[OSM-talk] Tagging schema

[Mike N.]

> And I think this gets changed as other objects in the database get
> changed: freely but consciously. So if there is a new value for shop, it
> is a conscious act to add that to the list of values for shop, and to
> describe it, not just casually adding it as a tag value.
>
> Let me be quite clear again: this doesn't restrict anyone's freedom to
> add new tags or values. Anyone can edit them just like the map data. It
> does make it a little more work, but the value of doing so both to the
> person making the change and the rest of the community is also increased:
> (a) the tag/value is publicised, not buried in the map data, so if it is
> a good one, it is more likely to be adopted

   I recently set out to do an all-inclusive map of a section of town. 
Perhaps I'm unfortunate enough to live in a city of lawyers, but it seems 
that a large entire section of town consists of law offices.    I can't 
believe I'm not the first person to want to tag a law office as a shop 
category (I may have completely missed an existing tag).   The process of 
creating a new tag is laborious:
    Search the wiki for approved tags that don't appear in presets
    Search the wiki for a  proposed tag to be able to at least choose a more 
common tag
    Search TagWatch - I didn't play with this for long, but the links from 
the wiki to TagWatch don't make it easy to query a list of tags in use for 
key shop for example.