User:ShadowMasterCM/Welcome Letters

Contacting "Entry Level" Editors

You may be the only editor to see a new editor during their first days or weeks. Please do not assume someone else will contact them. All editors are encouraged to reach out to any entry level editors with Welcome Letters.

Please refer to Entry Level Editor: Welcome Letters for recently active editors, and what steps have already been taken to contact them.

How should I contact the editor

There are of course multiple variations on how this initial contacting process can be accomplished.

My experiences have shown most people do not respond well to even the friendliest critiques, so I try to avoid 'giving examples' of editing errors or wiki links on how their edits should have been done in my Welcome Letter.

My goal is to get the editor into a friendly environment, where an open two-way communication can be established. Try to remember they are still trying to learn the interfaces for the Waze Wiki, Waze Forum, Waze Map Editor, WME Chat and now...GHO/ or Slack. Even after an editor 'arrives' in GHO, it may take them several days to get into the flow if things.

Welcome Letters

Below is a sample letter that can be used to contact any new editor that you run across while editing in your own area.

************************************************

Subject: Welcome to Waze Editing!

Hi There!

Welcome to Waze editing!

I noticed you editing in the [URL=INSERT PL HERE TO THEIR EDITS] CITY, STATE [/URL] area.

It is always great to have new Waze'rs join the editing team, but there are some complex issues that go on behind the scenes, that are not immediately obvious.

There is a group of editors in NY, that are happy to help explain these issues, so that you can avoid some of the common pitfalls and have a more enjoyable experience while editing in Waze.

The NY area editors use Google Hangout [GHO] channels, so that we can communicate directly with each other. I would like to send you an invitation, but I will need to know your preferred email address to use with GHO.

Once the invite is sent, go to the Hangouts page

• check the menu icons on the top left for this -->> "..." symbol
• select 'Invites'
• accept to join us in the NY GHO community.
  

Please pop in say hello so that we know you have arrived.

You will meet many great editors there, with years of experience using Waze Map Editor [WME]. They are always happy to work with new editors to identify issues and help get them fixed.

There are also several tips, tricks & tools we can share with you to help make your time editing be more productive.

I look forward to seeing soon!

ShadowMasterCM
NY State Manager

Formatting the Letter

Initially, you will be contacting the editor using their username, which is linked to their Waze user account, to send a Private Message [PM].

PM's can be started several ways:

1. Searching directly for their user name in the forum, then selecting "PM: Send private message"
2. Clicking their username from any segment or place from within WME, will direct you to their editor profile, where you can select the 'Message' button in the upper right section of the profile page.
3. Editors with Toolbox installed, can click on the "PM" icon in WME, next to the username of the editor, where they were the last editor for either a segment or a place. More information about the automatically generated PL by Toolbox is included below.

Copy/ Paste to the Forum PM

The forum uses a slightly different set of codes to format the page for things like new paragraphs and listing bullet items. Below is a correctly formatted copy of the above letter that you can paste directly into a forum PM, and then you only need to updated the URL link for the PL to where you found the editor working.

*********<copy below here>********************

'''Subject: Welcome to Waze Editing!''' Hi There!<br /> Welcome to Waze editing!<br /> I noticed you editing in the ''[URL=INSERT URL HERE TO THEIR EDITS]'' '''CITY, STATE''' ''[/URL]'' area.<br /> It is always great to have new Waze'rs join the editing team, but there are some complex issues that go on behind the scenes, that are not immediately obvious.<br /> There is a group of editors in NY, that are happy to help explain these issues, so that you can avoid some of the common pitfalls and have a more enjoyable experience while editing in Waze.<br /> The NY area editors use Google Hangout [GHO] channels, so that we can communicate directly with each other. I would like to send you an invitation, but I will need to know your preferred email address to use with GHO.<br /> Once the invite is sent, go to the [https://hangouts.google.com/ Hangouts] page<br /> * check the menu icons on the top left for this -->> "..." symbol * select 'Invites' * accept to join us in the NY GHO community.<br /> Please pop in say hello so that we know you have arrived.<br /> You will meet many great editors there, with years of experience using Waze Map Editor [WME]. They are always happy to work with new editors to identify issues and help get them fixed. There are also several tips, tricks & tools we can share with you to help make your time editing be more productive.<br /> I look forward to seeing soon!<br /> YourUserNameHere<br />

*********<copy above here>********************

Toolbox PMs

When you choose to send a PM from inside WME using the Toolbox icon, it auto-generates the PM for you to include specific information.

When you create a PM from a PLACE, it makes the Subject of the PM the name of that PLACE, and it creates a PermaLink [PL] to that PLACE.

When you create a PM from a segment, it makes the Subject of the PM the name of the segment, and it creates a PL to that segment.

The PL is formatted into a URL hidden inside the word "Permalink" displayed at the top of you PM. Scroll down to the 'Compose message' section and you will see the formatting for that hidden URL.

In the sample letter above, simply cut/ paste that PL formatting into the space indicated, and replace the word Permalink with the appropriate City, State reference.

The next step

Not until two way communication is accomplished with the new editor do I start to discuss any issues there may be with their editing practices. Some editors will jump right into GHO, asking questions and taking any suggestions offered. Some editors may prefer PMs initially as they learn the ropes, hoping to avoid embarrassment for 'stupid questions'. So if a new editor you invited to GHO initially seems a bit quite, send them a PM asking if they have any questions, or specific issues they need help with.

I created So you want to edit to help the entry level editor transition easier into the editing community, while still providing them with key information that seemed to be missing from other areas of the wiki and forum communities. Please feel free to share that page with any new editors that you feel are ready to take that next step.

I also try to make a point of sharing Google Sources early on, trying to prevent that bad habit before it starts!

• expand on where to locate editors to contact
• why we need to recruit editors
• discuss use of smaller GHOs leading up to state GHOs
• tips on forum messaging [was it read, cc SM]