Attention Plains Editors
I have neglected to really get this written, mainly because of my personal vocations as of late. But this needs to really get aired, straightened out, and corrected ASAP. I have received too many complaints, I have replied to them that I'd work on this post soon. For that, I apologize.
First, I know there is a lot of information to cover, especially with recent changes. There is more to the reason of the changes then might be on the cover in most cases. In some cases, such as complying with the Wiki update for Road Types, it is twofold.
I want to make this obviously clear at this point. What the Wiki states in regards to the Road Types, is how each and every region should abide by. No state should necessarily have a 'large' deviation from that reference all that much. I say that with the exception as we are dealing with the pains of change, some require some modification where we as self-managers in the group see necessary. No individual should be making the change on their own from that reference. That Wiki is so we all can be on the same page, have uniformity and continuity. The same could be said for Places in the regard there should be no state specific deviation.
Now, to expand on the Road Type entrance. I have received complaints from users complying with the change to the Functional Classification road type conversion to match state DOT maps (when available) according to the Wiki diagram and charts. If you have a question about a particular item, please ask me. We are all trying to make this product a better environment, not only for ourselves, but many others. There are some deep reasons on why we have adopted this conversion. It took at least a couple years amongst us to decide on the formalities. If you believe that someone has just edited something, it may be right, you can reach out to me or the user before changing it back. I expect the same from those who are working on the conversion, if they run into issues, to reach out to me. Waze is too busy to be dealing with direct inquiries for this particular matter. And even so, in most cases, they will tell you to reach out to your local regional coordinator first anyways. That is why we as USA are a self-managed country, why we have Regional Coordinators such as myself.
I expect from this region, compliance with converting the specific state DOT FC map to Waze Road Types. Each state has, except one that I know of, comprehensive FC maps. While, some are dated, we all understand that, the maps are certainly out there. We can save the debate of certain road types for another date. But according to the Wiki you will have your guide. I get it, there are many rural areas, that means changing a dirt road type to a primary street or higher. If you have a particular question about that, you can ask me. This is how I see it. With Waze, we are dealing with multiple systems. The client side and the server side are essentially the two sides, some limited capabilities locally on the client, but everything else is mostly ran from the server side. Things on the server side would mainly be routing. The routing server is essential to this equation. Elevating some of these road types which are higher classifications according to the DOT, will aid in proper routing. Many of the rural routes, rely on those roads, so why wouldn't they be a primary street anyways? The basic fact is that we are trying to work with Waze as the Local, Regional, Country and Global champs, to fix the dirt road situation. It seems that there might be a solution, but not one that is worth mentioning today. If anyone is out in the rural, sparse country routes, especially if I was, I'd be looking for the quickest route out. Now, I get there is debate on dirt and primary streets right now. If you have a question about it, don't think it needs upgraded, then send me a PM. Right now though, we need the conversion to aid in essentially, long distance routing anyways and then more proper routing on the local level.
Some might argue, major highway going through town. I have done it here in Vegas, it has not impacted routing. In fact, it might have made it better, especially some roads that were raised. When you understand the routing mechanism, you'll realize, at the core, it doesn't care about the road types, that is direct from the routing engineer. The hindsight though is long distance routing, where it will favor higher road type classifications to reduce jumping off and on the main route, between say Des Moines and KC, which it has operated well for the years since that has been cleaned up and I have driven it. At the core, match the DOT maps at this time. There should not be a change when it goes through town. If you look in the Wiki, it doesn't specify that at all for the methods. Major highways, mostly being US Highways, cut through many rural towns. There should not be a lower road type along that route, it creates a discontinuity. Match the DOT map conversion.
Second, further expectations. Map chat is not the place to fix every problem, to vent issues or to challenge someone. We're all adults, in my opinion, even if you aren't. I know we stretch our reach far with even those who might be driving as young as 16. But I expect professionalism and representation from everyone who is expected to be in a leader role, those with AM and higher at the very least. Map chat is not archived or recorded, except from live editors who may take screenshots or copy and paste. I can't go follow up on a map chat. I can follow up on forum posts. Not saying anyone is guilty as AM or higher, but I have seen screenshots of a user who I will not name, venting on map chat. There isn't much we can really do about it, but if you think you can interject without causing more issues, let them know of their resources in the Wiki, the forums, you can even let them know of their regional coordinator.
