[OSM-talk] Worldwide non-surveyed tag edits

Paul Johnson baloo at ursamundi.org
Wed Jun 11 18:55:10 UTC 2014


Is the problem that the changes he's making outright wrong?   I honestly
don't see a problem with bulk fixing names and typos en masse without
running it past the world.  How many 7-Eleven locations get added
misspelled as 711, 7-11, 7/11, etc?
On Jun 10, 2014 8:49 PM, "SomeoneElse" <lists at mail.atownsend.org.uk> wrote:

> An OSM user seems to be on a mission to replace a large number of the low
> usage tags in OSM - mostly in Europe, but also elsewhere:
>
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/user/Markus59/history
> (hit "load more" a few times and you'll see the extent of it).
>
> Let's leave aside for now the issue that in some cases tags are being
> replaced with others that simply do not mean the same thing:
>
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/changeset/22839601
> (that example has been reverted; I'm sure that other similar ones will
> have been too)
>
> I'm talking here about less problematical changes - things like this:
>
> http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/243539765/history
> (car_repair=MOTs to car_repair=MOT)
>
> Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that the latter is the "more
> correct" (or at least more common in OSM); what then is the problem with
> changing it automatically?
>
>
> Well:
>
> 1) People may well be expecting the previous form in OSM data that they're
> using to make maps with.  Whether it's "right" or "wrong" is irrelevant; if
> data no longer appears in selections from extracts of OSM data it looks
> like it's been deleted (this is similar to what happened with the
> "substation/sub_station" JOSM farce and the standard map stylesheet - data
> disappeared from maps for no good reason).
>
> 2) Mappers creating the "incorrect" data will continue to do so until
> they're told otherwise.
>
> 3) There's an explicit policy designed to prevent edits being done in this
> way:
>
> http://wiki.osm.org/wiki/Mechanical_Edit_Policy
>
> precisely to avoid problems (1) and (2).
>
>
> So does this mean that tags in OSM can never change?  Of course not -
> mappers who are using "rare" tags to tag exactly the same thing as a more
> common tag simply don't know that the more common tag exists (I've done
> exactly that myself with "outside_seating" and "barrier=horse_stile").  If
> data consumers know that tag X is to be replaced with tag Y, they know to
> change what they extract.  Someone who suggests, as per the Mechanical Edit
> Policy, that car_repair=MOT and car_repair=MOTs be united in one tag (or
> other similar change) is not going to be met with any resistance - provided
> that data consumers have fair warning, of course.
>
>
> I've previously tried to contact the user concerned, but I think that it's
> fair to say that communication did not occur. They tried to instruct me in
> the meaning of the English word "cobblers" based on their understanding
> from a German web-based dictionary; I ended up quoting Brewer's back at
> them. More seriously, my suggestion that there should be discussion before
> worldwide tag edits and that the particular changes that I'd contacted them
> about were just plain invalid fell on deaf ears.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Andy
>
>
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