with the addition of state manager - any chance of getting the US unlock forum split into states, or at least regions? without the ability to search based on states (search terms must be >=3 characters) and filter based on unsolved topics (this has been requested but not yet actioned), it can be a lot of work to page through everything looking for URs that pertain to your state and are not yet solved. if we’re going to expect SMs to stay on top of these, the least we can do is make it easier to focus in on the URs that pertain to them. Even most CMs seem to focus mostly on a certain region or selection of states, branching out to the whole US as they have time or need.
I have turned on notifications in tapatalk but quickly turned them off as my phone woke up every 5 minutes with URs for entire parts of the country I can’t help with. I would gladly turn it back on and respond immediately if I could be guaranteed a smaller set (northeast, or better yet just CT)
EDIT: thinking about this a bit more - I could see value in moving the unlock/update requests for each state under the forum for that state. then, RCs/Champs/SMs/AMs could subscribe to only those states they are concerned with. Larger states such as CA, NY, TX could at their discretion break the state down even further - such as [SoCal, BayArea]; [NYC, WNY, ENY] or whatever their RC/SM decide is appropriate.
I like this idea. We already have the states and regions broken down. With a few mins of administrator work on the forums it can be done. Close the current thread with an explanation.
Some will say it’s more clutter and overkill. But seems a good way to help the SM with their positions.
I think it would be much easier this way. You got my vote even thought it might not count for much. I am only a lowly rank 3 but it would make it a lot easier. Just like the state pages it can be put under each one. I mentioned this in another thread several months ago. Hope it happens.
The advantage of the state split for editors who are not CMs is that editors who post requests will know their state. A split by region may have a greater likelihood of editors posting to the incorrect region.
Out of respect for the glacial pace at which changes occur here on Waze, I didn’t want to lock my suggestion into something as drastic as a split by state, so I figured offering regions as an option might soften the impact. I agree – by state would be the preference, but anything that chops the country into smaller parts is an improvement.
Even if it isn’t done officially, I personally don’t have an issue with someone posting an unlock request in the existing state forum, or even sending me a PM to have something unlocked.
I’m with everyone else who agrees it is tedious sifting through unlock requests specific to your state.
It’s actually not that bad sifting through the national forum, when the state 2-letter abbreviation is included at the end of the subject/title, as the posting protocol says. I just tell editors here to make sure they do that for the best response time
I’m all for this if it helps stuff not get lost in the noise. One of the frustrations of being a lowbie editor is taking the time to do a proper unlock request and then have it get lost in the sea of requests. (For example, I have one from August 25th that is still waiting). With the new FC work along with setting minimal lock levels on everything above the street levels to higher lock levels (at least in the Northeast), the number of unlock requests is just going to go way up too.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not bitching. It was peak vacation time when I submitted that and every higher editor in my region has always been overly helpful to me. My point is, stuff just gets lost because there is a lot out there and with the plethora of roads being locked higher now, the need for more unlock requests are just going to increase in the future.
I would support this request, seems appropriate to have that responsibility fall under the SM.
Thoughts: There are links in the global unlock request for specific countries, have the US Unlock Forum also give links to the states that have an active SM, and like the global unlock have the all other states link.
Concern: There are several champs who do daily locks and give directions to read the “check here first” forum on the global unlock for those who missed the instructions, will this not multiply that task?
I’d agree with you, if I could search the forum for the two-letter abbreviation. Unfortunately, I get an error about the word being too short when I look for “HI” (Hawaii).
Well, that’s a bummer. Though I never really did that until you just metioned this. I always just skimmed all the unread messages for ones that end in NJ - was saying they’re not that difficult to pick out…
Actually, I just look for the zero replies entries and see if they are from one of the multiple states I work in. IN some ways, it would be more difficult to scan through multiple states, especially for the champs looking for 6 locks.
Most forum software is like that, usually you have to have more than 3 characters to keep it from returning too many results or bogging down the servers.
I do agree that if state by state is too much, then regional unlock forums would be a good idea.
I personally think Waze has far too many subforums as it is. It’s very confusing for someone new to figure out just what’s what and where what’s what needs to be posted to. You finally find your state forum only to be told that you can’t ask for help fixing things in your state, you have to post to the unlock forum. You post there and the request sits for days if it ever does get a response at all. What exactly is the problem with posting problems to your state forum?
There are probably CMs that really don’t want to go poking around in 50 different state forums looking for stuff to unlock. They can just quickly browse down the one unlock forum and do a few clicks and job done. I also know there are some state forums, like Delaware, where I post stuff up for discussion and it’s a ghost town in there. If I did an unlock request in there, it’d never be seen. And I can’t really blame anyone for not wanting to go to Delaware unless they really have to. :lol:
Of course, if everybody used the full state name (like the Fancy Permalink part of Toolbox does for unlock/update requests), that would enable searching.
I agree, I like the idea of this but too many sub-forums might cause request to get lost. Lets address the forum rules and now require FULL State Name in the title when posting Update/Unlock Request, I’ll talk to some other champs and see if we can get a consensus
This would certainly be a step in the right direction – but my ideal solution would be one where I can “subscribe” to a particular unlock forum(s) and have Tapatalk push notifications to me when there is an unlock request in the state that I manage. I had push notifications on for the US forum, but immediately turned them off due to all the noise. If full state names gets us part of the way there in lieu of a perfect solution and I have to manually open my saved search, I suppose I can get behind that
One other thing we shouldn’t lose focus of: there is a plugin for PHPBB that will allow you to filter out solved topics. That would be massively helpful for making sure requests don’t “fall through the cracks”.
