The Feature
Designed to allow editors to suggest edits on WME when map attributes are locked due to lack of permissions, instead of asking for a Map Unlock. This will enable those editors to improve the accuracy and completeness of the map, and contribute to the overall quality of the map.
The flow will use the existing WME but instead of saving the edits, edits will be sent to higher level editors for moderation.
General explanation
Suggest an Edit divides editors into 2 roles (an editor can have both, on a single editing session):
- Suggestor - editors who want to edit a locked object
- Moderator - editors who review edit suggestions
This document will explain the flow for both roles.
Suggestor flow
What’s Suggest an Edit?
- As a Waze map editor, when you run into a segment you’re not allowed to edit, you can suggest edits, thanks to this new feature called Suggest an Edit.
- Your edits won't be directly added to the map. They will first be listed in the Issue Tracker, since they require another experienced editor’s approval. You’ll know you’re suggesting edits when you see this message on top of the left-side panel:
- Suggested an edit and waiting to hear back about it? You will get an email when an experienced editor is done reviewing your suggestion, saying if it was approved or not
- Both the suggesting and the moderating editor get points!
- When will your suggestion be reviewed? We can’t say for sure since your suggestion is being reviewed by a volunteer community member, but we can tell you they, like you, also want the map’s best interest 🙂
Lock level
With some segments, you are able to directly edit (not just suggest). It depends on the Lock Level of the segment:
- Lock level: The Waze community is made of 6 Editor levels: 1-6
- To find out your editor level:
- In WME: Click on the top right avatar → see the badge on your Avatar Wazer? That’s your editor level
- The local community in each country decides who can edit each segment:
- They can choose to leave a segment unlocked, and then anyone can edit it
- They can choose to lock a segment to any of the levels, 1-6. I.e., if a segment is locked to Level 5, only L5+ editors will be able to edit it
- While in WME, you will notice that you have permission to edit some segments, and don’t have permission to edit others. When you’re done editing, please save your edits and don’t suggest edits until you’ve saved your editors: Suggestions and edits shouldn’t be mixed together:
- When you’re done editing, you should first hit Save and only then start suggesting
Suggestions and edits shouldn’t be mixed together
While in WME, you will notice that you have permissions to edit some segments, and don’t have permission to edit others.
You can edit wherever your permissions allow it, and suggest edits in locations where your permissions are limited.
Please keep one rule in mind, for sessions where you both edit and suggest edits:
When you’re done editing, please save your edits and don’t suggest edits until you’ve saved your edits, and vice versa: Suggestions and edits shouldn’t be mixed together.
How to find your suggestion in the Issue Tracker
Once you submit your edit suggestions, they will be added to the Issue Tracker. To find them there:
- Enable the Issues layer, from the right-side panel
- Click to open the Issue Tracker from the top of the left side panel
- Go to the Edit Suggestions (ES) tab of the Issue Tracker
- Use the filters to find your view your suggestion
Once an experienced editor approves / rejects your suggestion, you will be notified about the resolution.
You’ll be able to see the suggestion and comment history in the Issue Tracker for a while.
Moderator flow
Interested in reviewing suggestions? Great, thank you!
Before you start, please put yourself in the shoes of the suggesting editor -
They’re probably not an experienced editor, and trying to contribute, so please be kind and helpful.
Please prioritize responding to suggestions, so that locked editors will hear back about their suggestions quickly. You can use Waze chat to continue the conversation and invite new editors to your local chat groups.
How to find suggestions
In order to review open suggestions, use the following Issue Tracker Filters:
- Toggle edit suggestions> on
- Source: editors> pick levels. By default L1 will be checked. This refers to the suggester’s level
- Please note that you can select one of the sources: either Google (KoiFish suggestions) or Editors (Suggest an edit) and not both at the same time.
- Status> open. Please note that “closed status” refers to suggestions that have been rejected.
- Segment types> you can choose all types or specific types
- Lock level: this refers to the lock level of the segment. By default, all levels will be selected
- Don’t forget to click apply
* In the future, the Google and Editor source filters will be merged together.
Visibility on the map
Suggestions that contain a suggestion on the segment´s attributes will be displayed with the icon that corresponds to the level of the suggester editor, on the map.
Suggestions that contain a change in the segment´s geometry, will also be displayed as a pink highlight on the segment, together with the icon of the suggester’s level.
Existent segment, change of attribute:
Existent segment, change of geometry:
Permissions
You can moderate suggestions within your editing area and anything up to your level.
Meaning, if you are an L4 editor, you will be able to moderate suggestions from editors L1, L2 and L3, in the areas for which you have permissions to edit. You can also moderate suggestions from L4 editors that suggested in areas for which they don’t have editing permissions.
Editors can suggest edits all over the world.
Supported Elements for Phase 1
Note that suggesting edits to different map entities will be released gradually. For the first phase, here are the elements that will be supported:
- Edit Segment
- Update address
- Street, City
- Suggest from an existent state and/or country.
- Update attributes on the “general tab” - speed limit, directions, lock level, etc… (not including lanes and closures, house numbers and restrictions)
- Change geometry
- Update address
- Please note that deleting segments is currently not supported.
- Merging and splitting segments won’t be supported during the first phase as well.
- Creating new segments is currently not supported.
- Moving end nodes (A or B) is not currently supported.
PL support
You can share suggestions with other fellow editors by clicking on them and copying the permalink.
