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New wiki proposal: Reports

Post by mapcat
At this time it appears that the only report-related item in the wiki is this possibly deprecated entry:
https://www.waze.com/wiki/How_to_Report

It would be helpful to cover "when to report" also, or to suggest best reporting practices, in order to minimize misleading, superfluous, or otherwise inappropriate reports.

For example:
  • Don't report moving police
  • Don't report rain, fog, etc when it's obvious and/or occurring uniformly throughout the region
  • Use the voice commands to make more specific reports when possible (with a link to the existing voice commands reference)
Setting best practices is essential in order to identify and correct misuse of this feature.
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Post by jdeyoung
mapcat wrote:
sketch wrote:I added "—in many jurisdictions, moving over is required by law." to the Police section.
Thanks.
I think we should also add something like this, perhaps a small subsection about reporting on freeways: "If you're on a freeway entrance ramp, and there's a reportable event (police car, accident, etc.) on the freeway itself, be sure to wait until you're actually on the freeway to press the Report button, so that drivers on the freeway will be notified. Conversely, if you're on a freeway, and there's a reportable event near an entrance or exit ramp, try to time your report so that entering/exiting traffic will or won't be notified, depending on whether it's relevant to them or not.
Sure, I agree, but at the same time how much do we need to micromanage these? I'm just hoping for a world with fewer "rain" and "vehicle stopped on shoulder" reports...making this feature work perfectly is just a pipe dream. It is Waze, after all! :lol:
I am all in favor of having a way to point reporters to a wiki page, but the real question is...How?
I travel a route on a daily basis and often see multiple reports for rain or snow at intervals along my route. I doubt those reporters would go to a wiki page to see if they are in compliance. Those reporters view those hazards as road commentaries rather than reporting an instance of a real problem. I know reporters are prevented from reporting too many things within a span of time, but there's no tracking of how many days they do it. Maybe the feature request ought to be an additional option besides the thanks/thumb's-up so that editors of a certain level can contact/remind the reporter of the rules.
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Post by jdeyoung
I agree about that being abused, and wasn't seriously mentioning that as a feature request. There are far too many other good requests ahead of this ;) But I rarely have time to see/remember the reporter (assuming they didn't go on as anonymous), so unless it is quite egregious and repetitive, I won't remember enough to PM them later. As I said, having the information available to point the offenders to is good thing, but the drivers who knowingly do this are not likely to pay that much attention.
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Post by kentsmith9
There's actually a number of good pieces in nanoRep that we can easily port over to the Wiki. Someone just need to copy and save the images from nanoRep into the Wiki database and then move the content.

I am currently pretty deep in a number of personal projects of my own that limits my time on Waze again, so if someone wants to take it on I can coach them or help with final reviews.
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Post by kentsmith9
mapcat wrote:
kentsmith9 wrote:There's actually a number of good pieces in nanoRep that we can easily port over to the Wiki. Someone just need to copy and save the images from nanoRep into the Wiki database and then move the content.
OK, I'm willing to do this, but all I found was how to report police, map problems, road closures, etc. Nothing about when to report.
Sorry I meant to say the good content that we can move over was more than just this article. For example the navigation instructions in the Wiki are very outdated and nanoRep already has all the new images and instructions; we just need to copy it.

As for reports, there is the content on "how long does a report stay active" that we can add.

I think the items you proposed are good. We may want to change the page name to "Reports" and then we can cover "how", "when" and "duration". Page name change is easy with the "move" feature on that page, but I can do it if you don't have that link on the page.

Again if you want to start it I can edit any wiki elements that you may not be familiar with (if there are any). :)
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Post by mapcat
kentsmith9 wrote:There's actually a number of good pieces in nanoRep that we can easily port over to the Wiki. Someone just need to copy and save the images from nanoRep into the Wiki database and then move the content.

I am currently pretty deep in a number of personal projects of my own that limits my time on Waze again, so if someone wants to take it on I can coach them or help with final reviews.
OK, I'm willing to do this, but all I found was how to report police, map problems, road closures, etc. Nothing about when to report.
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Post by mapcat
Here's a start...please share your thoughts and edit as needed.

When to Report
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Post by mapcat
sketch wrote:I made one change under traffic jam...
Looks good. Thanks. When I put this together last night it was pretty late, so much of the language needs tweaking.
Maybe it would be better to use simple bold print instead of headings for the specific report types...
Agreed. Changes made.
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Post by mapcat
sketch wrote:I added "—in many jurisdictions, moving over is required by law." to the Police section.
Thanks.
I think we should also add something like this, perhaps a small subsection about reporting on freeways: "If you're on a freeway entrance ramp, and there's a reportable event (police car, accident, etc.) on the freeway itself, be sure to wait until you're actually on the freeway to press the Report button, so that drivers on the freeway will be notified. Conversely, if you're on a freeway, and there's a reportable event near an entrance or exit ramp, try to time your report so that entering/exiting traffic will or won't be notified, depending on whether it's relevant to them or not.
Sure, I agree, but at the same time how much do we need to micromanage these? I'm just hoping for a world with fewer "rain" and "vehicle stopped on shoulder" reports...making this feature work perfectly is just a pipe dream. It is Waze, after all! :lol:
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Post by mapcat
Sure, it's unlikely that most users will seek out guidance before making their first reports, but the point is to establish a set of guidelines so that anyone misusing the feature can be pointed to it, via PM or responses to reports in the app.

A report abuse option on reports in the app is likely to be abused IMO.
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