[OSM-talk] THIS is the kind of enthusiasm some would reject

[Colin Smale]

I don't think I'm misunderstanding anything. Patronising answers don't help towards achieving consensus.

I assume you are referring to the specific rendering on osm.org. Which is leading here? Does the map style dictate the data, or does the renderer have to adapt to the data? The correct answer imho is that the data is leading, as this is the product of OSM and not any specific rendering.
There is only one database, but an infinite number of possible renderings or uses of that data. So discussions about tagging should take a number of representative use cases into account, and respect general principles of data modelling.
One of these principles is maintaining some kind of dividing line between how data is stored and how it is presented. Tagging is consumed by machines, not humans. Machines mostly work with structure and logic and don't have the power of a human's cognitive processes at their disposal.
Is amenity a primary tag? It certainly causes something to render. Is building a primary tag? Same here. Is it improper to have both on the same object? Of course not.

On 12 September 2015 13:55:20 CEST, "Dave F." <davefox at madasafish.com> wrote:
>On 12/09/2015 12:37, Colin Smale wrote:
>> Rendering precedence is a different subject to tagging. You know what
>
>> happens to suggestions of tagging in a certain way for the purposes
>of 
>> influencing the appearance of a map...
>
>You're misunderstanding the purpose of tagging which is to allow 
>renderers to differentiate entities & display them accurately & 
>differently from each other.
>
>*All* tagging is for the renderer, it's incorrect tagging that's
>frowned 
>upon (natural=sand for golf bunkers is the popular example).
>
>
>>
>> A search on the wiki for pages with the word primary only returns
>hits 
>> in connection with highway and schools. Can you help me out and give
>a 
>> link to the page you are referring to?
>
>Many pages list tags 'to be used in conjunction with...'
>
>A good test is if you remove a tag & it fails to render then it's 
>probably a primary tag. Sub tags allow you to add extra adjective 
>attributes.
>
>Example (made up one):
>barrier=gate (primary)
>
>Sub tags:
>access=yes
>type=5 bar
>material=wood
>colour=blue
>
>Delete the sub tags & they'll probably still render. delete the primary
>
>& it won't.
>
>Cheers
>Dave F.
>
>
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