Bench=wave_lounger versus bench:type=wave_lounger

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1

In a discussion about wave_loungers we discovered that they are mostly tagged as amenity=bench with bench=wave_lounger. There is even a wikipage for bench=wave_lounger.
Nevertheless should it not be bench:type=wave_lounger
The wiki for bench indicates that the key bench=* is manly to describe if a busstop has a bench with the values yes, no and separate
Should the wikipage bench=wave_lounger be changed to bench:type=wave_lounger?

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I think that page was created recently without community discussion.

So, IMHO it should be corrected.

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amenity=lounger is the more established taging for wave loungers

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I would tag them as amenity=wave_lounger too. But that is not the question! There are people who see a difference between a (wave_)lounger and a bench with the subtag bench(:type)=(wave_)lounger.

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Tagging for “things people sit or lie down on” is a bit of a mess but this is my understanding:

An amenity=bench is a bench element: a long seat, usually seating multiple, on which people sit upright. (“This is a bench.”)

bench:type is a property of a bench element and refines it by describing its type. (“What kind of bench is this?”)

bench=* is a property of a non-bench element and indicates whether an associated bench exists. (“Is there a bench here?”)

An amenity=lounger is a lounger element: a seat, usually seating one, on which people recline or lie down. (“This is a lounger.”)

A bench=wave_lounger is a wave lounger element: a seat with a characteristic wave shape, often seating multiple, on which people recline or lie down. (“This is a wave lounger.”)

In my opinion, bench=wave_lounger (and its OSM Wiki page) should not exist; they should all be re-tagged. Whether the tagging should be amenity=bench + bench:type=wave_lounger, or amenity=lounger + lounger:type=wave_lounger, or amenity=wave_lounger, or something else is not something I have strong feelings about.

A bit of “disclosure” / context: According to Taginfo, I’ve edited 452 features tagged amenity=bench and 987 features tagged bench=*, OSMCha says I have 202 changesets mentioning “bench” in the comment, and a significant number of those edits include “killing off” bench=* values other than yes|no|separate and standardizing the tagging. I’m also the one who reworked the bench=* page on the OSM Wiki to its current state.

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