Also a new user of Waze on Android for a week now, I thought I'd share my considerations here too...

I love the concept of Waze, of having a free navigation system that works in my area in the first place, but also of the community improving the map and routing. So I started using it enthusiastically, navigating around and improving the map wherever I could. The game aspect is not really something I'd look for or expect to use, although I must admit I felt some excitement when I picked up points

The map in my area is not great, and in some nearby areas I travel in even virtually non-existent, but that's not a complaint in itself. The beauty of the community is that it will add roads as waze gains in popularity, and I'd be more than willing to play a substantial part in that myself. What ís a problem however, is that searches for an address from my contact list are never resolved, so that I have to look up where I want to go on the map and then navigate there. That is annoying, since I depend on navigation the most when I have no idea where my destination is in the first place. I found out that letting google maps locate the address for me (which always works), then switching to street view, then choosing "go to map", I could choose Waze as the app I wanted to use to go there, thus bypassing the need for letting Waze resolve the address. Not a great solution, but I guess I could live with it.

My biggest concern, however, is the openness of the community. Changes I made to the map that have to be confirmed by area managers have been waiting for that for over a week now. I understand that they are volunteers just like the rest of us and may be on holiday or too busy otherwise, but it did take away my initial enthusiasm to start thinking about what I was doing and for whom.

Bottom line is that I would be improving the map for Waze only, in the hope that Waze will be the best navigation option for me now and in the future. I'd much prefer to contribute to the Open Street Map, which is both superior and open. Waze does however not make use of OSM exactly because it would have to share map improvements (not including traffic information, routes and driving speeds). Given its closed nature, Waze would be an alternative only if the map quality at least comes close to that of OSM, with the added value of better routing from the gathered traffic information, routes and speeds. I have nothing against Waze earning money from my travel data, but to have me put an active effort in contributing to a map that is inferior exactly because Waze has no interest in contributing itself is a bit much to ask. It would really have to come with some extraordinary benefit such as offline navigation for that to become an option.

So, I've found my alternative, free, OSM based (plus contributing) and working directly from my contact list addresses. I think Waze would be a real winner if it could combine those features with the added benefits of gathering user data, which I think would be valueable enough in itself to build a business upon.

AlanOfTheBerg wrote:If Waze has no information from its sources about the address scheme on roads, it cannot find the address.

I can find the address in Waze, it just won't recognize the format from my contact list. So another option would be to memorize the address, and search for it in Waze. Another solution I could live with, certainly when temporary.

AlanOfTheBerg wrote:That is not very true. The only changes non-area managers have to put into a Pending queue is road deletions.

Yes, the changes I meant are indeed road deletions. As I read in the guidelines that the unnecessary splitting of a road into two separate one-directional lanes is undesirable, so I decided to rid my neighborhood of one such case. But without the deletion of the now obsolete lane, it is a mess. I respect the workload and voluntary nature of the position of AM, so that is certainly not a reason to give up on Waze. It just led me to think about the nature of the community.

AlanOfTheBerg wrote:I do hope you will considering staying on and trying out Waze a bit longer. Enthusiastic folks like you are the type of people we need to stick around to continue to improve Waze. It only gets better if we stick together.

I'll certainly keep Waze around, check out the map and watch for any moves toward a more open approach.

Ultimately I think that a large part of the community-minded enthusiasts like myself will resent the closed nature of map to which they contribute. In terms of "it only gets better if we stick together", Waze is doing quite the opposite by creating its own closed community. Rather than helping along only the Waze community/business model, especially the enthusiasts Waze needs may in the end opt for helping the community as a whole via OSM. I really think that an application like Waze would be absolutely perfect for just that, and I hope it will be so one day. I love the concept and think there's plenty of money to be made from the information derived from routes of driving data from the Waze users. Implementing and sharing with OSM would mean such a qualitative improvement for both sides I think Waze would be able to get far more users generating data, increasing its business potential.

Or maybe I just align my predictions with my love for the open source community

Thanks for that, I've done what I could to at least clean up the mess I made. I tried that a while ago, but the problem is that I am not able to move the road as it is connected to junctions along the way that I am not allowed to remove. I tried making all roads connected to those junctions identical by name and other properties, but am still not allowed to remove them. Unless you know of a way to solve this, for the moment I'll just make sure navigation is not affected and wait for the AM (who does exist, by the way).

Thanks, I so should have figured that out myself

Just a note to any fellow newbies that happen to read this: don't move your to-be-deleted roads to the middle of some nearby forest with the intention of removing names, reducing lengths etc there. Unless you've been in that forest, you will no longer be able to do anything with them. *cough*