[OSM-talk] barrier=gate, run a script?

[Frederik Ramm]

Hi,

Matthias Julius wrote:
> IMHO, if someone has the authority to put something on Map Features
> someone also has the authority to change or remove something or mark
> it as deprecated.

Map Features is a documentation of what is used, not of what someone 
thinks should be used.

There is a rather objective basis for what is used - the planet file. 
There is no objective basis for what "should" be used - everybody has 
their own ideas. These things form slowly; someone documents his idea 
somewhere, others talk about it on the lists or forums, with time it 
gets adopted by many (or not), and there may come a time when you look 
at Map Features and say "hm, this highway=gate is barely used any more, 
let's ditch it", and that's fine. But this is something you do "ex 
post", not "ex ante", or put another way, Map Features is not a 
normative page, it is empirical.

We have no mechanism to divide "good" from "bad" ideas. If you start 
putting your ideas about what you think is good and "should" be used on 
Map Features, then I will start putting mine on there as well, and 
everyone else. That's why we don't want to go down this road. (And 
before anyone asks, a vote in which 0.01% of mappers participate does 
not elevate one idea about what is "good" above hundreds of others.)

> Well, whole Map Features is about how people "should" tag things

No, that's your interpretation. Map features is primarily about what 
*is* used.

Bye
Frederik

-- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"