I have wrote a lot there, trying to get this region up to speed. If you encounter someone who is giving a hard time with your edits, based on what I have wrote above, send them here to read themselves to catch up. Which brings me to my next point.
Thirdly, forum activity and participation. There is plenty to cover here. I have heard many say, the state forum is dead or no activity. Well, frankly I don't see that as an excuse. I expect more activity mainly addressing your state specific issues, getting to know your local editors and area managers, getting to know the region. That excludes the unlock request that we have used in its own specific forums. I am saying along the lines of events or construction, natural disasters that people need to know about. We have a road closure form to use, I encourage more to use it, form is here.
The reason I am encouraging the forum participation is partly due to the first reason of me creating this thread. No one is communicating with one another on a level to comprehend any changes that are necessary, before someone blindly changes them back. No one has posted any issues in the forums about the particular items, maybe there were exchanged PM's, but again, as I mentioned, unless I am CC'd or BCC'd, I won't see it much like map chat. Not only this, but it may be something someone else was wondering too, and we could have answered for them along the way by having the discussion where everyone can reference. For future AM applications, besides the minimum requirements you'd see, I won't accept an AM application from someone who doesn't have enough forum participation. Get out there, say hello, get to know the core of why our map editing is so great. Unlock forum doesn't count towards your participation.
I am expecting to see viable and useful forum information. I got a major event request pass through my email July 9th. That is less than a week from the start of the events. I knew it was going on in Minneapolis, I probably could have and should have submitted it. This is one of those examples that I think we can work more effectively if we were discussing these items that concern us. I review it personally and I think... we could have done better. It will become better I am sure, just instead of scrambling at the last minute, could have been looking for the next major event to include. It is one of the recent examples that I thought I'd share.
Well, look forward to continuing to better this region. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please post to let us know. I don't want this thread to have the debate topics, so if you need something addressed, please open either in the specific state, or the region forum as a new topic.
First, I know there is a lot of information to cover, especially with recent changes. There is more to the reason of the changes then might be on the cover in most cases. In some cases, such as complying with the Wiki update for Road Types, it is twofold.
I want to make this obviously clear at this point. What the Wiki states in regards to the Road Types, is how each and every region should abide by. No state should necessarily have a 'large' deviation from that reference all that much. I say that with the exception as we are dealing with the pains of change, some require some modification where we as self-managers in the group see necessary. No individual should be making the change on their own from that reference. That Wiki is so we all can be on the same page, have uniformity and continuity. The same could be said for Places in the regard there should be no state specific deviation.
Now, to expand on the Road Type entrance. I have received complaints from users complying with the change to the Functional Classification road type conversion to match state DOT maps (when available) according to the Wiki diagram and charts. If you have a question about a particular item, please ask me. We are all trying to make this product a better environment, not only for ourselves, but many others. There are some deep reasons on why we have adopted this conversion. It took at least a couple years amongst us to decide on the formalities. If you believe that someone has just edited something, it may be right, you can reach out to me or the user before changing it back. I expect the same from those who are working on the conversion, if they run into issues, to reach out to me. Waze is too busy to be dealing with direct inquiries for this particular matter. And even so, in most cases, they will tell you to reach out to your local regional coordinator first anyways. That is why we as USA are a self-managed country, why we have Regional Coordinators such as myself.
