Reconsider the level number quest

[andrewharvey]

I'm not convinced the "On which level number is this place located?" quest is suitable for SC. The level=* tag is the numeric floor number relative to ground, but for large shopping complexes, airports, train stations it can be hard to determine what level you're on relative to "ground" and more so when there multiple exits to the street level but from different levels.

The tag is distinct from level:ref which is much more suited for SC since it's directly surveyable from wayfinding signage, lift buttons etc.

What's worse is that wayfinding signage might say level 1 which you'd enter for level:ref but due to level starting from the lowest ground level in OSM it might be incorrect to set level=1.

It's best to therefore only ask for level:ref and leave level tagging to an editor where someone can look at the complete indoor mapping data, asses the whole site to determine where level=0 is and ensure all the level tags are consistent within the site.

The only situation where asking for level would work is where we have a full indoor map showing like Google Maps where you can toggle between levels on the map and see how all the other shops are mapped.

[mnalis]

And then there is also addr:floor=* (which also happens to explain that level:ref=* come hugely from mass-imports)

[andrewharvey]

addr:floor is good when it's used as part of addressing, but not a general solution, eg. a toilet within a shopping centre won't have an address.

Usage spikes may have come from imports, but it doesn't change the fact that neither level or addr:floor tags are suitable for tagging the level a feature is on within a building in a way that relates to wayfinding signage.