User:Ruggles76/Illinois Welcome Letter

Welcome Letter for Illinois Editors

This information is under consideration for the Illinois state wiki and/or AM kit. It should not be considered official guidance.

This page and the text of the letter are intended for use by SM/LAM/AM editors to welcome new editors found editing in Illinois. The first and foremost goal is to get them involved in the community; correcting the bad edits (that virtually every newbie makes) is secondary. In general this letter should be used on a standalone basis, as the first communication, without reference to the editing mistakes that likely brought the editor to your attention. This helps ensure that the editor's first interaction with a senior editor is positive rather than critical. The suggested sequence and timing (which can be adapted based on circumstances) is as follows:

• If the mistakes don't require correction urgently, don't correct them yourself. You want to get the editor to do it, but only after you've gotten them welcomed into the community. Instead, to discourage other editors from fixing them and preventing necessary coaching, drop a "[NOTE]" UR in Live Map at the location of any coaching sites, stating "Reaching out to welcome editor xxxxxxxx, will follow up re red roads and overmapped parking lot." Add your editor name in case someone needs to follow up.
• Add the editor to the R1-R2 editor spreadsheet, noting which SM/LAM/AM sent the welcome letter and when. If there are edits requiring further work, include the permalink in the "coaching" section, and add a comment describing the specific issues.
• Send the welcome letter below as a PM, remembering to personalize the example for getting another editor's attention in chat. Depending on how you discovered the editor, some customization may be appropriate.
• If the editor responds, add them to the GHO (if requested) and provide any coaching requested. As appropriate, you can also include some unsolicited coaching, but focus on the most important issues first, rather than a long laundry list that might scare them off.
• If the editor does not respond, check in a week to see if they have read the PM (if it's still in your outbox, then they haven't). If they have not, go ahead and fix their edits, and note it in the cell comment in the spreadsheet. If they have, then send a follow-up with coaching information. You can also do this via a private conversation in Google Hangouts.
• If the editor hasn't corrected the issues within a reasonable period of time, go ahead and fix them yourself, and let them know you've done it. In the absence of a note saying they'll fix the issues, a week is a reasonable time frame.

Welcome Letter Cut & Paste Text

Subj: Welcome to Waze editing in Illinois!

Hello -

I was working on the map and happened across some of your edits. I wanted to pass along some information to help get you started.

It is a good idea to have an experienced editor check your work as you begin. Other editors can easily be reached through one of the chat options noted below. Our local Area Managers (AM), Large Area Managers (LAM) and State Managers (SM) along with Rank 4 and 5 editors are great resources.

A good place to get started is on the main WME wiki page: [url]https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Waze_Map_Editor[/url]

For quick reference, these can be helpful: [url]https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Waze_Map_Editor/Welcome[/url] [url]https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Best_map_editing_practice[/url] [url]https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Edits_to_avoid_(USA)[/url] [url]https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Glossary[/url]

There is an unofficial slide show that introduces key concepts that many editors find helpful; you can find it [url=

The [url=https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Edits_to_avoid_(USA)#Constructive_work_for_new_editors]Constructive work for new editors[/url] section may be a good place to look for ideas where to continue editing.

Information about Illinois, including Area Managers (AM), and our State Managers (SM) is here: [url]https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Illinois[/url]. Illinois generally follows national standards described in the main wiki for the USA, but in some cases these are superseded by regional or state standards. Regional standards can be found at [url]https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/USA/Great_Lakes[/url], and state standards in the Illinois wiki linked above.

If you're interested in mentoring opportunities, you can look into that here: [url]https://wiki.waze.com/wiki/Mentoring[/url]

Feel free to contact me at any time by chat or private message (PM).

If you’re interested in editing on an ongoing basis, Illinois has an editor’s chat room that you can join. It’s a great resource for advice or help, and it’s easy to find editors who can help you edit things that are locked above your level. It’s a Google Hangout; if you would like to join, just reply with an e-mail address that’s tied to a Google account (some editors create a free Gmail account just for this purpose). You can also use the chat in the Waze Map Editor, but because it is national, it can be harder to find an editor who has editing rights in your area.

In either chat, you can direct a message at a particular editor in chat by prefixing "@" to their name. Often editors will have a tool installed to alert them to such messages. For instance, you could direct a chat message to me by entering "@XXXXXXX hello."

It's great to have you on board. Thanks for joining us!