[OSM-talk] Instead of voting

[Russ Nelson]

Doctau created the following page, and various other people have
contributed to it.

http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Proposed_features/VotingOnTheWikiIsStupid

I don't think voting is stupid, but I do believe that voting is not
productive.  Here's what I believe we should do instead of voting on
features:

1) Just map.

2) Use existing keys if you can.  When you use a key, check to see if
there's an existing value that matches what you are mapping.  To go
looking, put your key into the following URL where it says "shop":
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Key:shop

3) Use existing tags if you can.  When you use a tag (key=value),
check to see if an existing tag is already documented.  Don't use it
in a different way if it's already documented.  To go looking, change
this URL where it says "shop=car":
http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:shop=car

4) If you used a tag that isn't in the wiki, document your use of the
tag, so that other people won't use your tag to mean something else.

5) If you disagree with the definition of the key or value, then
create a new key or value with a different name, use it in your
editing, document it in the wiki, AND (this is important) put a link
to it in the definition that you disagree with.

6) The risk of this system is that people will not find tags that have
the meaning they're looking for.  They'll then create a new tag which
has an identical or similar meaning to an existing one.  If you find a
pair of these tags which have similar meanings, you should edit the
wiki pages for them, and include pointers to each other.

The benefit is that people spend more time mapping and less time
coordinating with each other on things that don't need to be
coordinated in advance.

-- 
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