[OSM-talk] Edit war on the wiki "map features"

Gustav Foseid gustavf at gmail.com
Tue Nov 25 21:16:10 GMT 2008


On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 8:55 PM, Ralf Zimmermann <osm_list at ralfzimmermann.de
> wrote:

> As for the tags that are being rendered by Mapnik or tiles at home, if
> somebody makes a list of those I would put them on the wiki somewhere close
> to the renderer. This is because of two reasons:
> a) If a tag is not rendered on a map that is made for the general public
> this does not mean that this tag is not important on a specialized map - for
> example a map made for inline skaters.
> b) Remember: We are not tagging for the renderers. It is good to have the
> end-user in mind when you map and tag. But the renderer is not an end-user!
> And if they were - those would only be two flavours of a huge list of
> possible uses of the OSM data.
>

"We are not tagging for renderers", well it had to be mentioned, didn't it?
No, that's right, we do not tag for renders, which means we do not tag
something landuse=park, because we want it to be shown as green on the map,
but because it is a park.


>
>  The place for an "approved" tag which is not widely used is Approved
>> features, not Map Features.
>>
>
> I disagree in this point. How do we decide what is a widely used tag? And
> how can a new tag widely used when it is not on the Map Features wiki page?


The other day I needed to tag a ski jump. That is not a widely used tag,
even if each and every ski jump on the planet should be tagged with it. I
would not expect a new mapper in The Gambia to be familiar with this tag,
just as I would not need to know how to tag different varieties of mangrove.

To me there are some core tags (highway=primary) which every mapper should
be familiar with. On the other end of the scale there are things like bus
guideways or ski jumps. I would consider an area fully mapped, even if a
pelota field or a couple of grit bins are missing, but not if a primary
highway is gone. Somewhere, there should be a more or less clear and concise
list of tags that most mappers should be somewhat familiar with. I think
this should be Map Features.

Today, Map Features is full of almost unused tags (bus_guideway),
contradictions (soccer vs football), hard to understand descriptions ("no
tag for this type yet", "mostly out of order") and endless lists of shops
and amenities.

For tags of regional importance (mangrove, ski jump), we have national map
features pages already. Here you can add tags which are not important
everywhere, as well as national interpretations of the universal tags. One
example is what link and primary should be in varying countries.

If you come across something special, venture into unknown territory (I am
actually going to the Gamboa soon, and need to read up on those mangrove
tags), you should know where to look. This could be approved features or
somewhere else.

 - Gustav
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