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

[Matthias Julius]

Frederik Ramm <frederik at remote.org> writes:

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

The first paragraph on Map Features says it is "a core recommended
feature set and corresponding tags", and to me a recommendation is
something that should be followed (at least in the view of its
author).

Nothing on Map Features says that it is a list of commonly used tags.
Instead, it is my understanding that there are a couple of people who
decide through voting what to put on Map Features.

>
> 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.

I am not advocating for anyone to just go and delete features.  I am
just saying that if there is a process to add features the same
process can be used to remove them.  

I also think it is confusing if two equivalent tags are recommended
for the same thing.  If by whatever process it is determined that a
new wah of tagging gates is recommended the old tag should point to
the new one with the indication that the recommendation has changed.

>
> 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.)

I agree with you here, but voting seems to be the current practice.

Matthias