[OSM-talk] Users, contributors and developers

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

 > Now I just wanted people to be able to have
> some third attribute, I don't super mind what it's called. I came away 
> super frustrated that we couldn't even agree having it was a good idea.

It's just different mentalities really. Some (including you) say "let's 
put that in, I think people are going to put it to good use somehow", 
others say "if you can't say how it should be used, then leave it out 
because it will only add to the confusion... even though we would like 
to have it...".

It is true that introducing a "third column" without exact specs on how 
to use it will add to the confusion. But that's not necessarily a bad 
thing because out of the confusion my arise a better spec than could 
have been provided beforehand. (May, not will; you never know where you 
get with those community processes.)

> I disagree that the burden has shifted on end-data-users. There is 
> strong community pressure to tag your stuff 'right'. Other people will 
> fix it for you if you do it 'wrong' (I have fixed lots of broken tags) 
> and it won't show up on the map.

I guess we'll also see a lot more automated fixing in the future because 
it just needs to be done. A lot of variation in keys and values is not 
due to people expressing their freedom to tag what they think is 
important (a stated goal of ours), but people just making mistakes. The 
tagging freedom will gradually be undermined by automated changes, and 
in the end we'll end up with an almost stable system, and everyone will 
be happy. We'll have reached, through evolution, something that others 
try to reach by intelligent design... oops, wrong mailing list ;-)

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00.09' E008°23.33'