[OSM-talk] Map features discussion & voting

[Tom Chance]

Hullo,

Thanks to Alex for going through lots of the old proposed map features, that page needs some management.

Unfortunately I think the process is massively failing right now. Lots of the emails Alex has sent indicate decisions on the basis of three or four "votes" - three or four people in a mapping community of over 700, on the basis of very little discussion. I really think there ought to be a bare minimum, like 15 votes with a 75% majority, before something can be accepted. For some proposals there also needs to be a lot more discussion; an additional amenity may be quite obvious, but Ben's waterway proposal on the stream page (http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/index.php/Proposed_features/Stream) is much more complicated and should change the way people enter waterways.

How can we stimulate more discussion of proposed features, more awareness of upcoming votes, a better means of determining if a particular vote warrants an approved/rejected decision, and more awareness of big changes when they come through?

One idea I have, but alas really wouldn't be reliable enough to keep up, would be to produce a weekly newsletter that's sent out to all user accounts (perhaps with an opt-out), or this list. The letter would detail new proposed features, recently hot discussions, upcoming votes and accepted/rejected decisions.

What do others think?

Kind regards,
Tom