Unable to edit much in my AM area

[Seasider]

Before I get properly launched into what I would like to say, please do not think that I am being at all precious, I as you all hopefully do, want Waze to be the best that it can be.

Some months ago, I took the hard decision to stop regularly editting my area. The main reason for this was the frustration I felt at not being able to do a lot of the edits that I wanted to (and were required), due to them being lvl 5 locked (oft times by people from miles away with little or no local knowledge of the area), and my only being a lvl 4 editor.

An example of what I’m talking about

Recently, a lvl 5 editor chose to ‘improve’ J31 of the M6, which I drive on a daily basis, but which I admit did not look too pretty on the map editor but which looked absolutely fine on client devices and most importantly ROUTED PROPERLY.
These ‘improvements’, caused the ‘dogbone’ ‘dumbbell’ (2 roundabouts joined by hardstanding between) section to cease to route at all, giving a take exit 0 report. After all the junction obviously needed editing as it had been routing perfectly fine for the last 18 months. It was also locked down to level 5.
As a result of this it has taken me nearly a month and I think 3 map tile updates to correct these ‘improvements’ and get the junction to route properly again, not least as I have had to get the area unlocked to that I can even attempt to edit it.

Whilst I completely understand the enthusiasm and addiction to map editting that lvl 5 people have (I used to be just as bad), I think that if an area is managed by an active experienced editor (for example me) then the AM should have lvl 5 rights over his/her area, then at least we can put right what lvl 5’s get wrong, whatever their good intentions.

Using my own area of Blackpool and surrounding environs to illustrate, there are a lot of changes being made to the road network in my town, and road direction/junctions are changing on an almost daily basis,which is why I have/had, took the decision to attempt to edit again regularly, unfortunately tho, I am finding it nearly impossible due to all the lvl 5 locks, and even in some cases, edits I have made (so the map matches the actual ground) are being deleted by lvl 5 editors whom I understand are based 100’s of miles away.

I want to edit again, as I WANT to keep improving the map, but having my ‘flow’ interrupted at almost every edit of importance is making think I am wasting my time.

Rant over,

Jay

[TonyG-UK]

Have you PMed the editor in question to ask if it was them who locked them at lvl 5 and why?

[Timbones]

I had previously unlocked every segment in Blackpool. No idea why it’s been locked again, but I’m happy to unlock it all again for you.

via mobile

[seriousarsonist]

Can I complain and be bumped to L5 too?

NI area manager
Waze Beta - iPhone 4s iOS 6.1.2 not jail broken

[wl02703]

Have to say I agree with everything Seasider has said. I stopped editing regularly as it was getting more and more difficult to do any good. The routing around Flintshire and Chester gradually deteriorated and I’ve come back to ‘repair’ the roads. I drive these roads all the time, nearly everyday. It’s in my interests to have a good map, good routing but I’m being restricted in what I can do. There are currently 4 UR’s in Chester city centre. 3 of these I know the problem and how to fix it but cannot because of locks.

Let Area Managers manage their areas. Give us rights to override level 5 locks.

Gareth

[Timbones]

This is going to become a bigger problem when Waze lock roads automatically based on how busy they are. (currently in beta testing)

via mobile

[Seasider]

Timbones, have had a long discourse with one of the other CM by text and most of my AM patch has been rendered editable again for now, until the known rogues come back and screw things over again

[faitaru]

@wl02703

Let Area Managers manage their areas. Give us rights to override level 5 locks.

Unfortunately the only way to do this would be to start promoting people to L5. We can’t really justify doing this for individual editors or even more people will start to get pissed off.

We are currently working on some guidelines for locking levels in the UK. The current problem some AMs are experiencing is due primarily to over enthusiastic locking by a few level 5 editors and we are hoping to solve this with the new guidelines. We are also going to give feedback to HQ on how the new auto-lock feature will affect AMs, and we are hoping to allow AMs to override auto-locks higher than their level within their area.

It’s likely that motorways will continue to be locked to L5, but we will endeavour to make ourselves available to help AMs with these locks as and when is needed.

