West Virginia/Community/Main

Waze West Virginia Google Hangout

We have created a Google Hangout (GHO) just for West Virginia. The GHO is where you can go to interact and chat with fellow editors along with your Area and State Managers. It will give you good insight into the best practices and policies in regard to map editing plus give an easy, convenient way for editors to stay in touch, ask questions (any questions, we all started at Rank #1 at some point), request downlocks or review of your work and get Peer-to-Peer Mentoring.

If you are editing in WV and have not already been invited, please send a PM (Private Messge) to stephenr1966 and/or Roadtechie along with your email address so that we can invite you to the hangout.

West Virginia User Report Management

Response Timeline

(NOTE: all day values are relative to the date the FIRST editor response is sent to the reporter)

Day 0

The first editor who is able to respond to a User Report (UR) should attempt to resolve the UR. If they are successful, they should comment as such in the UR and mark it "Solved". If more information from the reporter is required to make progress towards closure, a response should be sent to the reporter containing the information needed for resolution.

Day 4+

Polite reminders should be sent to reporters who have not responded to the initial at any time, provided at least four full days have elapsed since the initial response was sent

Day 8+

URs may be noted as closed due to lack of reporter response at any time, provided at least four full days have elapsed since the followup message was sent. These need to be marked as "Not Identified" and a brief comment sent.

Shared Ownership

All editors are considered to have equal ownership of and responsibility for all URs in West Virginia. All editors, regardless if they have worked the UR previously, may send any of the responses described above, provided they adhere the minimum time spacing guidance between responses. All editors are explicitly encouraged to attempt to resolve URs at any point during their lifecycle, even if others happen to be actively working it at the same time.

Notes

The ideal timeline for UR response is when responses are sent as early as the minimum required time spacing between messages permits; experience has reliably shown that UR response rates are much higher when editors are able to send responses promptly. The 4+ day followup / reminder has shown remarkable improvement in reporter responses everywhere that it has been implemented.

The script URComments streamlines the process of responding to a UR and provides comments based on the UR type and can be edited prior to sending to fit your needs.

Downlock Requests

Definitions

• Downlock (or Down-Lock): Term used to describe the process of adjusting the Segment Lock level in WME down to match the regional standards, or the Rank of an editor to allow them to edit the segment(s).
• Uplock (or Up-Lock): Term used to describe the process of adjusting Segment Lock levels up in WME. Often to its prior Segment Lock level before it was Down-Locked to match the Rank of an editor to allow them to edit the segment(s).
• Permalink (or PL): An URL, aka a browser link, (http://...) that shows the map with the same view as the user who created the Permalink (PL). Location, zoom, layers, and selected segments will be the same. You can find the icon for the Permalink in the lower right corner of the WME screen (two chains linked together). When the mouse is hovered over the icon, press Control-C to copy the Permalink to the clipboard (or right-click it and choose copy). You can then paste the PL into the GHO, an e-mail, or forum message so others can access and view what you are seeing.

Request Format

A downlock request can made in the West Virginia Google Hangout. The request itself shall be constructed as follows:

Dnlock Lx-Ly, "City", "Reason", PL

• Lx = Current Lock Level
• Ly = Proposed Lock Level
• City = Closest City the request is being requested. Such as Morgantown, Huntington, etc.
• Reason = Whatever Reason for the request. Examples include Speed Limits (SL), Elevation, Geometry, etc.
• PL = Permalink to the segment(s) that you need downlocked.
• Say Please!

Formatting the Permalink (PL)

Zoom In! Selecting a PL at the widest extent (Zoom=0) will not enable the editor who may grant your request to select anything. Setting a zoom level = 3 or higher is generally effective in generating the view required for a senior editor to select the segments. If necessary, break up your PL into multiple requests. In rare cases for long stretches of roads (for setting SLs for example), you may request to give the start and finish PLs. Ask first please.

And be patient; an editor may be occupied elsewhere, helping other editors or at their place of employment.

Automatically:

Install WME Keep My Layers (KML) before you copy your first PL. This will automate the process of stripping the PL of unnecessary and unwanted information, resulting in a clean efficient PL. If for any reason, this script does not function as intended, follow the instructions below under "Manually" to cleanup the PL.

Manually:

1. Before copying a PL hover over the "chain link" icon and press the "Shift" key. This will eliminate the layers in your PL. This assumes you have installed WME Toolbox . Which you should.
2. Delete all the information, starting with the "&" after the segment ID. For example, ...&segments=1234567&... Delete everything after the last number in segments. This also applies to &venues=123456789.1234567890.1234567 (for Places) and &MapUpdateRequest=1234567 (for URs)

Finished Example:

Dnlock L5-L2, Huntington, SLs, Elevation, https://www.waze.com/editor/?env=usa&lon=-82.42197&lat=38.39253&zoom=5&segments=65476746

Uplock Requests

Upon finishing your editing, create another PL with the segments needed to Uplock to the Minimum Lock Standard. Use the format Uplock Lx-Ly "PL" . This is done because the person performing the uplock may be using a mobile device and it is difficult to select the correct segments. Also, if you add a junction node for a speed limit or PLR, for example, it will create new segment IDs and those will not be the same as the original dnlock request.

If you have different lock levels; for example freeway (FW) at L5, ramps at L4 and Minor Highway (mh) at L2, break your uplock request into separate PLs for each lock level needed.

If for any reason the original lock level was higher than the "minimum" (a mH at L3 instead of the minimum level, L2), ask in the GHO if they still need to be uplocked back to that original higher level or can be set back to he minimums before you request the uplocks. Provide a quick PL so the editor can review. There are a multitude of reasons for this to occur and it's your responsibility to reset those back to the desired levels.