OpenStreetMap
I have been doing some "cleanup" of old tags recently.
Some I find to trivial to even mention, some require some level of agreement from other before proceeding.
Some time ago I suggested ford=yes as a replacement for highway ford.
I had already replaced the few hundred occurences on ways. That has not been objected to at all so far.
Now its down to the nodes. This is a higher number of elements and more of a search and replace type job. So I ask to see if there is any objections via the mail list. http://lists.openstreetmap.org/pipermail/talk/2010-October/054554.html
It was a simple Yes/No question.
I just wonder. Does everybody that does world wide edits get to be called a "couch potato"/"bot crazy", even if all their edits are manual? How can someone possibly claim that you cannot do anything in osm if you haven't been there? How are we ever going to have a consistent tagging shceme if simple changes like ford=* get wildly trampled on?
Sigh.
Discussion
Comment from Vclaw on 1 November 2010 at 18:31
You could just follow the code of conduct for large scale automated edits: http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Automated_Edits/Code_of_Conduct
Specifically, discussing it before making changes.
And if you want to deprecate an existing tag and replace it with something else, you could follow the usual tag proposal process.
Comment from !i! on 1 November 2010 at 21:43
I guess you should discuss your ideas/code on tagging mailinglist and http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Data_working_group cause this might change more tags than you expect ;)
Comment from drlizau on 1 November 2010 at 22:00
Although the tags in OSM were intended to be the same the world over, they are not in actual use the same. So any person sitting in one country decreeing how anything is mapped in another is going to run into complaints. People have used tags in slightly different ways all around the world. You cannot just change somethings and expect all of the changes to reflect the situation on the ground. Some will be correct and some will be wildly inaccurate.
Comment from Zverik on 2 November 2010 at 10:50
Also, when you «manually» removed not the tag which is stated in changeset comment, but some other, seemingly random, that brings the question of whether you have missed deleting a useful tag somewhere by your bot.
And OF COURSE each non-obvious mass edit should be discussed first.
Also, consistent tagging scheme is a myth. In Russian-speaking community there are two countries (Russia and Belarus) with slightly different tagging schemes, and both have their reasons.
Comment from c2r on 2 November 2010 at 17:00
Personally, I think that would be a good idea, as well as steps=yes rather than highway=steps
Comment from Zverik on 3 November 2010 at 09:22
highway=secondary steps=yes?
no, please leave highway=steps.