[OSM-talk] Chain Store Cleanup

[Mike N]

On 5/1/2015 11:07 AM, Frederik Ramm wrote:
> That's a very "computer person" approach to take. In fact, the
> "McDonald's" issue has already been tried by someone in the past with an
> undiscussed mechanical edit, promptly falsifying a few non-chain
> non-fastfood places that*really*  were called McDonalds just as you mention.

   The proposed edit doesn't seem to match the previous mass 
Search/Replace edit.   It should also be possible to confirm each 
location against the McDonalds store locator or a store list from McDonalds.

> It is also an easy fallacy to think that if the marketing people of some
> chain decide to spell their name differently, we could or should simply
> replace all names to what they "should" be - no we don't, we only change
> the name when the store changes its lettering.

   I as a local mapper would never notice such a change in 100 years of 
going back to audit POIs.   A remote mapper change would correct this 
properly if checked against corporate data, complete with proper tagging 
for old_name - this would assist searches for the new name.

  The argument is strongly *for* informed, remote changes, assuming that 
the data in OSM is to be of some use to data consumers.