2009/8/23 Peter Körner osm-lists@mazdermind.de:
(1) Default tags can be changed. We should remember that default tags can be edited by somebody later and they will no longer be good for other languages.
This fact speaks for both sides of the argument. If some feature's name changes (think, a street) you don't want to have to change 180 names in the name:*= tags. In the great majority of cases foreign names are based strictly on the native name.
This will mark all all uses of the default name as not ok (in any language)
(2) There is some inconsistency in default tags. Sometimes it's the English name, sometimes it's written in the Latin alphabet, local alphabet (e.g. Arabic) or both. I think Iran is spelt in Arabic, Comoros are spelt in both. Some people say Burma, some say Myanmar for various reasons.
Yes, that's true. The default name should be how the name is spelled in this country (just as it is with city- and street-names). If there are two major languages in this country, both should be supplied.
Additionally Burma is a pretty bad example because it's tagged incorrectly, the name= value should be using the native name and native alphabet, i.e. Burmese script, while right now it uses the english name. It's going to be fixed at one point.
Cheers