[OSM-talk] Place: city,town,village,hamlet,suburb

[Alex Mauer]

The other day I was considering making an attempt at entering the
borders of my city, and referenced the page:
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Map_Features#Places
The comments for place=town,village,hamlet,suburb caught me off guard,
because they include population as part of the apparent definition of
those places.

After some discussion on IRC, the conclusion I arrived at was that the
US and the UK differ significantly in their determination of a
city/town/village -- The US seems to define their terminology based on
the type of local government, while the UK bases it primarily on certain
amenities provided by the municipality (I could be wrong on this, but it
doesn't matter for the point I'm trying to make).  Neither country bases
it on the population.  Some countries have minimum population
requirements to be a certain type, but I am not aware of any where it
is the only definition.

So I think that at least that page should be modified to reflect this
fact, by removing the comments about population.

Since the distinction among these place-types is so varied throughout
the world, is it even useful or could it be better served by having
place="municipality" replacing all of those?

On a personal note I found the word "Town" to be confusing, but that
seems to be due to my specific location and the unusual terminology used
there. [1] I think I'll just have to suck it up and deal with it.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_subdivisions_of_Wisconsin#Town

-- 
Alex Mauer "hawke"
OpenPGP key ID: 0x51192FF2

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