On Sat, Jun 22, 2013 at 6:58 PM, Bryce Nesbitt <bry...@obviously.com> wrote:
> The proposal/voting instructions at: > http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Creating_a_proposal Are mostly about > inventing new tags. > What's the procedure for, and how can we document, a voting proposal for > reorganizing things instead? This is quite a difficult process in OSM, and generally not done. Here's the general process: 1. First, see how the existing *use* of the tags are. In general[1], use wins out over anything else. So if you have a tagging that you think is better, use it, and better yet- show how the system is used by others already. 2. Use your new tagging system. If you have a lot of data, the best thing to do is to just use your own tagging system, and let the process be damned. 3. Get your scheme adopted by the renderers and editors This is where many tagging systems fail. There is a misconception on this list that being on the wiki makes a tag official and thus the renderers and editors must adopt it as documented. The reality is that the editors and the renderers use what's already present on the map. The key to getting your tagging system adopted is largely simplicity. Many of the proposed tags fail because they're too complex. If it involves a relation, it's generally overcomplicated. If it has multi-level tagging, ie: "foo:bar:baz=alice", then it's generally overcomplicated. This process of changing a tag in the tools can be a long one. If you feel very strongly about this feature being shown on the OSM default stylesheet, you may have to patch it yourself. Same with the editors. Alternatively, in my experience, just wait for the adoption. 4. Mass-retagging Mass-retagging is generally frowned upon, strongly. This is something the DWG handles frequently. It's far better to use your own tagging system and not worry about someone else. They may be curating their own dataset for their neighborhood, city, country, etc. so if you just go in and wipe out their work, it can be very disruptive. Generally this is why tagging systems will be left around even when they've been deprecated. If you had to have a mass rename, and the tools all supported it, you might get some backing if you proposed it like you did an import (especially if you did it within a region like the US, vs worldwide). But generally, it's better to have two tags that mean the same thing, then try to go through the effort of retagging. - Serge _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org http://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
