[OSM-talk] SteveC should decide

[Matt Amos]

On 10/3/09, Russ Nelson <nelson at crynwr.com> wrote:
> Jukka Rahkonen writes:
>
>  > You seem to believe that SteveC would make such a decision that
>  > makes you happy.  How about if he says that if you want people to
>  > continue working with OSM "in creative, productive, or unexpected
>  > ways" then true/false, yes/no, and 0/1 issue must be tolerated.
>
> That's okay, too.  What I want, what I REALLY want, is for SteveC to
> be able to exercise leadership without being told that he's evil for
> doing so.

i agree - there's nothing constructive about ad-hominem attacks. if
steve wants to breed dinosaur-spider-monkeys in the privacy of his own
home, that's noone's business but his.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:BauW170B.jpg

> There's a set of people who feel that mappers shouldn't be given
> guidance, because if they accidentally don't follow it, they'll feel
> bad and might stop mapping.

this is a nonsense straw man.

> But there's also a [non-disjoint] set of mappers who are
> editing because they want to create the best map possible.

there's also a set of people who feel that mappers are perfectly able
to judge for themselves which guidance is worth following and which
isn't. this set is a subset of those who want to create the best map
possible.

>  We change
> true and 1 to yes when we edit something.  And we want to know what is
> the "proper" way to mark a road as having no name.  Going to the wiki
> and finding nine different schemes (none of which are supported by the
> Noname renderer) is not helpful.

are you suggesting that the best way forward is for some authority to
decree that there is One True Way of tagging noname roads and forcing
all mappers, editors and renderers to support it?

it might be helpful if the wiki documented the guidance of experienced
mappers, rather than the free-for-all of half-baked ideas that it
seems to have become.

> I'm 100% in favor of freedom.  I'm 100% in favor of free-form
> tagging.  But I'm also 100% in favor of guidance from experienced
> editors.

then why suggest placing any one person in an exalted "leadership"
position? guidance from experienced editors - we've got lots of that,
and sometimes they disagree. assuming that people can't make
judgements of their own about these issues is patronising.

> Oh, to hell with it.  I'll just mark the damned road noname=yes, and
> if you find a road with no name and YOU mark it noname=yes, then good
> for you.  And if not, then I don't have to cooperate with you either.

if mappers tag the way they feel is best and the tool authors (i.e:
nonames layer) consume the tags in the way they feel is best then the
two will converge, as long as everyone keeps an open mind and refrains
from childish antagonism.

cheers,

matt