Hello everyone. I’ve just started the adventure of contributing to OSM and have questions. What is the etiquette when it comes to creating “areas”? As in, for example, a Walmart. Do you create an area around the entire property and level it as retail? And then the building. Do I call the building itself “Walmart” or do I just call it “shopping center” or whatever it’s called and leave the Walmart part to a point? Basically what I’m asking is should buildings themselves be specific to the business or should that be left solely to the point?
Ok that makes sense, that is what I’ve been doing. It’s funny that you mention Taco Bell because a Taco Bell is what I’ve been messing around with. I have the building itself marked as “Mexican Fast Food Restaurant” and then a point that says Taco Bell with the phone number, address etc. Although I don’t know if the building itself should get all that info too but it seems redundant.
I would avoid duplicating information for both the pin & area. Some maps that use OSM’s business data will show multiple potential destinations if a driver were to try and route to it. “Mexican Fast Food Restaurant” is generic enough that it’s totally fine, but I wouldn’t fill in the specifics about it being a Taco Bell (save that for the pin).