[OSM-talk] [Tagging] emergency=*

[Brian Quinion]

On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 7:09 PM, Ian Dees <ian.dees at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 1:00 PM, Brian Quinion
> <openstreetmap at brian.quinion.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> >> Discussing this for a day on the Tagging list is not enough for you to
>> >> make
>> >> this change.
>> >
>> > How much time should it take? I didn't really set a dead line but was
>> > trying to get comments on the idea...
>>
>> A change that breaks every editor / renderer / search & data user ?
>
> I don't understand this argument. Doesn't every tag change anywhere "break
> every editor/renderer/search/data user" whether or not you think it is
> correct?
> John has just as much right to go change all the amenity= tags to something
> more specific as you do to keep them the same. Data consumers of all kinds
> need to accept both kinds of changes.

No.

Adding a new type tag just doesn't work yet.

Replacing an existing tag takes something that worked and stops is
working (hence breaks).  Changing tags in a sensible way is hard -
which is why it happens so rarely.

There is no way that OSM can be taken seriously as a data source if we
just randomly switch tags without giving data users adequate time to
respond.

As to John's edits being equally valid.  Also no - that like saying
that my deleting every park or retagging every park 'fish=yes' is
equally valid.  Some edits make the data better - some make it worse.

--
 Brian