Talk:Key:animated

Use on non-advertising objects

This page currently describes the animated=* key as being "most often used on advertising devices" but doesn't exclude its use for other kinds of devices. However, the description for animated=revolving specifically says "for advertising column rotating on itself, to display posters in all directions" (emphasis added). Would it be reasonable to generalize this definition to cover any sort of device that rotates automatically? Some non-advertising examples:

• Most civil defense sirens in North America are rotating sirens (as opposed to omnidirectional sirens). [1]
• SkyCity is a rotating restaurant at the top of the Space Needle in Seattle.

• 
  Rotating advertising=sign
• Rotating emergency=siren

To avoid reinterpreting existing uses of the tag on advertising=* features, I'd recommend limiting the definition to devices that rotate about a vertical axis. So attraction=big_wheel wouldn't imply animated=revolving.

This came up because the other day I overoptimistically suggested on emergency=siren that animated=revolving be used for rotating sirens, but Jeisenbe (rightly) called out the discrepancy with the definition currently on this page.

 – Minh Nguyễn ^💬 23:01, 21 November 2019 (UTC)

Since this key animated=* is currently almost always used with advertising=* - over 99% of features have that combination: https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/keys/?key=animated#combinations - so I think it makes more sense to make up a new key for other features. In the case of sirens or other objects that spin, it could make sense to just use revolving=yes. Or create a new key and a set of values if there is an object that can move in several different ways. --Jeisenbe (talk) 09:34, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

I'm thinking the opposite : as the definition of this key is quite clear, because it is already used widely on advertising, it makes sense to reuse it for other kind of features. Creating another tag for the exact same purpose is just making the whole tagging scheme more complex for no added value (duplicated documentation, code, rendering...). We just have to keep documentation open enough to say that it is mainly used on advertising, but can be used elswhere as well. --PanierAvide (talk) 12:10, 22 November 2019 (UTC)

animated=* doesn't have a clear meaning for this. There is already bridge:movable=* that movable=* might be usable. It is possible to have rotating electronic displays too, causing a conflict. animated=* would better be left for when the content inside the device is changing, ie leaving animated=trivision_blade and animated=winding_posters. animated=revolving is an outlier that should be migrated away. --- Kovposch (talk) 05:33, 16 March 2023 (UTC)

Mixing the content with the means

I feel that this key currently contains two categories: most of them describe _how_ the feature is animated (e.g.: the feature rotates; or has moving posters; or has a trivision system). However, animated=digital_prices and animated=digital_message indicates _what_ is animated: namely some display which shows one of the other. However, there are many means to do this: e.g. a led display, a 7-digit display, tickers or even screens. I feel that _what_ is shown should be mapped with message=* and animated=7_digit_display or animated=led_screen should be used instead. Pietervdvn (talk) 20:21, 15 March 2023 (UTC)

Well yes. animated=* and advertising=* can be messy. But yours overlaps and is easily easily mixed up with animated=screen for video displays. led_screen=* should be "dot matrix". *=7_digit_display should be "7 segment", and there are other numbers of segment that's better nested in eg *=led_segment + led_segment=7 etc. All in all, animated=* is not that ideal. These electronic displays might be grouped separately. Furthermore see above section. --- Kovposch (talk) 05:26, 16 March 2023 (UTC)

As far as I can see, there is advertising=screen if the main feature is the screen. However, some items (especially an advertising=totem (example) and sometimes a advertising=poster_box have a small digital display built-in, in which case animated=digital_screen, animated=dot_matrix or similar seems appropriate. Pietervdvn (talk) 12:32, 16 March 2023 (UTC)

What does 'animated=screen' mean precisely?

Does `animated=screen` mean that the main advertising feature is a screen or that it is e.g. a poster box with a smaller, builtin screen? (See also the discussion above) Pietervdvn (talk) 15:09, 22 March 2023 (UTC)

My understanding is that animated=screen could be applied to almost any advertising object, mostly poster_box and billboard. For example, this https://www.openstreetmap.org/node/7245658187 (cf. the image tag) oject is a poster_box, the main side is a screen and the other side a static poster. I won't describe this object as advertising=screen as it's not it's main and only purpose, to be a screen. advertising=screen better describes a screen in a showcase, or fixed on a wall. Kalepom (talk) 09:18, 23 March 2023 (UTC)

In my opinion is the example you sent an advertising=screen in the first place, which happens to have a poster attached. The fact that the screen has the form factor of a poster box is IMHO not relevant for the tagging. Pietervdvn (talk) 10:19, 27 March 2023 (UTC)

I do not really get the difference between animated=screen and advertising=screen, too. Probably animated=screen is older/was chosen before, and advertising=screen came up later?--Lukas458 (talk) 17:29, 28 March 2023 (UTC)