It is true that OpenStreetMap allows for any tag you like, but this isn’t meant to encourage you to devalue established tags by using them differently from how they are typically used. What would be the benefit you expect from such retagging?
This is not something I am suggesting; this is the current state of things.
fountain=drinking is currently a subtag of amenity=fountain and it is documented in the wiki. fountain=* is unfortunately also a subtag of amenity=drinking_water, I just noticed this and I think that this makes it even more confusing.
Anyway, I have proposed another solution: the introduction of a new key to cover all these features; a proposal for it was made but it was withdrawn due to fierce criticism, among which was yours since you disliked the fact that it deprecated some tags you're using.
I do see the problems in both approaches; but also having fountain=* as subtag of amenity=drinking_water does not look like a good solution to me. Moreover, what is the point of having values of fountain=* that do not apply to the amenity=fountain main key?
For example, this approach does not allow tagging fountains which are not decorative and that do not provide drinking water.
You can tag them as man_made=water_tap if they have a tap, if a tap is not present these cannot be tagged according to this scheme, because:
- No tap, thus no man_made=water_tap - Not a decorative fountain, thus no amenity=fountain - No drinking water, thus no amenity=drinking_water _______________________________________________ Tagging mailing list Tagging@openstreetmap.org https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging
