[OSM-talk] Tag name vs operator

[Pieren]

On Tue, Jul 13, 2010 at 10:34 AM, David Murn <davey at incanberra.com.au>wrote:

> >
> > As others have pointed out, 'brand' may be a better choice of 'name' in
> some
> > cases, but in reality there are THREE possible tags in many of these
> cases. For
> > example
> > name=the fancy hotel
> > brand=best western
> > operator=the local best western franchise
>
> Thinking from an end-user point of view, Im more likely to be looking
> for 'Best Western' than 'Bob Jones's Motel Franchise' or 'McDonalds'
> rather than 'Janes Restaurant Group, trading as McDonalds'.  As an end
> user, I think youd care about the brand/operator (McDonalds), then the
> name ("McDonalds Smithtown"), then the franchise details ('ABC
> Restaurants T/A McDonalds').
>
>
Perhaps as 'end user'. But we have to think about 'contributors' and
'newbies' and today it's really really over complicated if we use sometimes
'name' and sometimes 'operator' or 'brand' or 'network' depending if you tag
an hotel, a restaurant or a bank. We have to fix simple rules for tagging !
The average contributor does not care about name/brand/operator, they just
want to map what they see on the ground as simple as possible.
The tag 'name' was easy to use last year and since then, some people try to
replace it by 'operator' (at least for banks on the wiki) and I think it's a
mistake. I see this now on my area where people tag banks with operator only
because it is suggested like that in the wiki. But in older contributions
it's the tag 'name' and we have now this mess.
I just looked quickly the latest JOSM presets and it's not better. Many
presets ask for a name and equally an operator, not saying which one is more
important and which one is optional. But amenity=fuel is clearly asking
'operator' and optionaly a name. And restaurant or fast_food preset is just
asking a name, not an 'operator'.
I would really appreciate if we can agree that, as a mapper, we always tag
the name displayed on the front of any
building/business/amenity/restaurant/bank/hotel/etc with the tag 'name' and
possibly extend - as an option - with the tag
operator/network/brand/branch/franchise.

Pieren
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