[OSM-talk] Crimea situation - on the ground

[Colin Smale]

On 2020-02-08 11:48, Rory McCann wrote:

> It is true that government A might have one opinion, and government B might have another, and Provisional Autonomous Republic of C might have another opinion.
> 
> But there can be another way. We go there, and we see what nearly everyone there calls it. We look at the words on the signs. We look at the name of the organisations based there ("Transport for London"). We walk down the street and ask 100 people what the name of this city is. We listen into conversations there, and see if there's a majority name that people use when they talk to each other about the city
> 
> And the answer to that is "London".
> 
> In OSM, we could tag that "the opinion of the UK government is that this city is called London", and "the opinion of the French government is that this this city is called Londres", and "the commonly used name for this city by the vast majority of people who live there is London".
> 
> We should map the third option with the `name` tag.

Absolutely. But we should document our sources! Basic rule of research.
And if we choose to promote one alternative above the others, we are
skating on thin ice. Have we actually asked the people of Crimea
first-hand what they think? No=>it's someones opinion. Can we base our
choice on someone else's research? Which research is that? No=>it's
someone's opinion. Unless we can point to it being "in someone else's
opinion", we must take responsibility for our own conclusions. If that's
too hard, better to not have an opinion i.e. don't promote anything as
"more equal than others".
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