Minimum Acceptable Information
All Places added to the map must contain the following entries:
- Proper Category
- Place Name
- Address (including address numbers)
- Placed in the correct location on the map
This is the minimum acceptable amount of information for inclusion on the map.
Phone Numbers
If a phone number is entered in the Place information, please utilize either of the following formats:
- (###) ###-####
- ###-###-####
Please correct the layout of any phone numbers you encounter while editing.
Locking Standard
Vermont has adopted the New England Region Place Locking Standards
| PLACE TYPE | LOCK LEVEL |
|---|---|
| National & State Parks and Monuments | 5 |
| Military Installation / Airport | 5 |
| Hospitals / Urgent Care / Police & Fire Dept | 4 |
| Gas Stations / Charging Stations | 3 |
| Schools / Universities / Colleges | 3 |
| Government Buildings / Consulates | 3 |
| Subway, Commuter, and Passenger Rail Stations | 3 |
| City and Local Parks | 2 |
- All Places that have complete information (to include, at a minimum, address/city, hours of operation, phone number) are to be locked at Level 2. This is to prevent loss of data due to automatic acceptance of Place Update submissions from Trusted Users, or Place Update Request approvals from other editors without careful examination.
- If you do not have a high enough enough rank to lock the place as indicated, please lock it as high as you can, and notify a higher rank AM, SM, CM, or Champ to lock it higher.
Place Name Harmonization
In an effort to standardize Place Names, Vermont uses the following list of Common names. Please note the appropriate category name, as well as the listed spelling. This is necessary for the proper display of any advertising associated with the site (i.e. SUBWAY discounts)
View this list full-screen in Google Sheets
Area Editing
When creating an Area, map it to the "fence line" of the area.
For instance, if you are mapping a shopping center, this means that you map the area to cover the shopping center buildings, and the parking lots out to the outer ring road (if applicable). If there is no ring road, or for smaller shopping centers, map to the curb line.
If you are mapping a school, you would map out to the fence line (if visible) or to a reasonable distance from the school. Contact a AM, SM, CM, or Champ for assistance.
Hospitals / Urgent Care
A special Category of Hospital / Medical Center is used for Hospitals, Medical Centers and Urgent Care facilities. ONLY Hospitals, Emergency Rooms, and places offering Urgent Medical Care should use this category. Clinics, and Medical offices which do not offer urgent medical care for Walk-Ins should use the Office, and any other appropriate category, instead.
Set the Stop Point over the Main Entrance to the facility. Additionally, map the Emergency Entrance with the same category name, but place it over the Emergency entrance location. ERs encompassed in a hospital Place Area should be Points, and named in the following fashion: E.R. - Hospital Name
Layered Areas
Places which are part of a larger encompassing place (i.e. place points for lot in a university area, Separate ER entrances in a hospital area, etc.) should be named with their unique name followed by a hyphen and the name of the larger area they belong to. For example "E.R. - Generic Medical Center"
Parking Lots
The Parking Lot Place marks a well-defined area constructed for off-street public parking, including parking structures and garages as well as at-grade lots. There are many elements that must be considered before deciding to map a parking lot. Currently, the details are covered in Places/Parking lot.
Gas Stations
You should familiarize yourself with the Gas Stations wiki - specifically naming, branding, and stop points.
Also understand, that to provide the best navigation instructions for a Wazer, u-turns should be enabled at each end of the PLR drawn through the gas station.
Update Requests
Update Request Resolution Policy
The New England Region follows the USA standard for Update Requests (URs) outlined HERE. The New England states have the following ASAP/4/7 day lifecycle goal for handling URs:
Update Request Lifecycle
 |
Initial Response:
|
 |
Reminder:
|
 |
Close:
|
Notes:
- If the Wazer responds, but further clarification is still required, the response clock starts over at Day 1 as the editor awaits new information.
- If you find a UR which is older than 7 days which has not been touched by another editor but requires additional information to resolve, apologize for the late response and ask if the reporter still remembers the problem and can clarify. This starts the UR response clock as Day 1.
Update Request Ownership
- All editors are considered to have equal ownership and responsibility for all URs.
- All editors are encouraged to attempt to resolve URs at any point during their lifecycle, provided the response time guidance is followed, even if other editors happen to be actively working the report.
- If an editor has asked for clarification and received a response from the reporter, as a courtesy, please give the initial editor a few days to work on a resolution before taking over the UR.
Things to remember
- The main objective is to resolve legitimate map issues, not just to close URs. Take the time to understand the issue and ensure the reporter has the allotted time to respond.
- Even though you may be a volunteer editor, you still represent Waze; be professional and objective with your responses.
- Keep responses short; some folks might be responding in the Waze app and reading long responses can be a pain!
- You should always leave a comment on a UR, even if you're just closing out old reports.
- Plugins such as URO+, UR Comments, and UR-MP Tracking can make responding to URs much easier. Check them out!
- Be sure to review the Wiki documentation on Handling Update Requests, especially the section about Response Etiquette.