 
local says I'm wrong, I'll believe them.


> This list can only be changed by the Crown through parliament. The 
> smallest city is St Davids in Wales, with a population of 1841 (2011 
> figure). Any attempt to retag it in OSM to place=village will probably 
> be reverted within 0.1 nanoseconds.... 

I'd be interested to see the history of St David's.  The current node

http://osm.mapki.com/history/node.php?id=3712052604

was only created in August 2015; I wonder what it was before?


> .... but it is a point of civic pride for the inhabitants as the 
> council becomes a Town Council ...
>

A number of places _call_ themselves a town council, because they can.  
It's pretty irrelevant to status in OSM.  See Jerry's post above (from 
that for example I'd call Bingham a town and Keyworth not because that's 
what they feel like to me).

What doesn't work with city/town/village classification is someone 
diving in and making lots of changes without explaining why; what does 
is a bit of discussion first so that we know that yes, there are still 
different opinions on this and that of the various options XYZ tagging 
has the least oponents.

Cheers,

Andy

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