Greetings,
I wanted to see what individuals opinions on what Vermont’s practice on handling URs in Vermont? Currently there is no guidance on the state wikis page on this, and I wanted to fill this hole.
There are currently two different models I have seen frequently used:
7&7 - Where an initial comment is sent, 7 days later a reminder, and if no response 7 days later one can close the UR (total about 14 days)
or
1/4/7 - Where the goal is to make contact, send a reminder 4 days later and then 7 days from the first message one can close the UR. (total time 7 days)
Personally, with the low volume of URs in Vermont I am in no hurry to close them, and want to give all wazers adequate time to respond. This also helps ensure drivers who may not use waze as frequently have an opportunity to even see the messages. On the other hand most New England states utilize some form of the 1/4/7 model, and I know many of our editors are active in other New England States.
In either case the goal is to respond as quickly to the initial report as that is the best chance of getting a response.
(of note the above mentioned countdown for follow up and closures resets if a wazer responds in either scenario).
So I ask if you have any specific pro/con opinions as we try to establish this policy.
I personally support 7+7 – not everyone uses Waze daily, and I have not heard a good argument for how expediting the closing of URs provides a positive outcome for the maps.
Let’s continue to use 7+7. Remember, 7+7 isn’t just to give extra time to reporter but also give chance other editors to review and perhaps solve the issue that we may possible missed. That’s why, I encourage editors to work together and communicate with each other. If we can find and fix the issue, most of the URs will be gone before the 7+7 anyways.
A little follow up on this there is some work being done to look at a regional guidance for URs. I still encourage the 7+7 model in the mean time till regional guidance could be adopted.
I don’t do any editing in Vermont, no AM and no driving privileges. I would agree with the 7 + 7 also. I never could understand why folks would want to close them quickly, especially if there isn’t a response from the reporter. And how many reporters thought they were responding by just replying to the initial email? It’s only been recently that I’ve seen discussion of having something go out with the first response that mentions to NOT reply to the email but to either the link in it or to the app.
We’re not trying to excel in a contest to see who the winner is, the winner is the reporter who gets their issue resolved. If it takes longer than some folks like, what is the harm? And as Orbit mentioned, it allows others to jump in if they have knowledge of the issue so they can add their input.
Looking at other New England states where I have edit privileges, I see reports that are past the standard 1 / 4 / 7 and some are where the reporter hasn’t responded and others where the editor hasn’t appeared to have time to get back to the reporter. It’s not as if editors ignore them I’m sure, my guess is that everyone is just busy, other WME stuff, life, whatever.
So let’s not stress about having to close reports when we don’t have to.