Yes, I can see what you mean and I can see why having a standard set of tags would help in mapping etc.
However, isn't it accepted within OSM that tags are open. In fact, I attended the State of the Map conference a couple of weeks ago and I raised this very point. I asked, as a newcomer, what should I do if I have doubts about the tag I should be using. I was advised on several occasions by different experienced mappers that if I can't find anything suitable then just invent a sensible one myself. So, unless creating new tags is banned this situation will always be a bit of a free-for-all no matter how much we don't like it. It is the very nature of the beast in my opinion. The only real solution that would prevent this free-for-all situation occuring is to only allow approved tags and to have a process of approval prior to use and I get the feeling that would also be very much against the open nature of the project. As a newcomer I always search, search and search again, both on the wiki and on ItoWorld, for tags to use and so far I have not had to invent any myself but I can imagine other newcomers, less determined to only use existing tags whenever possible, doing a cursory search, not finding anything suitable, and then just investing new tags when existing tags do exists if only they had found them. Not sure what the answer is... if there is one. Paul The problem is that it is almost impossible to write, and more importantly, > keep up-to-date a data consumer (like a specialized map of shops, in the > examples people have been talking about) in an anarchic free-for-all where > tags come and go and people invent their own. > > In effect the only data consumer that can reasonably makes sense of it all > is a human reader (and even then, if is open to misinterpretation, as you > are all saying, then them may also be unable to consume the data). > > David > > > > > ______________________________**_________________ > Tagging mailing list > Tagging@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.**org/listinfo/tagging<https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/tagging> >
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