Talk:Key:email

Do not map email addresses

1) OSM is a geo database. Email adresses aren't geodata.

2) By mapping email addresses, you offer them to spammers on a silver platter. Web developers do all kinds of tricks (javascript, HTML contact forms) to obstruct email adresses. When email adresses are given in plain HTML, it's because the web developers are beginners or they need maximum compatibility (like administrative bodies or for disabled people).

3) Most institutions have multiple email addresses. You need to look at their website anyway to find out which of them to send your email to.

If we can't delete all of the instances of email=* and contact:email=*, we should at least put a warning about the spam issue on both wiki pages.

--Fkv (talk) 07:45, 20 August 2022 (UTC)

Mapping properties such as email is fine. See Automated Edits code of conduct if you plan to mass-remove email tags. Mateusz Konieczny (talk) 06:04, 26 August 2022 (UTC)

Multiple values

Perhaps it would be good to add to the page how to map several emails, as done for example for phone? Since emails can contain ";", I believe the best way to separate them would be by using a numbered suffix, e.g., email=*, email:1=*, email:2=* and so on? --Dmlls (talk) 18:55, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

In the case of multiple addresses, I would differentiate them according to their assignment (destination / function). The following combinations can be found in the database:

contact:email
operator:email
brand:email
owner:email
source:email
reservation:email
manufacturer:email
mediation:email
network:email
emergency:email
note:email
delivery:email

--Chris2map (talk) 20:06, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

Examples? If it's really needed, it's always better to be specific by using *:email=*
—— Kovposch (talk) 08:16, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

I came across this node which has a key email_1=* that I wanted to update to something better suited. Things is, they do have a lot of contact emails (obviously not all necessarily relevant for the map). --Dmlls (talk) 14:36, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

I question whether it makes sense to record those email addresses (https://www.burgoscf.es/contacto) because it is not possible to record the purpose (when to use which one) of the addresses "1", "2", "3", ... Regardless of that there are more uses of key_# than key:#. The ":" is the separator for namespaces, prefixes, or suffixes. --Chris2map (talk) 15:37, 16 October 2025 (UTC)

From translation "subscribers", it might be eg membership:email=* ?
However as mentioned, OSM doesn't need to record every email of every department in an organization. Eg contact:url=https://www.burgoscf.es/contacto could be used for linking to the list of contacts, as done for opening_hours:url=* and inscription:url=*
—— Kovposch (talk) 07:11, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

I like the contact:url=* approach for this case. However, it might be confused with the contact:*=* namespace, e.g., there is also contact:website=*, which is just equivalent to website=* (not necessarily linking directly to the contact details). What about using website:contact=*, similarly to website:menu=*, website:map=*, etc.? --Dmlls (talk) 09:33, 17 October 2025 (UTC)

This isn't different in terms of confusion. It may be seen as the page where you can contact by submitting a web form. url=* has special use from opening_hours:url=* to link to info of that attribute.
—— Kovposch (talk) 09:36, 18 October 2025 (UTC)