OpenStreetMap
Mapping a few things locally and noticed some things don't render, so I filed bugs about them:
Rendering waterway=drain areas, these are now very mappable anywhere Nearmap has made imagery available, but only ways currently render:
http://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/3041
Rendering operator=* tags if name=* is missing, currently nothing is rendered but operator shows up in JOSM
http://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/3042
Generic shop icons, I think it's important that something renders on the map, even if it's just the name and a generic icon for points of interest like shops, currently only a select subset of shops are rendering
http://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/3043
Does anyone else have any thoughts on what else should be rendered?
Discussion
Comment from aude on 9 June 2010 at 04:01
A generic shop icon rendering on the map would be tremendously useful. I run into the other two scenarios far less often, but they seem also worth doing.
Comment from JohnSmith on 9 June 2010 at 04:13
@aude there is already a generic icon for a fast food place (a burger) and while not perfectly matching all fast foods is good enough to know there is something there at least.
Comment from Vclaw on 11 June 2010 at 15:04
For drains, is it worth mapping them as a way and an area, as is done with rivers (waterway=river/waterway=riverbank)?
eg waterway=drain (for a way) and waterway=drainbank (for the area). It means you can indicate the direction of flow.
The same thing applies to streams. Streams as areas are available from the OS Opendata vector maps, so it would be nice to map them in OSM.
Comment from JohnSmith on 11 June 2010 at 23:42
@Vclaw Do we really need another tag though, can't we just tag the area the same as the mid point?
Comment from Vclaw on 12 June 2010 at 01:31
I think it would help make things easier for the renderers (and other data users) if it was a separate tag (and it would be more backwards compatible).
Otherwise, how do you tell the difference between a drain that loops back on itself (so is a circular way), and a drain mapped as an area? You could use area=yes/area=no, but that's an additional tag to remember.
A different tag also means validators can warn of problems, as they do for non-closed areas for riverbanks etc.
Also, renderers could ignore riverbank areas etc, and just render the river as a line at lower zoom levels, or to make a simpler map.