It's fine that some training and knowledge is required to properly tag features in OSM. For example, it takes some experience or wiki research to learn the difference between natural=heath (dwarf shrubs) and natural=scrub (shurbland), or wetland=bog and wetland=marsh.
However, a mapper who visits a particular place, and reads the OSM wiki carefully, should be able to clearly distinguish between the two types of vegetation. Similarly, the definition of natural=volcano should be clear and practical enough to determine. A mapper doesn't need to be a geologist to know that a mountain is a volcano if it is active or dormant: climbing up to the crater may reveal smoking or steaming fumaroles with nasty sulfur odor, and the shape of the crater or volcanic vent is distinctive. But even a geologist won't be able to distinguish a heavily-eroded, extinct volcano by just visiting the area one time. Often this requires digging into the ground and studying the buried layers of rock in several locations. If the only way to know that a certain peak was once formed by volcanic activity is that you have to go to a library and read an article in an old geology journal, then we are adding definitions to tags that don't fit the OSM way of checking for real, current things. Wikipedia is based on citations of other people's research, and depends on trusting that the findings of experts in the field are correct. Original research gets you a warning. On the contrary OSM is based on real, current, local information that can be confirmed to be true or false: it's primary research by ordinary mappers. Not everything that is published, not everything that can be cited in Wikipedia, is suitable to be mapped and tagged in OSM. Joseph On 7/25/19, Martin Koppenhoefer <[email protected]> wrote: > > > sent from a phone > >> On 25. Jul 2019, at 09:47, Paul Allen <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> If we limit ourselves to what a mapper without >> much knowledge of geology can verify for him/herself then we limit the >> mapping of >> volcanoes to those with visible lava lakes. > > > In all fields of information where we map you need to have knowledge to > understand and describe what you are seeing. > > Sometimes more specific knowledge is required, sometimes we consider it > general knowledge. If you don’t know traffic rules and signs you can’t > verify many road tags or turn restrictions, etc., still we don’t require a > driving license from mappers and we don’t bother as long as someone doesn’t > change tagging in a field where he doesn’t have the required knowledge. > > Cheers Martin > _______________________________________________ > Tagging mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging > _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
