Hi,
welcome to OSM.
You can't add objects to OSM by simply copying their name into the editor. You have to use the tags that are provided by the editor as presets. Please have a look to your edits and change them.

Sure, "always go for the the more common key" sounds too general, that was meant to be "I'd always prefer not to no"

What do you think about asking on the tagging mailing list for some opinions on this case? My personal feeling is that we should abandon the 'no' prefix and settle for 'not' - or make the distinction between them a lot clearer and more explicit.

I think the difference in description simply comes from the fact that both pages where written by a different person (and both mainly by just one user).

Actually the "not" page says:
"a feature may not have ever existed in reality, but it may be easy for mappers to think it exists"
This seems to be the exact problem you're facing here.

As you noted, the statistics for both are very different:
'no' - less than 200 uses with ~10 different keys
'not' - more than 20,000 uses with >100 different keys.

I would always go with the much more common prefix, and try to avoid to put subtle differences in the meaning of keys (which might be seen in reverse or not noticed at all by other people)

Hi,
"recycling:rocks" is not used in other places. Maybe recycling:rubble or recycling:hardcore is the correct one?

Hi,
could you check this stream, it got a strange tag:
way/516807719

Hi,
you're right, it seems lbj is the better code. I took the sit from Wikipedia, german version:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladakhische_Sprache
But it seems to be a collective code for the whole family of languages.

Welcome to OSM!
You added many tags that are not used by anybody else.
In OSM we have to use a well-defined set of tags to allow all the software tools to understand the data and e.g. show it on maps.
Please use only keys that are documented in the Wiki or are available as presets in your editor.
Thanks!

Hi,
please check this way, something went wrong with the tracktype tag
way/420136305

Please make sure that you check all tags you add for correct spelling. Misspelled tags are useless for OSM.
For example I found:

health-level
is:in-health-level8
survay:date

Hi,

you used many tags here that are not in use in any other place. Please use only tags that are described in the OSM Wiki or are available in the presets of your editor.
This is necessary to make sure that every other user can understand the data.

Hi,
could you explain what a 'paste_bridge' is? This tag is not used in other places.

Hi,
could you check this way, it got a 'est_' tag:
way/980634974

Hi,
please spend a bit more time to watch out for tagging mistakes. I just corrected a larger amount of errors in multipolygons and spelling mistakes in keys. All the issues were reported by the JOSM Validator - please solve these issues before uploading data.

Hi,
could you check this way, it got a strange tag:
way/981252336

According to Taginfo this is the very first time the key appeared in OSM.

I found
1x ref:companies_house and
2x operator:companies_house

Hi,
the zoo got a strange tag
"operator:companieshouse = 10238727"

Could you check that?

Hi,
several buildings got strange tags like
building_l
pmfsefin_i

Could you check that?

Hi,
it looks like there's a misspelled tag in your suggestions in the editor. It's "name:ko-Hani", not "name:ko-hani".
I think I fixed them all, but better have a look.

Hi,
please check these trees, they all got a "Handroanthus=chrysanthus" tag by mistake.

Hi,
these nodes got many uncommon tags that are not used in other places, could you check that?
In OSM we have to use a well-defined set of tags to allow all the software tools to understand the data and e.g. show it on maps.
Please have a look to the OSM Wiki to find out which tags are in use.