Talk:Tag:man made=dyke
linear or area
Currently it is used as a linear feature, only. I don't understand why there is an area symbol. It is not a good idea to draw the dyke as an area, because you loose information. (The top line of the dyke is more important then front and back lines.) --Bk 23:49, 21 March 2010 (UTC)
- The dyke area is also interesting. We should be able to have both information.--Jojo4u (talk) 23:14, 12 July 2015 (UTC)
Spelling
Why is this dyke, a minority spelling everywhere, and the majority spelling of a word that would offend many people? This should be man_made=dike. —Michael Z. 2011-08-16 03:26 z
- Is the "dyke" spelling really that uncommon? Google gives about 6.4M hits for '
dyke construction' and about 3M hits for 'dike construction'. (Google comparisons can be misleading, but hopefully these search terms shouldn't have too many bogus hits.) Also be aware, that British spelling is generally preferred in OSM. I'm not sure, whether "dyke" is really the majority spelling in GB, but some sources indicate this. --Bk 12:39, 16 August 2011 (BST)
- The headword in the OED is “dike | dyke,” with the note “The spelling dyke is very frequent, but not etymological. Random House gives “dike . . . Also, dyke,” while the primary meaning for dyke is ‘lesbian.’ New Oxford American and Canadian Oxford similarly gives dike as the primary spelling and dyke as a variant, with ‘lesbian’ spelled dyke and having dike as a variant. Merriam–Webster does likewise, and labels dyke a “chiefly British variant.” Collins gives “dyke (esp US) dike.”
- FWIW the oxforddictionaries.com entry for dike currently says "variant spelling of dyke" without further information (save a link to the dyke page. -- InsertUser (talk) 12:57, 2 June 2019 (UTC)
- Put that in quotes and I get 52K for dyke (including a company called "Van Dyke Construction") and 68K for dike. --NE2 12:34, 24 April 2012 (BST)
Doubles man_made=embankment
This tag doubles man_made=embankment. While dyke is more used (4352 times) than embankment (2335), certainly because it is older, dyke it is less documented, not present on page Key:man_made and not rendered on default Mapnik style. I propose to suggest mappers to use man_made=embankment and no longer use man_made=dyke. --Oligo 22:22, 29 January 2013 (UTC)
- It is not a double. The primary meaning of embankment, as defined in the wiki, is a raised road or railroad. The primary meaning of dyke is a protection against storm tides along the sea or flooding along rivers, mostly independently from roads. A road embankment and a dyke have completely different construction. The two tags provide a valuable distinction between roadwork and flood protection. There is a reason that dyke is used 4400 times. The description probably needs some improvement.
- But most importantly: You cannot simply abandon a tag that is in active use 4400 times, therefore I am reverting your change. --Nop (talk) 11:51, 8 June 2013 (UTC)
- Embankment definition says it can be used to prevent flooding by a river, lake or sea. Here we have one meaning for two tags. Which one should we use? It's not clear. And the wiki defines a dyke as An embankment..., it's confusing: why would the dyke tag exist if embankment tag already exists and covers the same meaning.
- Construction is not the point, the two pages don't mention it.
- You say a dyke is not transportation related, and an embankment is, but nowhere it is explained that if a road runs on the top of the dyke, then it should be tagged as an embankment, and if no road is present, it might be dyke. If we want to keep this distinction, we should update man_made=embankment page and suggest users to use dyke instead of embankment if the main use is flooding prevention. My intention was clearly to reduce the future use of this tag in favor of man_made=embankment or embankment=yes because I think duplicate information is confusing and embankment documentation is more complete. --Oligo (talk) 16:00, 8 June 2013 (UTC)
- If documentation is incomplete, the documentation should be improved, not the tagging rules changed. I definitely see a point in distinguing between dykes and embankments. The main point is, in my point of view, not whether a road runs on top or not, but the purpose of the construction. An embankment is built to lead a road over an area that is usually wet on both sides. A dyke is built to prevent water from flowing from one side to the other. It may have a way on it, too, but it's not what it was primarily built for.
my proposal would be to tag the item as dyke if it primarily serves as a barrier against water flow, and embankment if this is not intended. Can't we agree on that and change the descriptions accordingly? Currently it does not make clear when to use which properly. -- DerGuteMercator (talk) 06:44, 13 June 2017 (UTC)
Alternate Meaning
The use of "dike" or "dyke" in the sense of sort of "embankment" isn't the only meaning in British English; the one that I'm more familiar with is of a small stream or ditch (see for e.g. http://www.openstreetmap.org/way/61431769 ). Chambers English Dictionary actually has this sense first ("a trench"). As with "pavement", it may be that other tags can convey the same meaning without being potentially confusing. SomeoneElse (talk)
Alternative suggestion
Dyke is from the Dutch "dijk", and they know a thing or two about building these. The French word is Levee, which is the word used in US English, but unknown in English. We could opt of the French, then at least the US users will know what it means and will not be offended. jamesks (talk) I am mapping the Huang He, and they use dykes and have groynes to catch sediment, rather than just a single linear bank.
All this is also discussed on Proposed_features/Dyke