Community reorganization

[davipt]

Shirli,
I think this policy will restrict the new users using the forums as they will have to depend on local and professional champs to get any type of advice or make a point of suggestions. As in India there are lot many users are not active on the forums, after going through this policy they will/might restrict themselves of using forums. For forum think it should be very open and transparent base of communication and platform for exchanging the ideas. Lets keep Waze as a pure form of economical and safe driving experience.

Where have you read this? I read clearly that not much will change, and in particular the usage of the forums for new users should even improve as they can now get answers not only from other "more senior" users and (sometimes) waze or champs themselves as always, but from people that now may get access to further and more reliable information. For me it's just delegation from the small number of official waze dedicated to each country to a larger set of trusted power users. It can only get better!

[davipt]

Hi davipt

As I mentioned in India there are lot many users who are not aware of Forums as such or in other words there are few users who are actively working to make Indian maps more user friendly and economical. To give you an example I have introduced Waze to my 5 friends (all driving freaks) but none of them are using forum or wiki or for that matter WME they just go on drive! When I told them about forums, they were like its very theoretical or might be they found it very confusing.

There are so many Indian UR just mentioned as General Map Error without any details about the error or updates required. This is the lack of information or I might call it BASIC awareness among the users using the app.

I might be wrong but this was the actual situation which I came across.

I'm sure this is the same that happens in every country. Here in Portugal I can count with my fingers the number of minimally active users on the forum. We are now getting some forum traction (the fingers on the second hand) mainly because of some promotion on the Waze Portugal Facebook page. But of course every driver still likes to report general errors without descriptions and create radars everywhere.

I just don't understand why you think this reorg idea could affect this forum behavior. Quite the contrary, having more people with official knowledge actively participating on the forum will hopefully capture more general users into it. I can imagine having only adrian from waze trying to manage the whole forum from Portugal, Brasil and a lot other spanish language countries and the effort for him. Now me and another user try to help as much as we can, and that's the reorg idea - to officialize those helpers.

[davipt]

My hope is that Waze staff will evaluate each Country separately as each Country presents unique situation, challenges and number of members. Also in this day and age I think it would take just a few minutes chatting/talking to every applicant to see if they are fit

Of course they will, each country is different. Look at the case of India, and my case in Portugal. We are so small that have only 2 CM's and even then we had to ask for CM before reaching the 200K (but nearby), or else nobody could fix stuff from the "tourists" rank 4 and 5 visiting the country.

On the other hand the forum count should be analyzed carefully, because it's true that some country forums are almost dead, but I don't think an iPhone or Android expert should become one unless there is participation on the client announcement threads forums, or an editor/navigation expert that doesn't subscribe or at least have a look at the global map forum.

[davipt]

I want to seriously respond to this topic.
I'm CM in the Netherlands but work most of waze in other countries

(...)

What is my specialty??

George

Speciality of going to other countries and lock segments as rank5 and give me plenty of work as the only one capable of unlocking them? joking, thanks for the edits, but the locks weren't necessary.

[felohidalgo]

How do we apply to get involve? as community manager or as waze expert?

[fotrik]

That's interesting news and probably the only option in so fast growing Waze community. Let's hope that every country will have sufficient number of competent people!

[foxitrot]

Entry to the local Champs' group requires:
6 months of Waze- seniority
editing level 4
300 forum posts
- more criteria based on quality indicators will be added soon.
- These criteria do not provide automatic access to the champs' group. Each request to join the group will still be verified individually.


* Under this new reorganization, users with expertise in certain areas can apply to be "Experts".
For example "editing Experts", "Android experts", "iPhone experts", "navigation experts", "beta editor experts", "points experts", "social media experts," will now have moderator permissions over the relevant forums and their coordinators will have direct contact to relevant team members at Waze.
We're open to expanding the range of "Experts" to include any new expertise that you may have in mind.

Experts will be subject to the same entry level as local champs.

Shirli, you'll possibly have to reconsider the Experts group's entry requirements. I can imagine that otherwise you'll eventually loose loads of excellent, highly experienced "Android experts", "iPhone experts", "points experts", "social media experts" and "whateverelse experts", who drive and test and communicate a lot, but tried to edit only here-and-there and will actually never neach L4 and be allowed to apply for an Expert (except using the 'individual verification' clause).

(This is actually the same problem as with joint editors' and drivers' Scoreboard: non-editing mega drivers will not able to reach visible ranks anymore.)

[foxitrot]

an effective expert.

Maybe "a useful expert"?

[harling]

The first time I suggested a minimum forum post requirement, I also specified that it should not be widely known that forum participation is one of the metrics, let alone a specific number of posts. Otherwise, making enough worthless posts to qualify becomes just another "game".

If the folks at Waze want to put their maps--perhaps their most valuable resource--in the hands of people according to their ability to game the system, rather than according to evaluation by other concerned parties, that's their prerogative; but it isn't a formula for success.

[Heisa123]

I want to seriously respond to this topic.
I'm CM in the Netherlands but work most of waze in other countries

I have make the map of waze in Suriname and have ​​contacts there with users,
https://world.waze.com/editor/?zoom=2&l ... TTTFTTTTFT
I work at this moment in Luxembourg and the borders of this country.
https://world.waze.com/editor/?lon=6.11 ... TTTFTTTTFT
I have there contact with users .

Now I am working in French Guiana. There lies the whole map broken.
https://world.waze.com/editor/?zoom=1&l ... TTTFTTTTFT

I also work in a number of other areas where I often go on holiday like this.

https://world.waze.com/editor/?lon=-13. ... TTTFTTTTFT

What is my specialty??

George