[OSM-talk] MEP - pipelines

[Chris Hill]

A tagging scheme, that was already in use, was being changed by a proposal, supported by a small number of votes. Because of these votes the proposer decided that his tagging scheme should be adopted by a mass edit. That mass edit would have broken any use of the tagging scheme by data consumers. Surely data consumers are what we want. We want OSM data to be used, not just for rendering but for analysis, routing, research, planning and many more uses. Data reliability matters. If a tagging scheme just gets changed on an arbritary date, especially in a single step, we risk scaring away dara consumers - all for a change that there's no evidence that it's needed and supported by a small number of votes.

Mappers matter too (even more actually) and changing tagging schemes confuses them too. Extending a tagging scheme is quite different, both for mappers and consumers.

Let's stop this crazy idea that a handful of votes makes anything alright. It doesn't. Wiki voting is wrong, devisive and sometimes destructive.

If the new scheme is adopted in staged way that would be better than a single mass edit, though it can still break data use for people who don't follow OSM's mailing lists.

I don't blame the proposer of the scheme; he's just following the daft guidelines in the wiki. He probably hasn't realised what a phoney, broken procedure voting is. 

Let's stop using voting.

On 6 January 2015 06:06:08 GMT, Bryce Nesbitt <bryce2 at obviously.com> wrote:
>> What about the maps I produce for my client? You're not likely to
>know about
>> it as it is a private project. If you make a mechanical edit that
>breaks my
>> render, should I send the bill for the changes to you rather than ask
>my
>> client to pay? (This is not hypothetical I really do have a render
>using
>> pipelines. I'm also using pipeline data to calculate approximations
>of
>> distribution and aggregation).
>
>You'd rather face a tag fragmentation, and slowly see your data slip
>away?
>It seems in many cases it's a favor to have the data migrated to one
>tagging system....
>as long as that change is properly coordinated.

---
cheers, Chris
osm user, chillly
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