Hi,
The other day I noticed the way cycle routes are tagged in Switzerland. There, the usage of the name tag differs from the general usage of name tags within OSM. IMHO, we should not deviate from established tagging practices without a really good reason.
I assume that you have read this thread: http://lists.openstreetmap.ch/pipermail/talk-ch/2009-May/000356.html
Therefore, I took the liberty to modify http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/EN:Switzerland/CycleNetwork#Recommended_t... and to change the name tag to be in line with the way it is used elsewhere in OSM and also http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Cycle_routes#Relations
I also noticed that some relations have quite elaborate and long names. To reduce these to be just the names I have added the description and description:xx tags. There, the start and end points and possibly other information for the data user can be noted.
I don't agree with that. Those "elaborate and long names" are there for a reason. In that particular case to distinguish parts of a route from the entire route. You should not just put "Aare Route" on a relation that only contains the part from Spiez to Meiringen because it is confusing for both mapper and map users. In fact, the notion
name=<route name> (<from>-<to>)
for a stage of the route is quite well established in OSM.
I have no strong feelings about removing the ncn/rcn part.
I know there are arguments for the tagging the way it is now. The name tag gets displayed in JOSM and it is not rendered on any map anyway. But, we don't want to tag for editors and the map renderings might change and who knows who is rendering maps with and what styles anyway.
I propose to change the tagging according to the current version of the wiki page. Unless there are strong objections I will start with that in a week or so.
I have to agree with Simon. I don't see any reason to do a hasty retagging of all cycling routes unless there is a strong agreement among active Swiss mappers to do so. At least find out who is looking after cycling routes at the moment and contact them so that you don't start an edit war.
Gruss
Sarah