Proposal:Clarify deprecation reasons

clarify deprecation reasons
Proposal status:	Proposed (under way)
Proposed by:	Overflorian
Applies to:
Definition:	Clarify the reasons behind a deprecation
Draft started:	2022-01-21
RFC start:	2022-01-24

Proposal

Define more clearly the reasons why a tag is deprecated.

The goal is toː

1. replace the current reasons listed in the table with a more consistent list
2. identify and separate the recommended from the not-recommended reasons of deprecation
3. create a new standard and useful data item
4. better understand the deprecation processes of the past and in the future

Here is the new list I proposeː

List of reasons

Recommended reasons

Type of reason	Reason
Replaced	replaced by an approved new tag / tagging system
	replaced by a de facto used new tag / tagging system
Inconsistent	same meaning as another tag, confusing, inferior, synonymous, lead to mistakes
Not relevant	useless, discardable
	Out of the scope of the project (too subjective, un-checkable, temporary...)
	implemented for another wrong reason by an editor / render / routing engine / other tool
Error	created by a software bug
	implemented for a bad reason by an editor / render / routing engine / other tool
	orthography correction
	British English is preferred

Not-recommended reasons

Type of reason	Reason	Recommendation
Not recommended	poorly or not documented	The documentation should be created
	wrong or poor definition of the tag	The definition should be changed
	abandoned	It's a good reason but not precise enough
	low or very low use	Not sufficient as itself
	never used by the community
	only used by a local / small part of the community
	never implemented by any editor / render / routing engine / other tool

It is very frequent that a deprecation happens because of multiple reasons. This should remain.

Stop using code numbers

In the deprecated features table, codes are used to identify the reasons. It's unclear and the user needs to refer to another page.

I propose to replace the code column by the reason itself (limited to the proposed reasons of this proposal), and to replace the "reason column" by "additional explanation" as a free text to provide more details.

Rationale

The deprecated features table lists the deprecated tags and displays the reasons of deprecation.

All these reasons are listed in a dedicated template. The reasons of this table are messy, inconsistent and misleading.

This proposal aims toː

• quickly, easily understand the reason behind a tag's deprecation
• identify the complementary tasks needed (write documentation, create a new tag...)
• keep track of the past deprecation reasons to better understand the deprecation process. It should help the community to better prioritize its efforts regarding tag recommendations.

Examples

Here are some example of current reasons listed in the table.

Current reason	Recommended reason	Not recommended reason
Introduction of "shop"	replaced by an approved new tag / tagging system
No description, usage completely unknown	useless, discardable	not or poorly documented very low use
better fits into toplevel tags	replaced by an approved new tag / tagging system
Abandoned feature.	replaced by an approved new tag / tagging system	abandoned
This tag has never been approved, nor had wide usage. Take one of the replacements to correctly tag the education place.	replaced by an approved new tag / tagging system	not or poorly documented never used by the community
Tag historic=* should be used for historic items (and therefore not a museum).	same meaning as another tag, confusing, inferior, synonymous, lead to mistakes	not or poorly documented wrong or poor definition of the tag
This tag is confusing. A furnace is a big oven used for melting metals; some people also applied this tag for shops selling cooking stoves.	same meaning as another tag, confusing, inferior, synonymous, lead to mistakes	wrong or poor definition of the tag
The difference between a condominium and an apartment is purely legal, difficult to verify, and unimportant to OSM.	Out of the scope of the project (too subjective, un-checkable, temporary...)

As you can see, these reasons are often confusing because they mix-up different concepts.

Features/Pages affected

• The table of reasons would be replaced by the proposed list of reasons (and possibly with translations)
• The reasons in the deprecated table would be updated accordingly
• An additional free text would remain as it is for the community to be able to provide more details
• The data item of each deprecated tag would have a new "reason of deprecation" parameter added. This parameter will be created and allow multiple values.

External discussions

• Original discussion in the talk-fr mailing-list (in french)

Comments

Please comment on the discussion page.