[OSM-talk] Review of name and boundary tagging - revised and amended guidelines to address and resolve disputes

[Christoph Hormann]

On Monday 12 July 2021, Bert -Araali- Van Opstal wrote:
>
> So your comments and opinions are respected, known and repeated
> multiple times, taken into account, shared by many.

Small but important correction here:  I did not just express an opinion 
shared by many, i made statements of fact.  You are welcome to 
challange those - but please keep in mind that the validity of these 
statements does not depend on how many people share them as opinions.

> [...]
>
> A. where are the limits of "on the ground truth" and "verifiability"
> in OSM, 

The principle of verifiability in mapping in OSM finds its limits in 
(and only in) the fact that there are no firm rules in OSM.  So 
individual mappers are free to ignore the verifiability principle and 
add non-verifiable data (which happens frequently, sometimes to the 
benefit of the project, sometimes to its damage).  But you cannot 
create policy that abolishes or constrains the verifiability 
principle - because that would clash with the principle that there are 
no firm rules in OSM.

So a classical dilemma:  To attack the verifiability principle you would 
need to use the fact that there are no firm rules in OSM.  But that in 
return would thwart any meaningful attack against the verifiability 
principle - because as the wiki used to say (regarding verifiability):

"By virtue of common sense, it has become an official policy without 
anyone consciously declaring it as such."

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