@yaugenka: O.K. There is an enormous confusion here with people asking to change manually while people discuss about changing automatically, people asking to wait for the automatic change, and people who don't want any change. Nevertheless, that doesn't change the fact that no one gave you the authorization to revert those changes (unless, of course, if someone totally deleted the name:ru tag, with what we all agree)
@mOlind: O.K. This means we need to check *every single toponym* anyway because I noticed (although it is a minority) that sometimes the tag name:ru or the tag name:be is missing.
Is there any way to have a global view of those missing tags name:be and name:ru?

?

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?????????????????? Jauhenka deleted all the changes we had all made from the very beginning! As you said Georgij, multilingual changes, but even road changes!
I was Jauhenka was a reasonable person, but I'm afraid what one of the guys told me is right: he is just trying to gain time to revert all the changes. Are you conscious, Jauhenka, under such conditions you can get banned for vandalizing?

O.K.guys. As soon as you start, please provide the link

Then his account should be suspended. At least temporarily

@4004 We should explain to Pavel-kulik that the aim of the changes is not to delete the Russian names, but to put them at the right place...

Hello Pavel :)
Thanks for participating in our effort to make the map more realistic.
However, please bear in mind we agreed to:
step a) Copy "name:be" to "name"
step b) Leave the Russian name in "name:ru".
In this case, I'm afraid you removed totally the "name:ru" tag.
Could you please correct this and put the Russian name in "name:ru"?
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards,

My opinion is that the English tag in that standard would be O.K., but the int_name tag should be in Belarusian Łacinka.

Proofreading is always easier than reading ;) So it is a good solution to make it automatically and switch. Especially that people like Georgij or me are not proficient in some OSM matters yet (like that addr tag)

Given what mOlind just mentioned, I also vote for an automatic process.

@4004 Anyway, nobody is trying to Belarusize business names ;) And about monuments, I had included it for 2 reasons:
- they are always shown in Belarusian on roadsigns
- On those monuments you usually have some sign with the word "каштоўнасць" ("monument" if I'm not mistaken) with a short explanation.
However, Belarusicizing some typical communist monuments "слава героям" is not necessary IMO. Especially given the fact they are not indicated on roadsigns.
Now my essential question is: should we continue changing manually those toponyms? Or will that be an automatic process?

@Poliakoff Mykhailo - Your point is good. You mention the ў, it is usually automatically transliterated automatically into "y" instead of "ŭ" when you switch to another language than Russian. This is why it is extremely important not to forget to transliterate into Latin in the int_name tag ("Магілёў" will automatically appear as "Magiley" if we don't do that. So people must remember to check whethre the int_name tag is filled and appears as "Mahilioŭ"), The vast majority of locality names are already transliterated into Łacinka, but it is not the case of lakes, monuments and other infrastructure.
Your point on the Ukraine transition is good. Recently I've had a look into some roads in Ukraine and I noticed toponyms are in Ukrainian, but some monuments are left in Russian. I think it would look more or less the same on the Belarusian side.

@4004: the majority of us agreed on switching the name tag to Belarusian and to check whether the name:ru tag is filled. This is for toponyms, monuments, and administrative levels (when you travel into Belarus), you see clearly written "Мінская воблсасць" and not "Минская область", for instance.
We will not change commercial names nor the administration building names.
However, dear 4004, we the addr. tag is an issue on which we must discuss together and creating a task group on such technical matters is a good idea I believe.
P.S.: the Russian version of the convention mentioned above by Шурик leaves the door open for language switches: "В результате обсуждения пришли к решению, что названия в тегах name пишутся ТОЛЬКО на русском языке, поскольку так исторически сложилось, и русскоязычных источников данных, пользователей и участников проекта очевидно больше, чем белорусскоязычных. Если будет принято решение перейти на использование белорусского языка в качестве основного, содержимое тегов name будет скопировано в name:ru (при его отсутствии), а name:be --- в name автоматически."

