User:Thortok2000

Intro/Summary

This guide is to help you with destination issues!

It is currently a work in progress and should not be followed as a standard until it has been approved and added to the main wiki. This is Thortok2000's personal sandbox and should be treated as such. =P

Destination Correcting

It is a common complaint of most Wazers that their destination was not set at the correct location. Knowing how to handle this kind of UR and fixing it for our Wazers will go a long way towards satisfaction in the product and continued usage, and possibly even recommending it to others!

The irony of the situation is that often this problem is not actually caused by Waze. Waze is currently growing a large list of mapped places, but where a place is not mapped, or not mapped correctly, other search providers like Google are still used as a fallback.

This page will attempt to explain in more detail why a user might get routed to the wrong spot and how you can work around it and/or fix it!

Step 1: Get the Address in Question

You can't fix anything if you don't know what address the user needs fixed. So, the first thing you'll need to do is ask them what the address they want fixed is. This is not included in the report by default for privacy reasons; if the user wishes to give this information to you it is of course their prerogative. But we can't fix it if we don't know what to fix!

Step 2: Check for Business Name (If Applicable)

As will be the case with a good portion of UR's for destination issues, the location can easily be in a commercial area. If so, chances are it's referring to a business. It's often good to ask your Wazer what the business name is when asking for the address, but if they only give you the address you can attempt to google a business name yourself (or if they only give you the business name you'll need to look up the address for it, too.) To ensure the problem doesn't happen again and to be a good editor, you'll need both business name and address when correcting businesses.

Step 3: How to Fix

Nudging House Number in Waze

Setting a House Number in Waze is easy. You can follow the instructions here. Also remember to set the stop point. You should pretty much always do this every single time you go to correct an address, even if you wind up also doing one or more of the other methods.

If the house number already exists, give it a 'nudge', moving it by at least one pixel, and save your work. This will ensure that the house number for that street and city (and any street/city combination in the alt names) of the segment that house number's stop point is on, will be searchable destinations in Waze and override matching data from other providers.

This only helps when searching by address, though. Note that the stop point must be on a segment with the street's name that the address includes. You are currently unable to set a stop point anywhere else, using the House Number system. If additional directions are likely to be useful to reach this location, additional methods may be used to compensate.

Put a Drivable Surface Closer

Most destination search results are going to be either from a 3rd party provider such as google, or routing to a place point within Waze. When this is done, coordinates are given to Waze and Waze sets the checkered flag at that exact spot, and then says you have reached your destination when you get to the closest mapped drivable surface to that spot.

If the closest drivable surface is incorrect, typically the road 'behind' the location, then this issue is easily fixed by mapping a drivable surface closer. This often means the parking lot in front of the address.

When mapping parking lot roads, make sure to stick to agreed upon standards. Depending on the situation, you may be able to use another type of road. Whatever you use though, make sure it is mapped appropriately! This is not an acceptable reason to map a drivable surface that doesn't exist. If you have nowhere to map a drivable surface closer, you will have to use the final method.

Mapping a Place in Waze

This is well covered in the places wiki. Make sure to map them to the standard. The reason this is pertinent to destination issues however is that by adding (or updating) a place in Waze, it provides a better search result than erroneous data in other providers, such as Google. The more accurately you map a place, the better the data in Waze will be for all future Wazers trying to find this destination!

For routing issues, you may want to slightly nudge the point (or stop point of an area) closer to drivable surface you want the destination to be. Make sure to follow standards as you do so, though.

Educating the User: How to do this in the app

Most users don't have access to the WME to make changes themselves. Even if they do, all place changes by rank 1 editors are automatically PURs to be approved by higher level editors, until they become 'trusted.'

However, short of mapping drivable surfaces closer, all other place-related changes, including relocation, can be done in the app. Either by you, or by any other user that wishes to help improve the map. If they are 'trusted', the edit goes through automatically. If they are not trusted, or they are suggesting an edit to a place that's locked higher than their editor rank, then it comes through as a PUR.

Suggest an Edit / Report a Problem

Best method: After searching for the destination, but before hitting 'Go', you can scroll down and suggest an edit or report a problem.

Pros:

Don't have to be physically at the location, can do from anywhere.

Don't have to take a picture.

Cons:

Has to already be mapped in Waze or those options don't appear. Doesn't work when choosing a search result from another provider.

Submit a Place Update

Report a 'place update' instead of a 'map problem' to create a new place.

Pros:

Based on your location, suggests road names and possible duplicates while creating place.

After creating the place, it is now in Waze and can be edited using the first method (the confirmation screen for creating a new place gives an option to edit additional details).

Cons:

Requires that you take a picture.

Requires that you are at or near the intended location.

Submit a Photo Reminder

The app, by default, prompts to submit a photo when you reach your destination. This is essentially the same as submitting a place update (and includes the same pros and cons), although it copies the name from your search result. If your search result was already a Waze place, it updates that instead of making a duplicate.

Pros:

Helps prevent duplicates of Waze places if the Waze search result is used.

Confirms that you're already near the right spot or you wouldn't get the reminder.

Copies name from search result if it came from another provider.

Defaults to on to remind people to help submit place updates.

Cons:

Requires that you take a picture, even if place already exists in Waze.

Requires that you set your destination in Waze.

Can be turned off and cannot be used if it was not turned on before you got there.