I’m sending this message both to you and kiwiAs.

http://osm.mapki.com/history/node.php?id=248764278 (Whakatane/Whakatāne) is just one example, but you both seem determined that the name of this place among others should flip-flop between the various spellings.

I’ve commented on various changesets at http://resultmaps.neis-one.org/osm-discussion-comments?uid=9850906 and http://resultmaps.neis-one.org/osm-discussion-comments?uid=10036384 suggesting that this is a bad idea, seemingly to no avail.

Each of you is pointing the finger at the other, behaving like stroppy teenagers. How ironic, then that according to wikipedia the name derives from a woman saying “Kia whakatāne au i ahau” which appearently means “I will act like a man”.

If between yourselves and the rest of the local community you can’t find a compromise among the various name tags based on local usage and actual signage then we (the DWG) will have to just pick a side, based on whatever information we can gather from the other side of the world. Right now, based on e.g. the spellings at https://www.whakatane.govt.nz/ and https://www.whakatane.com/, the Whakatāne spelling appears to be favourite.

I’m sending this to you as a message that you have to read before continuing to edit. You’ll be able to continue as soon as you have read it, but please:

• no edit warring over names (or other features).
• meaningful changeset comments explaining why you changed what you changed
• no accusations of “vandalism” or “edit warring”.
• if you believe that a name is incorrect please email the DWG with your evidence for why you believe that your version of the name is the correct one.

If you fall short of any of the above then we’ll have no alternative but to prevent you from editing OpenStreetMap for a period of time.

Best Regards,

Andy Townsend, on behalf of OSM’s Data Working Group