[OSM-talk] Proposed mechanical edit to convert alt_name tags

[Frederik Ramm]

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Hi,

   I think using alt_name:1 was not the greatest idea at the time.

So you have a

> hand-picked team of people using private task manager jobs so that
> the work is done carefully and no one just "blindly" dumps a load
> of data in without first checking it.

but you can't be bothered to discuss with the wider OSM community how
to best address the multiple alternative name issue; instead you pick
something that works by accident.

Then you plan to "make it right" by using the unprecedented and
illogical scheme of "alt_name_x", and before you discuss the issue
with people who might help you devise a better way, you ask the
Nominatim maintainer to add a quick patch for you.

alt_name_x sounds like a bad idea to me as well - why is there an
alt_name_x but no old_name_x or official_name_x for when something has
two old names or two official names? The patch that has been suggested
for osm2pgsql

https://github.com/openstreetmap/osm2pgsql/commit/29ccee0859fa4728378d7299e9deeab737da347d

simply accepts alt_name_whateversomething but doesn't afford the same
to other name tags. Is this matter really so urgent that we have no
time to think it through?

> (with the 2 extending to higher numbers as well, some of these
> places have as many as 6 or 7 alt_name entries).

Do the people who carefully add the data have the knowledge to assert
whether keeping these 6 or 7 names really adds value, or are they
instructed to simply copy whatever GNIS has?

> Thank you for your consideration in this matter, and I would ask
> that we try to expedite the discussion on this

Missing - or expedited - discussion has got you into this situation.
You're now trying to introduce a badly thought out schema on the
quick; a change to our instance of Nominatim would make things worse
by actually encouraging people to use this.

I am very unhappy with the whole process and I can only hope it's the
exception not the rule.

Bye
Frederik

- -- 
Frederik Ramm  ##  eMail frederik at remote.org  ##  N49°00'09" E008°23'33"
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