Just had a couple of UR’s closed which I had been watching (waiting feedback). Is there a “reasonable” time to wait after which you should close them when no feedback is received. Is a week enough? Should they be closed as “Not Identified” or “Resolved”? I suspect “Not Identified”.
Is there any way to investigate the UR once closed to look at it or is it lost and gone forever?
Can we have a wiki entry for guidelines on how to deal with UR’s, including when to contact reporters and when to close reports with no obvious issue? Details of what tools do we have to investigate UR’s before contacting the reporter?
I am probably sure that I may have closed UR’s where someone has asked a question but had no reply, so I think it may be time to have a better guide to formally deal with these in a consistent manner so as to not p155 others off, including whoever reported the issue…
I have also had a few URs closed on me yesterday.
I recently started to include a date in my comments, something along the lines of “I will keep this request open until xx/xx/xx”. I usually put a date that is 7 days in the future. I will then close these ones if I don’t receive a response
A draft Wiki text has been awaiting my re-write for some time. It seems I missed my instructions to get on with it! Hopefully we will have something soon - and not a Waze “soon”. :lol:
I was thinking that, with waze on the assumptions that 1) the Uk map is pretty much nearing some form of “completion” and 2) there is less real editing to be done, UR’s are going to be for the future the real focus for editors and more analysis and investigation is required and less adding and adjusting roads…
On that basis then we need a better focus on UR’s and how to investigate them and how to resolve whatever issues arise from them… And for that we need a more comprehensive wiki and tools to help in investigating…
Does the Wiki need to cover responding to URs in areas that have an AM? In areas without an AM I feel free to dive in. If there is an AM I know is active I leave the reports alone even if it’s “obvious” what the fix is on the basis that the AM has a better knowledge of the area than me and I don’t want to step on toes. If I spot something like a L1 editor doing something wrong I’ll probably wade in even if there’s an AM*. Is that all back to front and the end user is king and we should all dive in and aim to close the reports as quickly as possible?
*: Well maybe not if the AM is a Tim or an Iain or a Des or a David or a John or…
If a new UR is left untouched even for a few days I think it’s prudent for the first editor who sees it to ask the reporter what the issue is, whilst it’s still fresh in the mind of the reporter (and whilst they’re still likely to have waze installed at all). The sooner the reporter is asked for more info the more likely they’ll be able to give the best account of the issue.
If that 1st editor can’t/doesn’t want to solve it themselves fine, but at least the editor/AM who does will have the best info from the reporter ready for them.
Totally agree. I’m thinking the pretty much completed area should be locked and only allow, say level 3+ or 4+ editors to edit. That may be a bit aggressive but you may have the same frustration when someone jump in to mass edit the area where is already completed. Well, maybe a more gentle way (not to lock the area) is to have a pop up warning “You are editing a more or less completed area. Please consider to raise a UR instead of editing…”
I’m not sure which areas are “almost completed”. I’m always coming across things like no-right-turns that Waze doesn’t know about, incorrect junctions (almost every trip on minor urban or rural roads reveals lots and lots of these), and major junctions that still aren’t quite correct in terms of the keep right, exit right, turn right sort of thing. There was even one recently when the angle to exit left was so slight that no instruction was given at all to exit (yes, really), this on a major trunk road.
For example, I recently had to make two journeys to that obscure and rarely-visited isolated community… Watford. The map was wrong for both journeys. On one, Waze tried to turn me right on a no-right-turn. On the other, a road was shown as through road when in reality there’s a fence and some trees forming a barrier across it half-way along.
This to me is a normal experience when visiting an address for the first time with Waze.
If I drive through a town for the first time (this happened recently, where was it, Aylesbury, I think) I’m always so astonished at the number of map errors, I’m thinking “am I the first Wazer to drive through here ever?”
I agree with NorfolkMustard about the need to respond quickly to UR’s. They are increasing in importance, and as it is illegal to type and drive, they are often short of information.
So long as the first editor to respond asks a polite and sensible question, no harm is done (better than delaying too long). Local editors/AMs are free to add their comments (or pitch in) if they feel they can add value. In fact if more than one editor comments, it shows the strength of our team effort. The social aspect is the unique selling point after all.
I had one occasion fairly recently where I added a missing roundabout. The road layout had changed quite a lot, so I wrote what I had done and left the UR open so local experts and the reporter could review or comment. Maybe good practice in theory, but the result was that the following day a L1 editor badly messed up my carefully researched efforts and closed the UR as fixed. I had to redraw all over again.
