OpenStreetMap
Rising participation in the discussion of tag definitions
Posted by jgpacker on 20 December 2014 in English.The tagging mailing list is seen as the main place of discussion when dealing with tag’s definition.
However I feel that a mailing list is no longer an appropriate place for that. The tagging mailing list often deals with very specific topics, which most people aren’t interested in. The result of this is that a lot of people that could bring value to specific discussions are not subscribed to the list and therefore have a hard time participating because joining such a high traffic mailing list is not worth it to them.
My suggestion is: Let’s move the tagging discussion to a forum! This way people can pick some topics they are interested in and discuss to their heart’s content without bringing hundreds of email copies to people that aren’t as interested. Besides, everyone can participate.
Cheers, John
Discussion
Comment from Richard on 20 December 2014 at 15:06
You can read and post to the OSM mailing lists via a forum interface using Nabble or Gmane. Here’s the Nabble pages for tagging@: http://gis.19327.n5.nabble.com/Tagging-f5258744.html
Comment from d1g on 21 December 2014 at 05:44
Not forum. It will change nothing. Instead of complex mailling list software you will need users to use not so functional forums. We don’t have wiki templates or categories at forum.
There will threads with 300+ pages. Nobody will ever re-read them. You cannot edit every single message at forum. This is usefull to remove outdated info.
We need wiki, not forum.
Proposals and tagging@list should be integrated directly in openstreetmap.org. There should be:
How exactly should we do this is up to developers who have free time for this task.
Comment from AndiG88 on 21 December 2014 at 14:56
And how many people use the Wiki? I’m currently creating new tag pages and fixing older ones and not many people are active there.
Looking at the German community it’s pretty obvious to me that the Forum is the place where I get the most interaction. Just discussed contact: where it became really obvious. Still only 1 reply on the tagging list.
You can still have a Wiki to document the actual proposal.
You have to understand that for a lot of people this Internet stuff is not obvious. Formatting in the Wiki is a lot more complicated than in a Forum. Mailinglists are not as easy to understand as a Froum, even when they are Forum style and there is no edit button. Not to mention a lot of people check the Forum daily, any other place you make them look at will be less frequented.
The simple reality is if OpenStreetMap wants to integrate new useres, then mailinglists are not an option. (Unless you do it like the German Pirate Party where those mailinglists are bascially 100% integrated into the Forum)
Comment from Vincent de Phily on 22 December 2014 at 10:57
YMMV, I really don’t like forum interfaces. And yet-another place to find info I want ? Nah. I’m subscribed to tagging, but that doesn’t mean that I read all threads.
The forum vs mailinglist (vs $FOOMEDIUM) debate will never die out, because each has its own advantages. As Richard pointed out, you can use a forum-like interface for mailinglists. The reverse is not always the case for forums (I’ve never looked at the osm forum so I don’t know in that case).
Comment from Warin61 on 25 December 2014 at 01:06
I’d think a forum would attract more people. More people = a wider view = better outcome. It also encourages more discussion. The only reason I’m on the talk list is to be aware of upcoming tag voting. Some of these fail due to lack of ‘yes’ votes .. I would like to see more people voting, even if they are not ‘yes’. Some proposed tags fail to proceed to voting due to side issues eg tag for tap .. failing to proceed due to potability discussion. That may be more of a problem with a forum .. but can be deal with by making a new proposal (for taps .. new tag potability, and taps proceeds onwards).
Comment from jgpacker on 6 January 2015 at 16:17
Very nice to see this nabble interface.
I still think that a forum would be a better tool for this kind of high-diversity and high-traffic discussion as done in the tagging mailing list.
Also, I personally think wikis are very clunky tools for discussions.