Plural in tag values

I often use Level0 as OSM text editor, so there is no tag values validation.
For instance I detailed a caravan site adding:

tents=no
toilets=no
showers=no

It happened that iD warned that “showers” is an “outdated tag”. By updating tag with iD button, correction resulted:

shower=no

Is there a general rule to apply in such cases? Is an iD editor issue? Should I ignore iD and rely on taginfo statistics?

Not really. OSM usage for plural forms of nouns can be inconsistent, complicated slightly by the singular form often being considered as an access tag (which would make no sense here of course).

I think that iD and taginfo agree here, so no.

https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/search?q=shower%3Dno and https://taginfo.openstreetmap.org/search?q=showers%3Dno show the usage in this case - quite a bit for the plural, none for the singular.

I find Taginfo statistics the most useful way to see “how X is really tagged” (more so than the OSM wiki). The 2 caveats are that taginfo doesn’t tell you what the mapper meant (it might not be the same as what you are mapping) and it can get overwhelmed by imports, or by one mapper’s insistence on using a tag that literally no-one else believes makes any sense (see https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:service%3Ddriveway2 for a recent example of that).

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OSM Wiki is also more useful where you know what you want to tag and you are looking for matching tag.

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Guess why that isn’t a good idea. While there might be a place for a completely basic tag editor (but then you could just telnet to the API as ersatz), its usefulness for the general public just doesn’t really exist.

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at least for basic typos like name spelt wrong, it would be really nice if you could just change the value on OpenStreetMap.org in the detail view without having to fire up iD (which is deactivated/hidden for small screens anyway).

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is the problem. You need to be able to pull in presets, validations etc. etc. etc. to do the job in a fashion that is compatible with such a facility being accessible to the general public.

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if it is limited to changing freetext values like name, addr:street, operator, … it would be easy to implement and not require presets or other checks. Sometimes it is just a capitalization issue. We would be in the situation of having to weigh ease of mapping vs. attracting occasional vandalism by making it too easy. Surely if you could just tap on a business name in the map and change it directly there (or in the sidebar), it would make a perfect showcase how wiki mapping works. And a button “need to do more?” → Open this area in one of the dedicated OpenStreetMap editors like iD, remote control enabled editors, other editors

I’ve found Level0 is the fastest tool for adding tags and making corrections. You can easily start it from ie umap pop-ups; besides it is of common use for overpass-turbo users (OP has a direct link to Level0 in export section).

Anyway the missing validation is a little out of topic. I just need to understand if plural follows some british rules I don’t know or the shower example is just the result of a careless edits at the beginning of shower use in OSM.

But that is naturally just because you are externalizing the cost/time of providing support that wouldn’t be necessary with other, modern, editors, just this thread will cost years to amortize.

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Plural you say… Well concluded that long time ago, but, KeepRight keeps telling me that residents should be resident and sides should be side and so on.