TX Landmark deletes

[daleprice]

I don't know if this is part of the same incident, but I've noticed a few major and minor landmarks gone in TX:

University of Texas (IIRC this was divided into several smaller landmarks for different areas of campus): https://www.waze.com/editor/?lon=-97.73 ... TTTFTTTTFT

Park landmark: https://www.waze.com/editor/?zoom=4&lat ... TTTFTTTTFT

Baylor University: https://www.waze.com/editor/?zoom=5&lat ... TTTFTTTTFT

[Alice2]

The same thing is happening in San Antonio, TX. Many landmarks which I think should be considered important to mark have disappeared from the update map and the client. There are too many to include all in permalinks, but the list includes a university campus, other schools, parks, cemeteries, large shopping centers, amusement parks, parking lots, gas stations.
https://www.waze.com/editor/?lon=-98.61 ... TTTTTTTTFT
South of Loop 1604 is the campus of the University of Texas at San Antonio, north of Loop 1604 is The Shops at La Cantera and the Six Flags Fiesta Texas area.
https://www.waze.com/editor/?lon=-98.60 ... TTTTTTTTFT
East of I-10 is a cemetery, a park, and farther east a high school campus. These were all previously marked as landmarks.
There are many others scattered all over town.
There seems to be a widespread epidemic.

[andrewfatcat]

If you guys can mark the landmarks again I can help lock them so people won't be able to delete it for personal reasons (I've seen that).

[daleprice]

Thanks, I've re-added Baylor: https://www.waze.com/editor/?zoom=4&lat ... TTTTTTTTFT

and the park: https://www.waze.com/editor/?zoom=3&lat ... TTTTTTTTFT

But I don't have editing rights to re-add UT since I haven't driven in that area since I joined Waze.

[andrewfatcat]

ok, done.

[bscharff]

Please review the following threads:
viewtopic.php?f=276&t=26005
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=31542
Specifically, the posts written by Waze Champs.

I have deleted minor landmarks in Dallas as advised by the Champs' posts in those threads, as they serve no usable purpose and are just a waste of space.

[andrewfatcat]

Please review the following threads:
viewtopic.php?f=276&t=26005
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=31542
Specifically, the posts written by Waze Champs.

I have deleted minor landmarks in Dallas as advised by the Champs' posts in those threads, as they serve no usable purpose and are just a waste of space.

I think the landmarks they mentioned should not be classified as wastes. Parks, cemetery, schools can be labelled. If it shouldn't be labelled then they shouldn't be in the WME for people to add. There were landmarks that were really waste was something imported with base maps, such as "xxx prison farms" that surpassed a huge area of lands across various places in Texas and were probably not there.

If the landmarks being added serve public interests, then I don't see the reason not to add it up. Even if it is a private business, I will say it is unfair to remove it because there might be larger business such as shopping malls being added to the map, as long as it is not releasing private information that someone does not want to release or spamming. Now they are promoting adding gas stations, so that further justifies the existence of other landmarks. If a gas station can be a landmark, why a local grocery store can't be?

As how to display these landmarks so they won't look like a mess is something that can and should be tuned by the Waze team, not our jobs. And if someone feel it is uncomfortable to see a lot of landmarks when editing, just turn off the layer just like I do.

[bscharff]

As it was said, if we cannot label all of the local businesses, then we cannot label any of them. Gas stations are a feature of the client... and we are adding them all. Grocery stores are not a feature, and there is no plan for them to be. It wastes data on the server, and transmitting it to the client. The only purpose of Waze is to navigate to locations in the most efficient way, taking into account traffic information. They added the gas station feature as it relates to driving. Seeing Bob's Storage or Walmart has no place here, and just clutters the map (both in WME AND in the client)

[andrewfatcat]

As it was said, if we cannot label all of the local businesses, then we cannot label any of them. Gas stations are a feature of the client... and we are adding them all. Grocery stores are not a feature, and there is no plan for them to be. It wastes data on the server, and transmitting it to the client. The only purpose of Waze is to navigate to locations in the most efficient way, taking into account traffic information. They added the gas station feature as it relates to driving. Seeing Bob's Storage or Walmart has no place here, and just clutters the map (both in WME AND in the client)

I don't think it costs that much of data. And there are more non-existent roads that may take more data space than that. If that would be a problem, waze wouldn't let people do it. And it is not for you nor me to decide how the app should just solely be used for navigation only. Moreover, waze now mostly relies on external sources, it is probably a better approach to build up its own POI database when other major gps brands already have that. And I don't see people complain google or other map service when they all display a lot of POIs.

And like what I have said, you can just turn off the landmark layer in WME, and the landmark display in the client can be improved (it already displays landmarks accordingly for different sizes in different zoom levels), and you shouldn't remove someone else's work just because your personal preference.

[AndyPoms]

As it was said, if we cannot label all of the local businesses, then we cannot label any of them. Gas stations are a feature of the client... and we are adding them all. Grocery stores are not a feature, and there is no plan for them to be. It wastes data on the server, and transmitting it to the client. The only purpose of Waze is to navigate to locations in the most efficient way, taking into account traffic information. They added the gas station feature as it relates to driving. Seeing Bob's Storage or Walmart has no place here, and just clutters the map (both in WME AND in the client)

I don't think it costs that much of data. And there are more non-existent roads that may take more data space than that. If that would be a problem, waze wouldn't let people do it. And it is not for you nor me to decide how the app should just solely be used for navigation only. Moreover, waze now mostly relies on external sources, it is probably a better approach to build up its own POI database when other major gps brands already have that. And I don't see people complain google or other map service when they all display a lot of POIs.

And like what I have said, you can just turn off the landmark layer in WME, and the landmark display in the client can be improved (it already displays landmarks accordingly for different sizes in different zoom levels), and you shouldn't remove someone else's work just because your personal preference.

A few notes...

1) Most major GPS brands don't have their own POI database - they buy their database (and can't update as frequently as Waze's maps do) from one of a few providers (NavTeq, Tele Atlas, etc)

2) The editing guidelines clearly state not to map individual businesses - there are several reasons for this, including the fact that Waze is looking to those very businesses to be advertisers with the service. Please follow the published editing guidelines.

Also, moving this to the Texas Forum...