[OSM-talk] Standard map style contributions

[Christoph Hormann]

On Friday 29 December 2017, Andy Townsend wrote:
> [...]  As described in
> https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/blob/master/CARTO
>GRAPHY.md , OSM Carto has somewhat conflicting goals - both as "an
> important feedback mechanism for mappers" and as an "exemplar
> stylesheet".

Note the above document was originally written as the first part of a 
longer document that ends with more specific guidelines that were meant 
specifically to help contributors to recognize what kind of changes are 
desirable and which are not.  The maintainers could not agree on more 
specific design principles though which ultimately left this in an 
incomplete state that can be used to justify either accepting or 
rejecting a very wide range of changes.

https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/pull/2462

> With the last two issues it's difficult to know what to suggest -
> there has to be an overall style "direction" otherwise you just end
> up with something that is a bit of a mess.  Likewise there have to be
> some standards, but sometimes I suspect that if the maintainers
> actually want to see a fix to a particular problem that they'll need
> help potential contributors a bit more.

Actually if there is a need of a shared, overall design direction has 
been a subject of quite a bit of debate over the last 1-2 years - see 
for example here:

https://github.com/gravitystorm/openstreetmap-carto/issues/2270

While i agree with you that from my perspective a style direction or 
design paradigm is needed for successful development i try to be open 
to the possibility that it is not.  How to attract contributors in such 
a framework is not something i can provide a competent opinion on 
though.

-- 
Christoph Hormann
http://www.imagico.de/