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What are we missing ?

Post by Kuhlkatz
I'm not seeing much traction in the forums, but here goes..

When I started using Waze, I was disappointed that I only found this little gem quite recently and not ages ago. I love the real-time info and warnings, even though I tend to stick to my usual routes on my daily commutes.

After watching the intro video on editing, I was fairly confident that it's a simple process to identify and fix problems, which it actually is most of the time. The fact that the maps can be edited and updated by the community is also (supposed to be) a huge plus. While the simple how-to's and what's are touched on, what is NOT discussed in the video, are some of the quirks that many of the first mappers lived with and the obvious why's and why not's.

I did look at the ZA forums and the standards, and one thing bothered me on the Dual Roads vs Not Dual Roads issue. If roads are drawn as two-way when they are actually two seperated one-way lanes, surely Waze would detect and indicate congestion better ? That's not true, as I only discovered later.
A lot of the what to do and what not to do is 'hidden' in the Area Manager portion of the Wiki and various discussions on the board over the years.

After a PM to one of the Area Managers, for an unlock request to fix a routing error, the frustration was obvious in his reply. People that WANT to make this a success, is often ignored because other users tend to map the road exactly as is, instead of just as general uncomplicated route.
I think this happens not because people tend NOT to read, I think it's due to the fact that some basic information is just hidden in the wrong places and not compiled into a single thread that acts as an easy reference.

The big problem is that people in general do not want to spend hours searching for information. They simply want to get the 'basics', and get stuck in. If the basics covers the simple rules formulated in all of the discussions, it will be available in plain sight.

Can I suggest that a single locked thread or Subforum with applicable locked threads is created in the main forum for 'First Time Editors - A Must Read' or 'Quick-Reference Guide for Editors' or something along a similar vein.
Reference should probably be made to this Forum in the ZA Wiki as well, or the local 'rules' repeated in there.

A short discussion on exactly HOW Waze works and generates / recalculates routes would definitely help. The fact that routes are not calculated on the device itself, is very important to understand. Waze is not the same as 'just another GPS'.

This part of the Wiki applies : http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/How_ ... tes_routes

No one wants to read through 100s of 2-year-old discussions on the topic of dual lanes vs single lanes. If the pinned topic here is briefly explained and referenced, I'm sure most people will read it :
http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Best ... g_practice
Specific reference should be made to the split vs not split part :
http://www.waze.com/wiki/index.php/Best ... o-Way_Road

People should not be shy to confirm info on http://maps.google.co.za/. Copying maps or map info is not allowed, but I'm sure using it as a reference for factual info or verifying spelling is not a Copyright infringement, as was discussed in one of the forums.

Even accepted tagging guidelines are hidden in a thread :http://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Sout ... Guidelines

After reading all of this, I can understand why Area Managers get frustrated when the individual ROADS are getting mapped instead of just the bare-bones ROUTE. It complicates matters for both editors AND for Waze servers and clients. It will surely increases the amount of maintenance AND data required to route a person.
I'm sure after 'fixing' the same road for the 100th time, I'll also give up eventually.

We should rather encourage people to fix things and give them a simple reference in one place.
I assume the 'Standards' Sub-Forum was intended for this.
In my opinion The FIRST Sub-forum with locked threads should contain all of the relevant info for new users, and the rest of the categorized general topics should follow after that.

Just my 2c.
Kuhlkatz
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Post by Chriseleven
Agreed - I get really cross when I see every line in car park mapped :shock:
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Post by elphix
chriseleven wrote:Agreed - I get really cross when I see every line in car park mapped :shock:
Definitely one of my gripes but is there any point in deleting them?
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Post by Kuhlkatz
elphix wrote: Definitely one of my gripes but is there any point in deleting them?
Yep, uncluttering the map for us Wazers, and the extra editing point as a thank you for your caring attitude ;)
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Post by Kuhlkatz
mithrandi wrote:Please don't delete all parking lot roads, though; if they're unmapped, somebody driving around in a parking lot will usually lock to a nearby road causing spurious traffic jam reports...

Yep,
I can clarify that one. Leave the entrances and the portions that lead to businesses.
It's important that Waze does not attribute your McDonalds drive-through experience as a traffic hold-up for the main road right next to the McD's.
But it's more important to map the "outer perimeter" of the outlay than every single lane. Rather "box" larger parking lots, just with the outer edges.
It's really NOT required to map every lane.

Dang editor is down, so I cannot even provide a graphics sample, reverting to ASCII art ;)

Code: Select all

This:       or this:    or even just:
|           |           |   
|  +----+   |  +----+   |  +
+--|    |   +--|        +--|
|  |    |   |  |        |  |
|  +----+   |  +----+   |  +

Instead of this:
|
|  +====+
+--|====|
|  |====|
|  +====+
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Post by mithrandi
Please don't delete all parking lot roads, though; if they're unmapped, somebody driving around in a parking lot will usually lock to a nearby road causing spurious traffic jam reports...
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Tristan Seligmann
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