[OSM-talk] amenity=doctor or amenity=doctors ? [tagging]

[Tom Chance]

On Mon, 23 Feb 2009 12:46:09 +0100, Guenther Meyer <d.s.e at sordidmusic.com>
wrote:
> because...
> 
> 1. ... every application trying to use the data has to deal with several 
> taggings for the same thing. that's an unnecessary waste of resources.
> a script running on the database can minimize this waste, and
furthermore,
> can 
> fix typos in tags, which are also found all over the database.
> 
> 2. ... it is easier for new mappers to have one documented tag for one 
> feature, instead of having to choose...

I completely agree.

There is no benefit in this case for us to have two or more tags that
describe exactly the same thing *.

Moreover, nobody has expressed a good argument for not running bots that
correct small mistakes when there has been a general agreement that one tag
is preferable over another. Just imagine the great, unusable grey goo that
would result if OSM offers a database with catholic, Catholic, cahtolic,
etc. because somebody thinks it's a bad idea to run a bot on it.

Can we please:
1. put this silly argument to rest,
2. agree on the tag used by JOSM,
3. document it on the wiki,
4. add this case to a general "typos" bot that is run on a regular basis,
5. get back to something useful.

Regards,
Tom

* We might want to localise tag names into the ~6000 spoken languages in
the world. Maybe Latin and ancient Greek too! But we'll leave that for the
future when somebody wants to write the rendering stylesheet.