As has always been the case, the UK admin team is happy to be contacted with concerns about locking or any other issue you guys have. We’re all doing this for the same reasons as you, after all.

[Twister-UK]

@faitaru

@wl02703

Let Area Managers manage their areas. Give us rights to override level 5 locks.

Unfortunately the only way to do this would be to start promoting people to L5. We can’t really justify doing this for individual editors or even more people will start to get pissed off.

WME could be revised to apply a different set of editing rights (not necessarily full-L5 rights) to our managed areas vs our driven areas, rather than simply giving us L5 status across the board - this would give us the ability to manage our areas more effectively without AM status effectively becoming a free upgrade to L5. The in-area rights upgrade could be applied at a more finely-grained level than the present “level n can edit anything locked at level n or below” approach, taking into account the type of road being edited to prevent lower-level AMs messing with critical parts of the network such as motorways, whilst not shutting them out from editing lower-status roads where a higher-level lock remains in place for no good reason.

We are currently working on some guidelines for locking levels in the UK. The current problem some AMs are experiencing is due primarily to over enthusiastic locking by a few level 5 editors

Is there still a problem with some segments continuing to track the current level of the editor who last edited them, or did that all get resolved a while ago? I vaguely recall Waze running some sort of process that was related to lock levels, but also vaguely recall it didn’t go entirely to plan…

We are also going to give feedback to HQ on how the new auto-lock feature will affect AMs, and we are hoping to allow AMs to override auto-locks higher than their level within their area.

Auto-lock is probably the one feature of the current WME beta I’d be most happy to see nuked from orbit, as whilst the principle seems sound, the implementation leaves it looking like something whos sole purpose is to piss off as many lower-ranked editors as possible.

[leocylau]

I agree what seasider said. I used to have a fellow editor to manage the NE area. Unfortunately she got stuck in L4. I couldn’t see much edits from her now as simialr reason as seasider. I’ve lost a good fellow editor to work together. I’d say ‘We’ lost a good fellow editor. I tried to propose her to L5 but it seems it is not available. Well, bumping ppl to L5 may not be a good idea or system. It’s good to discuss any way to resolve it.

1. L5/L6 should self-educated :mrgreen:
2. Product some special area which are well managed by AM/CM. Anyone wants to instrude these area should have an warning message or such to tell the ‘instruder’ even he/she is L5/L6.
   …
   Just a rough idea as I need to go back to work :?
   Maybe share more later…

[faitaru]

@Twister_UK

WME could be revised to apply a different set of editing rights (not necessarily full-L5 rights) to our managed areas vs our driven areas, rather than simply giving us L5 status across the board - this would give us the ability to manage our areas more effectively without AM status effectively becoming a free upgrade to L5. The in-area rights upgrade could be applied at a more finely-grained level than the present “level n can edit anything locked at level n or below” approach, taking into account the type of road being edited to prevent lower-level AMs messing with critical parts of the network such as motorways, whilst not shutting them out from editing lower-status roads where a higher-level lock remains in place for no good reason.

Auto-lock is probably the one feature of the current WME beta I’d be most happy to see nuked from orbit, as whilst the principle seems sound, the implementation leaves it looking like something whos sole purpose is to piss off as many lower-ranked editors as possible.

This is something we’ve been thinking about, definitely in terms of AMs having some kind of override on the new auto-locks. Whether or not AMs get override up to L# or possibly their current L+1 is a current topic of discussion amongst the UK admins. Another possible idea is to try and impose a maximum auto-lock level depending on road type. We’re aware that AMs are already feeling restricted in what they can do and we really don’t want the new feature to make it worse. We will be raising the issues with HQ for sure.

Is there still a problem with some segments continuing to track the current level of the editor who last edited them, or did that all get resolved a while ago? I vaguely recall Waze running some sort of process that was related to lock levels, but also vaguely recall it didn’t go entirely to plan…

From my understanding the tracking bug was fixed for future raises in user levels, but we were left with legacy raised locks from before the fix was applied. HQ then ran a script to unlock all roads below a certain road type (can’t remember which).