Contribution frustrated in Mountain View, CA

[RoyaltyWoody]

Thank you all for your helpful input.

Per your comments, I've deleted the non-gas-station businesses. I'll look into correcting my gas station additions as I have time... to make sure I get them right.

As for Phyllis Ave. split... mea culpa. That was a (brief) venture I took to try to go beyond the parking lot. It was accepted before I learned the guidelines for not splitting a road. (I had figured, since there was a serious barrier between the two lanes of traffic, it made sense to split it, and clarify where/why side streets/drives would/wouldn't be able to make certain turns. I had not read the Wiki about split roads, and had failed to consider the lack of accuracy of GPS tracking. At this point, it seems like it would be more work to un-split it. And, unless there are any URs that I made errors in allowed/disallowed turns, I wonder if it should be changed.

Regarding the back-of-buildings parking lot roads... I'm thinking I'll try again to create the main ones. And also three of the entrances/exits... two to Phyllis Ave., and one to Pamela Dr. The other ones that lead to/from Grant Rd. would be problematic in that they would necessitate adding more (minor) parking lot roads/lanes which would likely create confusion.

[RoyaltyWoody]

One more note:
In that permalink, the back roads and alternate entrances/exits have (once again) been deleted.

[RoyaltyWoody]

I'm a rather new user, and have been enjoying using Waze for a couple of weeks. Been learning about editing, and thought I'd start with a mostly harmless area: a local shopping center and its parking lot.

I've now tried a few times to add in the parking lot roads (one time I made the mistake of adding in all the lanes, but the other times I've JUST added the main paths - entrance/exits, paths in front of stores, and the "back" roads that are commonly used and evidenced in the GPS tracks), but every time I add the roads, most, if not all of my work gets deleted. I've also tried adding some of the businesses - a bank, a couple of grocery stores, etc. - but those too have been deleted, or re-purposed.

The last time my work was re-purposed, one of the landmarks (I think it was the bank) was moved and changed to "Professional Panhandler"!

Questions:
Is there any way to tell if my work is being deleted by a prankster vs an experienced Wazer? (I'm content to concede to those who are trying to truly help the community, but would like to "win" the battle(s) over pranksters who are jokingly or not, vandalizing work. Or put another way, I want to contribute helpful edits, but am starting to get frustrated with doing and redoing the same thing, only to be deleted.)

What are considered best-practices for determining which Landmarks are appropriate? (I haven't found that (yet) in the Wiki.)

The area I've been working on (with the Panhandler - recently re-added) is: https://www.waze.com/editor/?zoom=5&lat ... rks=598053

Thanks in advance for your help!

Dave

[rottielover]

If you find a segment you created (your user in the created by), and it has been redone, then the last person to have touched it's username will be in the "updated by" field. Send them a PM here in the forums and ask if they are deleting your work, and if so why?

Professional panhandler landmark, seems... odd.

[ottonomy]

Continuing to get URs for this area.

Many of them along the lines of today's "helpful" details: "Moronic editors" and "Street name wrong" (on a PLot road).

When I read this, particularly "Moronic editors", I instantly thought that this was your troll. This is not the usual thought process for Wazers who are not editors themselves. They don't typically use the word 'editor'. They say "Waze" this or "you" that, but seldom refer to editors. I would be highly suspicious of these URs, and just sit back and let the dust settle on your latest edits and locks for a couple of weeks at least, before changing anything radically. You may find that once a certain individual realizes that nothing is going to change, the URs will stop.

Also consider that even if it's not the troll, since you don't know who is submitting the URs, you can't be sure it's not one particular person with bad equipment, submitting URs over and over (jasonh300 made a lot of sense with his comments above). I would advise you to drive the area repeatedly yourself traveling in different lanes, and see if Waze ever snaps you into one of those PLot roads, while in a route, or otherwise. If it doesn't happen to you, it's probably not happening to many others. Splitting a main road can help suppress URs by bringing its halves more in line with GPS tracks (so that it's closer than a parking lot road is to where a Wazer is driving), but at the same time, it can also create a whole new set of URs (snapping parking lot drivers more readily onto the main road, because their tracks are closer to it). I would be really hesitant to consider splitting Grant Rd over all this. My experience has been that Waze only snaps me onto nearby roads when there is some kind of GPS anomaly, or an actual problem with a corrupt segment or junction. On these roads of yours, I don't see very much at all in the way of aberrant GPS tracks straying from the main stream, so I highly doubt that people are actually being snapped into your parking lots with regularity. Does this happen to you?

[kentsmith9]

I had noticed something similar in an area near me that had a wide multi-lane road with a single 2-way segment mapping it. The road in the neighborhood parallel to the main road seemed to be closer to my car according to the GPS. Periodically it would snap me to the adjacent road and then after I passed that area it went back.

I pulled the main road segments a bit closer to the adjacent road and I also pushed the neighborhood road a further away (still on the visible street though). That solved the erratic behavior. I assume the visual map was a bit off from the physical causing the problem.

[kentsmith9]

Of COURSE Waze will snap to the PLot road in that situation. It's significantly closer to the GPS tracks.

If the Waze driver is following a route, Waze will not snap from the current route unless the GPS track is a significant distance like 50 feet or more from the lane Waze last assumed. Case in point - the HOV lane down I-680 S from Sunol to Milpitas is currently set to not allow Waze to route drivers into that lane (mainly due to limits in additional controls we need). I have a qualified vehicle for that lane, so I use it all the time. If I have navigation on before I approach the start of that lane, Waze routes me in the standard lanes. When I reach the start of that HOV lane I move into it, but Waze still thinks I am in the standard lane. In fact I have to switch Waze off and back on and restart navigation before Waze will recognize I am actually in the HOV lane.

Now I generally only use Waze with navigation turned on, so I expect it could operate differently with navigation off for selection of lanes. However in those cases even if I am at an intersection with Waze on, if I don't have navigation on I am likely not paying that much attention to where Waze is placing me. Is it possible that the URs you are seeing are from the irritated user who does not think we should be mapping the PLot roads in the first place and he is just trying to disrupt your fun in Waze with these reports?

[kentsmith9]

I agree with Jason's assessment and recommendation.

[kentsmith9]

Dave, on the other lot NW of Grant I realized that when we don't completely fill in the parking lots, the cars will snap to the closest lane for the GPS. For that reason it is better to just leave all PLot lanes 2-way to prevent Waze from reporting directionality problems with the lanes. Most people do not try to follow the exact lanes we draw when they get to a parking lot. It is mainly to prevent the false traffic on the main roads and give the driver a basic idea of where to drive.

On the PLot SE of Grant/ECR I locked the driveways to the lot you just added to make it useless for our sniper to remove the inner lanes in that lot. All your additions are mostly fine and I was assuming you were going to add those in after me, so I left them for you.

Good catch on the Oak Ln exit. I did see the straight through direction was not possible, but I guess I only fixed the Oak > PLot direction and not the other.

[kentsmith9]

I'm really hoping for a PM/forum post from the user asking why it's locked and I'll refer them to this thread and to talk to you.

...and then SNAP...they will be caught in our trap.

I did some basic work on your other lot https://www.waze.com/editor/?zoom=6&lat ... TTTTTTTTFT to the protected segments if you want to do some final touch up on it.