Statuses
Each open suggestion will display a status:
New: suggestions with creation date between 0-5 days ago
Open: created 6 to 14 days ago
Lapsed: created more than 15 days ago
Disabled entities
For any entities currently not supported to make suggestions, we will display a warning message:
Communication with the suggester
At any time, you can start a chat conversation with the suggester by clicking the chat button in the suggestion’s card.
FAQS
Can there be more than one suggestion on a given segment, at the same time?
Yes. Suggestions with different geometry will be displayed as follows:
For more than one suggestion regarding attributes of the same segment , at the moment, we will show one icon per segment.
The newest suggestion will be displayed first in the Issue Tracker list.
In the future, we will also implement an indication on the map to signal more than one suggestion on a given segment, and an indication on the card. As always, the mock ups are not final.
Which mechanisms are in place to prevent abuse?
In general, we ask you to mark suggestions as spam when you notice an intention for map damage or abuse. Please use the spam checkbox in these cases.
There are 2 mechanisms in place:
- If you want to block a user due to spam, your community coordinator can submit a request via CAR to block a potential spammer from editing, which will prevent the editor from suggesting as well.
- You can use the checkbox to mark the suggestion as spam. We will check the suggestions marked as spam on a weekly basis, and manually block users from editing that have 5 suggestions marked as spam.
How many suggestions can be submitted per day, per editor?
The limit will be up to 10 suggestions per day for L1 editors. Please note that each suggestion can contain up to 10 changes.
There are currently no limits for L2 and above.
How many map edit points will be assigned to suggestions?
If a suggestion is approved, both the suggester and the moderator will receive map edit points. This will depend on how many attributes/changes were part of the suggestion.
The suggesting editor will get points for the map edits and the moderator will get points for the map edit and one map edit point for handling the suggestion.
If a suggestion is rejected, both the moderator and suggester will receive one map edit point.
How can I find rejected suggestions?
Use the closed filter to see rejections.
What type of notifications will the suggester receive?
The suggester will be notified via email if their suggestion was approved or rejected. Both emails will contain a link to either the area of the suggestion (if it was approved) or if it was rejected, a link to the suggestion itself.
Please see the mock ups below. Note that the final version might change:
We will also send a push notification to the suggester regarding acceptance or rejection of their suggestion:
Is “Suggest an edit” available in Practice mode?
No, practice mode has been left untouched
How many edits can one suggestion contain?
Up to 10 changes can be suggested per suggestion. Please see below what the suggester will see when doing the 11th change. We will also automatically undo the 11th change and prompt the editor to save.
Please note that a suggestion can contain changes for several segments.
Can I suggest edits in different cities, with the same suggestion?
For one suggestion, you can only suggest edits for segments within 1.5km from each other.
What happens when suggestions contain changes for more than one segment?
We will display one icon per segment on the map, as follows:
So for one suggestion, we can display up to 10 icons if the changes have been done on 10 different segments within 1.5km.
Can I suggest an edit for a segment for which I do have editing permissions?
Not in general.
That said, a user is able to suggest edits for a segment they have permission to, if it's part of an existing suggestion already being made that contains a segment they do not have permissions to edit.
For how long will rejected suggestions remain in the Issue Tracker and map?
Same as URs: open suggestions will be stored for up to one year since the last update date. That said, you can always filter out suggestions that were already reviewed.
Rejected suggestions will be stored for 40 days, and accepted suggestions are removed as soon as they are accepted.
This mechanism is yet to be implemented, we’ll let you know once it does.
How will suggestions appear in the history of a segment?
For the first phase, the segment’s history will include the changes with credit to the user who approved the edit (the moderator). If the edit was rejected, it will not appear in the segment’s history.
For future phases, we are planning on adding the username of the suggester as well:
This mock up is not final and it is subject to changes
Can an editor moderate its own suggestion?
Not at the moment, since we thought this could lead to potential map abuse as the editor would be credited map points both for the suggestion itself and for approving it or rejecting it.
Can the suggester delete their suggestions?
Not at the moment, but this is planned for future phases.
Can you implement a per-item acceptance/rejection?
This is the feedback that came up the most during the Beta testing phase. It has been shared with the team to consider it as the most popular request. This is planned for future phases.
Can I invite the Suggester to my local chat group?
Yes! We encourage you to add suggesters to a new editors group, if your community has one.
Known issues
- You won’t be able to see at the moment, all the suggestions that a segment contains in the issue’s card. This is planned for future phases.
- If you split a segment that contains suggestions, then the suggestions cannot be rejected.
- Suppose we have a suggestion containing a segment with lock level 2. If another user changes that segment's lock level to 5 after the suggestion is saved in the database, the suggestion will still show level 2 even though that's inaccurate. This is because the suggestion's lock level is pre-calculated and not dynamically updated based on the latest object states. This will change in the future to reflect the latest lock level.
- Closed by me' should be disabled for Open issues, but it is possible to click it.
- There might be some actions that will be locked to be suggested, to L3/L4 due to the fact that editing lanes is considered a geometry change in our code. For example:
- In case you are L1 - no general rights to edit lanes -> you will be able to suggest geometry changes for segment
- In case you are L3-L4 - you potentially can modify lanes -> is it allowed for SaE? -> no -> you cannot suggest geometry change (due to the fact that editing lanes is considered a geometry change in our code)
- This issue will be fixed once we add editing turns to suggest an edit.
Coming Up
There’s a lot in store for Suggest an Edit!
We don’t want to spoil too much, but for future phases, we are planning on adding a discoverability element for the feature. Here are the initial mock ups:
