voludu2 wrote:Please make plans to replace and improve the live user and WME chat features. I think you did not understand how important these features are to map maintenance.
* Chat was very valuable for one-time WME users who are just there to bring up a change to the roads, request a closure, etc. One-time could find someone in chat, who could get help from another member of the editing community in the correct state. These users don't know how to find Waze map editors in discord, slack, or google hangouts, and very rarely know about the Waze forums.
* The live user feature was very valuable for working with one-time and first-time WME users because these users have not yet learned about how to create a permalink to communicate where a problem is. Scripts added a "jump to live user" feature for any live users listed in chat.
* The chat feature was a very valuable way to let first-time editors know that the waze community exists, and to give them links to the appropriate chat/discussion platforms where they could join the community.
* Therefore chat and live user features were tremendously helpful in bringing new editors into the waze map editing community.
* The ability to see live users on the map definitely made map editing feel more social, and more fun, which has helped retain many waze map editors.

We need to keep attracting and retaining waze editors. We need to increase the number editing in those parts of the world, like in our big cities, where the roads and intersections are changing all the time.
Thank you.

voludu2 wrote:Please consult the waze editing community before making major changes in order to learn more about how these changes will affect the editing community, and therefore the future quality of the waze maps.

The reasons we were given were:
Poor capabilities of WME Chat
Low usage of WME Chat
Increased use of external services like Slack & Discord

The infrastructure team are upgrading the login servers; as part of this, the new service will not be compatible with either chat or live users. To quote Ruben "In this case it was somewhat not fully expected also from our side."

Lulucmy wrote:EDIT : And btw do you have any ETA about the chat ?

HeziBez wrote:Rebuilding it in a way that's compatible with the new server requires rewriting most of the code so we cannot currently provide an ETA.
There will be a downtime between the deprecation of the current version and the release of the new one.

TRIANAV77 wrote:waze should implement something new to replace this tool

HeziBez wrote:Community feedback has clarified how important the WME chat is, so it will be rebuilt.

CoolCityCat wrote:

mhh60 wrote:Just a week ago I was able to reach out to a new editor after seeing his hardhat. As much as Chat may have sucked, being able to see live users was useful especially when editing collaboratively such as during raids. The timing could not have been worse with the raid that started today in Alabama and Florida.

The timing could not have been worse with the raid that is currently in progress in Malaysia!