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

[Nic Roets]

Andy, this is a very good summary of the choices we face.

As long as important pages on our wiki contain statements like "However,
there is no guarantee that a tag listed here will be rendered ...", the
public will regard us as amateur map makers. Contrast this with our
professional quality rendering and the mind boggling detail stored in our
database.

So we need to identify members capable and willing of making tough decisions
and then give them the necessary support. If no one has distinguished him /
herself at the various mapping parties / meetings, we should look for well
written pages on the wiki and promote the individuals involved.

Alternatively we can choose people who have done a lot of tagging. For
example Milenko, beej71, wildMan, kiya, Skywave, devrise, blars, GercoKees,
uboot, MichaelCollinson, andrewpmk, ewedistrict, beldin, Alban,  katpatuka,
ulfl, mackerski dkt or Sven Anders.

On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 7:20 PM, Andy Allan <gravitystorm at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 4:55 PM, Sebastian Hohmann <mail at s-hohmann.de>
> wrote:
>
> >  it has been voted on and should thus stay on
> > Map Features.
>
> Therein lies the problem, in my opinion, specifically with the "thus".
> Things could be voted on, but not put onto the Map Features page,
> perhaps - otherwise we'll end up needed an "edited highlights" of map
> features - given we're going to map *everything* on the planet, it's
> becoming increasingly less feasible to have everything documented on
> the one page, both technically and editorially. And isn't multiple
> pages one of the joys of a wiki? A grey-scale of importance and/or
> acceptance?
>
> > Or should just everyone edit the wiki without regard for
> > others.
>
> Therein lies the strawman. It's not a binary choice between everyone
> having an equal vote (no matter their level of experience, talent or
> other meritocratic traits) and individual anarchism. There's other
> possibilities that are demonstrated in other parts of the project,
> especially amongst the developers, mapping party organisers and
> sysadmins[1], but aren't used on the tagging discussions on the wiki.
> More thought should be put into the alternatives available - maybe by
> perusing the sidebar at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochlocracy for
> some ideas.
>
> But since it's a complex subject, and neither the wiki nor the mailing
> list promote any better form of discourse than a simple tit-for-tat
> refuting of points taken out of context (c.f. all the email I ever
> send, which are often unhelpful and ill-thought out), and often create
> a binary oversimplication of complex nuanced subjects, I unfortunately
> hold out little hope of constructive dialogue.
>
> Cheers,
> Andy
>
> [1] Meritocracy, do-ocracy and benevolent dictatorship, perhaps.
>
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