Hello rbuch703,

I’ve reverted a series of tag-deleting changesets that you’ve recently applied.

All of those changesets deleted information that other mappers had previously added to the database. Taking osm.org/changeset/29505495 as an example, You edited osm.org/way/84209215/history so that it was no longer clear that the source of the “atv” tag was different to the source of the other tags. You also removed a source code for the IATA tag from osm.org/way/185882029 .

I tried to discuss the problem with you in osm.org/changeset/29505495 and osm.org/changeset/29495755 , but there you seem to be disregarding alternative views altogether. You say “And this makes that tag worthless. Deletable.”, but you on your own aren’t the tag police - changes such as this need to be discussed with the wider community and different people’s views taken into account.

Many of the objects in these changesets were possibly created by new and inexperienced mappers, and it’s likely that in many cases other local mappers may well decide to change the tagging used - and hopefully discuss how to tag things with them. However, just removing tagging that you don’t understand means that there’s no easy way for other mappers to improve it in the future - for example, it’s very likely that it’s possible to tag osm.org/way/234050335 better , either based on the note as it stands, or by seeing the note and deciding to go and survey, but no-one will be able to do this if the tag is removed altogether.

I’ve sent this as a public message that you have to read before continuing editing not to stop you from editing OSM, but so that you have to read this before continuing to do so. Please do continue to edit OpenStreetMap, but don’t just delete information that other people on the other side of the continent have added because you don’t understand it. Please also do use meaningful changeset comments (“removed invalid tags” is not at all meaningful) that explain what changes you’re making and what the source of those changes was. If you continue with edits such as this you WILL be blocked from editing.

If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to contact data@osmfoundation.org.

Best Regards,

Andy Townsend (SomeoneElse) on behalf of the OpenStreetMap Data Working Group.