Lack of official information from Waze

[hodgetts]

I hope this doesn't come across as too negative, but I'm getting very frustrated by what I perceive as a lack of official communication from Waze. Some of the issues I see are:

• No clearly defined support route (preferably with some kind of tracking). We have email, forums, Facebook and Twitter but I'm never sure which is the best route into Waze support, and responses on all platforms have never been 100% reliable.
• Change history - the client version history isn't maintained in the Wiki (I added iPhone version 2.0.0.0 myself) and certainly we don't get any information of exactly what has changed or known issues
• The Cartouche change log in the Wiki hasn't been updated since March
• The Known Issues topic in the forums was a good start, but doesn't seem to get much information posted to it, and the Corrected notices have no fix date
• Uservoice has lots of great ideas on there from the user community yet Waze have made very few comments or acceptances since I've been watching - despite some of the ideas having lots of votes or in some cases, I am sure they are already planned/in development
• There are many topics in the forums which really need the attention of Waze - I have posted about error messages, others keep asking about the UK map imports, and the classic has been the posts about how slow Cartouche has been

I'm very enthusiastic about Waze, but I'm starting to feel a little battle weary. I understand that during the rapid development phases there will be many issues & bugs, but the lack of information flowing back from Waze is very frustrating. People will understand and live with the software development issues so long as they are kept informed and have a voice which they feel is heard.

I would love to see:

• An active support forum where Waze support posts are clearly identified and every topic is responded to in an official way
• A clear known issues list for each client and cartouche which lists the issue, it's status (open, accepted, in-development, closed) and gives dates and versions
• change log information when new versions are released so that I know whether errors I've reported should be fixed now (or new features included) or if I need to be patient and wait for the next version
• A much more active presence in Uservoice including moderation to merge similar suggestions

Waze is going from strength to strength at the moment with a growing and very enthusiastic user community, however this will only be maintained if the communication flow is bi-directional and sufficient to keep people comfortable that their contributions are valuable whilst the product develops into a much more valuable and self fulfilling tool.

As I stated at the start of my post, I'm a very enthusiastic Waze user. However my current perception is that things are so busy and chaotic in Waze HQ that communication with the users is being neglected. Please take this next leap in keeping in touch with the user base and I'm sure it will help Waze grow into the world leader it truly deserves to be.

Thanks

[Elgirts]

I'd just like to see them put all their resources into getting Cartouche working quicker and more efficiently. Until then, all the rest can wait.

[waynemcdougall]

Support for @Hodgetts. While @elgirt makes a fair point, I think that many of the major suggestions made would take a relatively small amount of time, and some could be delegated to a few good people.

I appreciate Waze and the good work being done. Lots of great improvements recently. A little lubrication on the communication tracks would soothe some feathers that get ruffled and keep everyone pulling together.

[hodgetts]

I'd just like to see them put all their resources into getting Cartouche working quicker and more efficiently. Until then, all the rest can wait.

This highlights my point - there has not been any official acknowledgement of the Cartouche problems as far as I am aware - a simple "Known Issue" entry would have put many minds at ease, and the world.waze.com servers were upgraded over last weekend to addresses some of the issues, but yet again we had been left in the dark until the upgrade was complete.

[hodgetts]

Support for @Hodgetts. While @elgirt makes a fair point, I think that many of the major suggestions made would take a relatively small amount of time, and some could be delegated to a few good people.

I appreciate Waze and the good work being done. Lots of great improvements recently. A little lubrication on the communication tracks would soothe some feathers that get ruffled and keep everyone pulling together.

Exactly - I'm sure that we could even find willing volunteers to help with the information flow from the Area Manager community, but Waze needs to play it's part otherwise those volunteers would not have the relevant facts.

[krankyd]

Hi Hodgetts (and others),
In your post you were referring to two main problems: communications / responsiveness and bugs.
As you know waze is still a small start up company and this has some positive and negative aspects, on both of these issues.

We try to respond to users needs, problems and requests and be available almost continuously, but there's room for improvement which we are trying to deal with.
As some might have noticed, we now have a dedicated person to manage beta users, and we will soon also have a release manager that will be able to better support the new features that enter each version, what's missing from each one, etc. Obviously this will be shared with the entire community, through the forum and maybe also through a web page on the main site.

For ongoing problems, the forum post was a step in the right direction and we will do our best to keep it updated along with dates and clear ETAs on current problems. We have added additional resources to assist in support as well.

As for bug fixings and new features, since we are still growing we also have a need to add new features that will attract new users and increase visibility. None the less we strive to be more responsive to the feedback we get from the community, even when compared to other companies out there.
The trade off we are facing on an almost daily basis is to balance what we do with the limited resources we have. A balance between fixing bugs or advancing waze with new or enhanced features. Specifically the last month or so has been spent on the European servers upgrades (and USA is planned as well) and investment in stabilizing the Android version.

We are listening to what you and others are saying and are making an effort to improve in the problematic areas you've mentioned.We are checking how to improve our responsiveness, as well as fix some of the annoying bugs that are out there, but on some items like Wiki, we needs the community assistance as we simply can not do it all.

I hope this answers the issues raised and as always, we are here to continue the dialogue to improve Waze.