I expect from this region, compliance with converting the specific state DOT FC map to Waze Road Types. Each state has, except one that I know of, comprehensive FC maps. While, some are dated, we all understand that, the maps are certainly out there. We can save the debate of certain road types for another date. But according to the Wiki you will have your guide. I get it, there are many rural areas, that means changing a dirt road type to a primary street or higher. If you have a particular question about that, you can ask me. This is how I see it. With Waze, we are dealing with multiple systems. The client side and the server side are essentially the two sides, some limited capabilities locally on the client, but everything else is mostly ran from the server side. Things on the server side would mainly be routing. The routing server is essential to this equation. Elevating some of these road types which are higher classifications according to the DOT, will aid in proper routing. Many of the rural routes, rely on those roads, so why wouldn't they be a primary street anyways? The basic fact is that we are trying to work with Waze as the Local, Regional, Country and Global champs, to fix the dirt road situation. It seems that there might be a solution, but not one that is worth mentioning today. If anyone is out in the rural, sparse country routes, especially if I was, I'd be looking for the quickest route out. Now, I get there is debate on dirt and primary streets right now. If you have a question about it, don't think it needs upgraded, then send me a PM. Right now though, we need the conversion to aid in essentially, long distance routing anyways and then more proper routing on the local level.
Some might argue, major highway going through town. I have done it here in Vegas, it has not impacted routing. In fact, it might have made it better, especially some roads that were raised. When you understand the routing mechanism, you'll realize, at the core, it doesn't care about the road types, that is direct from the routing engineer. The hindsight though is long distance routing, where it will favor higher road type classifications to reduce jumping off and on the main route, between say Des Moines and KC, which it has operated well for the years since that has been cleaned up and I have driven it. At the core, match the DOT maps at this time. There should not be a change when it goes through town. If you look in the Wiki, it doesn't specify that at all for the methods. Major highways, mostly being US Highways, cut through many rural towns. There should not be a lower road type along that route, it creates a discontinuity. Match the DOT map conversion.
Second, further expectations. Map chat is not the place to fix every problem, to vent issues or to challenge someone. We're all adults, in my opinion, even if you aren't. I know we stretch our reach far with even those who might be driving as young as 16. But I expect professionalism and representation from everyone who is expected to be in a leader role, those with AM and higher at the very least. Map chat is not archived or recorded, except from live editors who may take screenshots or copy and paste. I can't go follow up on a map chat. I can follow up on forum posts. Not saying anyone is guilty as AM or higher, but I have seen screenshots of a user who I will not name, venting on map chat. There isn't much we can really do about it, but if you think you can interject without causing more issues, let them know of their resources in the Wiki, the forums, you can even let them know of their regional coordinator.
I have wrote a lot there, trying to get this region up to speed. If you encounter someone who is giving a hard time with your edits, based on what I have wrote above, send them here to read themselves to catch up. Which brings me to my next point.
Thirdly, forum activity and participation. There is plenty to cover here. I have heard many say, the state forum is dead or no activity. Well, frankly I don't see that as an excuse. I expect more activity mainly addressing your state specific issues, getting to know your local editors and area managers, getting to know the region. That excludes the unlock request that we have used in its own specific forums. I am saying along the lines of events or construction, natural disasters that people need to know about. We have a road closure form to use, I encourage more to use it, form is here.
The reason I am encouraging the forum participation is partly due to the first reason of me creating this thread. No one is communicating with one another on a level to comprehend any changes that are necessary, before someone blindly changes them back. No one has posted any issues in the forums about the particular items, maybe there were exchanged PM's, but again, as I mentioned, unless I am CC'd or BCC'd, I won't see it much like map chat. Not only this, but it may be something someone else was wondering too, and we could have answered for them along the way by having the discussion where everyone can reference. For future AM applications, besides the minimum requirements you'd see, I won't accept an AM application from someone who doesn't have enough forum participation. Get out there, say hello, get to know the core of why our map editing is so great. Unlock forum doesn't count towards your participation.
I am expecting to see viable and useful forum information. I got a major event request pass through my email July 9th. That is less than a week from the start of the events. I knew it was going on in Minneapolis, I probably could have and should have submitted it. This is one of those examples that I think we can work more effectively if we were discussing these items that concern us. I review it personally and I think... we could have done better. It will become better I am sure, just instead of scrambling at the last minute, could have been looking for the next major event to include. It is one of the recent examples that I thought I'd share.
Well, look forward to continuing to better this region. If you have any ideas or suggestions, please post to let us know. I don't want this thread to have the debate topics, so if you need something addressed, please open either in the specific state, or the region forum as a new topic.
