[OSM-talk] is_in and similar tags

[John Smith]

--- On Tue, 28/7/09, andrzej zaborowski <balrogg at gmail.com> wrote:

> What if boundary is not defined but the hierarchy is
> defined, such as
> with post codes?  Should people invent boundary
> polygons based on just
> what nodes/ways belong to the area?  I hope not.

Why spend just as much time tagging every node, way and relation in an area with this information, how would that be useful when a rough polygon can essentially tag all those nodes?

> This is the case with administrative hierarchy of
> regions/counties/municipalities in a lot of countries, in
> other
> countries there is no and possibly will never be any way to
> obtain the
> official boundary polygon information.

We don't have official information available for most roads in most countries how does that stop unofficial information being added?