Template of topic 380525, post 1
Continuing the discussion from City Names:
Smudged Cities
Occasionally you might see a label of a city in an inappropriate place, far from the place where it is meant to be. This can occur both in the Client (Android, iOS) and in the browser while editing.
These incorrect labels may be the result of an incorrect filled-in “City” field that has extended that city well beyond of where it should be (a “Smudged” city), or it might be a “Zombie” city. Zombie cities are shown on the map, but you can’t locate a street or a landmark that has this city, and sufficient time has elapsed for the old city name to have been flushed in a tile update. The USA Wazeopedia (Smudged city) has a page specifically written to identify city names in inappropriate places.
Occasionally, even if you have fixed up all the “City” fields, there may remain a city label that remains for no good reason. If you do find such a label, then consult a Local Champ (through Waze Chat or Discord) to request the unneeded label to be removed or merged into the correct label.
Extending/Shrinking City Polygons
Extending city polygons (and shrinking them) is somewhat of a mystery. Here is what we know (collated from the forums, wiki and experimentation):
- The polygon should be extended from the centre or core whenever possible.
- The polygon can be extended (or shrunk) from any segment that currently exists within the polygon. Segments added close to the existing polygon may also extend the polygon.
- Segments being used to redraw a polygon should be less than about 4km.
- The city polygons are being re-calculated every day if the length of the segments in the city is changed by more than 5%. This means multiple segments may need to be changed at the same time to trigger a redraw. There is no need for multiple nodes or multiple small segments; the only determining factor is the total length changed.
- Polygons may change quite quickly but you may need to allow some time (a few weeks) for the new polygon to appear in WME.
- A city polygon recalculation (when extending or shrinking the polygon) starts at the origin point/segment, and radiates out until it runs out of contiguous segments with that city name. This is the reason new cities should be created at the centre of the locality whenever possible.
- Segment type does not affect the redraw. Any street type segment will be considered.
- Polygons don’t seem to extend to segments that have an alternate city name. The segment mustn’t have an alternate if you want to use it to trigger a redraw.
- City names can only be added to segments a certain distance away from the polygon. If you cannot save a city name then the polygon needs to be extended.