Wow guys, this discussion is really active :D As I'm not getting the notifications on my email, I am always amazed when I enter this thread.
Let us be clear once again (sorry if I repeat what was written a couple of times):
a) As a couple of us pointed out, the agreement shown above violates the main rule. Thus, from the very beginning the initial agreement is null and void. Just as in law.
b) Moreover, the agreement (as it was pointed out by 2 users) violates the Belarusian law. Do we want OSM to get forbidden in Belarus? I don't because I use it while being there, and several apps do.
c) Our aim is to show the reality on-spot. Not to be a sort of Belarusian Jeanne d'Arc and "kick out Russian(s) out of Belarus". (like she said about "kicking out Englishmen from France") :D And as someone wrote before (I think it was Georgij or perhaps myself?), those who are afraid that Belarusization (in reality "Realisticallyzation :D") will make the Russian language die in Belarus have nothing to be afraid about:
1) Nobody wants to erase the Russian names totally. And we do all agree on that. The Russian toponyms will be shown anyway for those who use those OSM-based apps in Russian, but along with the original name appearing on-spot.
2) Belarus is the only former USSR country where the use of Russian has increased. That is a matter of fact. However, all toponyms are in Belarusian and neither Шурик82, neither Jaugenka, neither Georgij, neithe Vladimir, neither 4004, neither Ambush, neither Mykhailo, neither mOlind and neither I will change that, whatever is our perception on the Belarusian and Russian languages. The only one who can change that is Mr.Alexander Lukashenka, and I think it is the last thing he worries about despite his love for Russian language.

We need to rely on facts. That is why we are Openstreetmap: to highlight facts, make them visible to everyone and thus help people around the world.And that is our strength over our competitors like Google or Yandex.
Otherwise, taking our time (for which nobody pays us) to improve OSM is useless because we are doing only a half-good job, whether we are pro-change or anti-change.
Any issues will be resolved. From my professional history I know how transitions are difficult, but I also know that every issue has its own solution(s).

@4004: all transition periods have their own issues and there is no problem without any solution ;) Poliakoff Mykhailo seems to know a lot on a similar case: neighboring Ukraine. Anyway, on such technical details I prefer reading your propositions because I'm not as good as you guys yet. But some users (Ambush, etc.) have been on OSM for so many years that I'm confident they will find solutions to the potential issues mentioned above regarding the addr tags. If a name appears only in Russian on OSM, usually the Belarusian equivalent can be found on wikipedia, and can be checked with other sources. If the appropriate Belarusian name is not found for some locations even after verification, I would suggest to leave those names as they already appear.

The "name=*" tag in general is to show what is written on the road, street or shop signs, whatever it is.

- Village, town and city names: name:* in Belarusian only.
- Street signs: this is the tricky part. In Minsk or Brest, the situation is clear (official street signs are all in Belarusian). However, there are some towns or villages without any official street signs, just the name on the street (usually in Russian) on private houses (or buildings). In this case, except for Minsk and any city where official street signs are in Belarusian, bilingualism in name:* would be a good solution if we are not sure (without forgetting to fill name:be and name:ru). In order to be readable, we could write it like this: BY name - RUS name (ex.: вулiца Савецкач - улица Совецкая)
- Transportation-related infrastructure names: most of them are in Belarusian. Bus stops, metro stations, train stations should have the Belarusian name in name:*. If they are in Russian, then the name:* tag should be in Russian
- Monuments: they are always signed in Belarusian (ex.: Брэсцкая крэпасць), and so they should be on OSM. Unless we are talking about some communist monuments (you know, those "слава героям"). I think it makes no sense to change the name=* tag.
- Commercial names: leave as it is. Белоруснефть, Родны Кут, U Tadeusza, Кинотеатр Мир, etc.) whatever the language and the alphabet.
That was my proposition from the very beginning when I started the discussion a couple of months ago.

Screenshots from what I see from my computer on Yandex:
- In English: https://plus.google.com/u/1/photos/116538206482963449572/album/6463292506880436433/6463292504796189858?authkey=CPHviqDkqcGDfw
- In Russian: https://plus.google.com/u/1/photos/116538206482963449572/album/6463292506880436433/6463292506893818850?authkey=CPHviqDkqcGDfw
As you can see, even Yandex writes those names in Belarusian as main ones. And they are Russian!

As soon as I am in front of a computer I will post a screenshot of Yandex (I don't know how to post it over here).
Anyway my point is: OSM is not about politics or personal language preference, but about reflecting the reality and so far we were not doing that in Belarus. I drive there every two weeks, and no matter which language I use on my phone I always see the Russian name below. When I use Russian, I see only the Russian name and no other!. Imagine a tourist from Russia getting confused (that was a perfect example provided by another user) by entirely different names and not being able to see the Belarusian name on his app (Октябрская instead of Кастрычнiцкая, Берёзовая Роща instead of Бярозавы Гай, lots of places with the word "Большой" instead of "Вялiкi "), etc. I am not even mentioning tourists that don't read cyrillic nor speak Russian/Belarusian! Try it, because quite a couple of my ethnic Russian friends (no matter if they are from Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Ukraine or Russia) have complained to me personally about all the above each time they had to go to Belarus and used OSM and OSM-based apps. Otherwise I wouldn't highlight this issue and take from my personal time to make such an enormous work...

P.S.: Please note even Russian maps Yandex use Belarusian names as the main ones.