User:DwarfLord/Responding to incorrect edits

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Waze depends on a large and growing volunteer editor community. To foster growth, Waze encourages users to edit the maps by keeping training requirements to a minimum. This approach allows anyone who would like to try editing to join the community quickly.

Bypassing training does have side effects on new editors' experience of Waze. New editors may feel overwhelmed by the maps' complexity and unable to make a difference. They may not recognize how to use the editing tools and may have trouble finding the information they need. They may need a great deal of interactive support in coming up to speed. And they will make mistakes.

This wiki is aimed both at new editors who have made mistakes -- that is, all of them! -- and at more advanced editors who respond to those mistakes.

What is an incorrect edit?

Incorrect edits include both functional mistakes and misunderstood conventions. Functional mistakes are more serious but both require response.

Functional mistakes

A functional error introduces wrong data or faulty routing. Functional errors must be addressed as soon as possible after they are detected. It is not appropriate to allow wrong data to persist.

Misunderstood conventions

Misunderstood conventions do not necessarily involve wrong data or faulty routing, but violate editing conventions agreed upon by the local Waze editing community.

When your edits must be modified or undone

If you have arrived at this wiki by following a link provided to you by another editor, it means some of your edits must be modified or undone. We have all seen our work changed or deleted at one time or another and we know very well how frustrating that can be. Please understand it is frustrating for those who have to do it as well. Because Waze requires no training process, beginning editors tend to make the same mistakes again and again, and more advanced editors may become unhappy about repeatedly fixing the same problems.

When you must modify or undo another's edits

First of all, be absolutely sure it really is a mistake! What appears at first to be an incorrect road, for example, may reflect changes that have taken place since the satellite and street-view images were captured. Disagreement with other mapping services may result from errors in the other services, not in the Waze data. Do not automatically assume that the satellite imagery, street-view photographs, or other mapping services are correct.

Wherever possible, resist the urge to delete and start again. Nobody enjoys seeing their work deleted, even if it was in error. To the extent possible, modify and build on the incorrect work. If deletion is required but the maps and routing are not broken, send the author a permalink to the issue and a link to this wiki and give them a chance to delete the issue themselves. If the error must be reworked immediately, at least send the author a link to this wiki and some indication of where the repairs took place so they have the opportunity to learn.