1.3.1. Tasks of moderators
1.3.1.1. Map moderation
Every moderator looks after one or more particular territories (these could be cities, parts of cities, districts, or regions).
If a user is a moderator, it is indicated in their profile. The territories they moderate are also listed there.
Use your profile to say something about yourself; this will help break the ice and foster conversation with other users.
Yandex Map Editor moderators:
Make sure that everything on the map is accurate and visually pleasing
Make sure that bullies and spammers are not ruining the map project
Act as mentors to novice users by helping them draw items correctly, dealing with difficult situations, and demonstrating correct techniques.
Act as judges in disputable situations
Examine reports for map inaccuracies in their region
Moderate edits that users make to the moderator's region, correcting mistakes when necessary.
If there are several moderators for a territory, then each edit is only moderated by one of them (whoever is first to do it).
If it's technically impossible to bring the item under moderation in compliance with the Yandex Map Editor rules, then its creation should be rolled back.
1.3.1.2. Communication with users
Yandex Map Editor moderators are the face of the service. They should be constructive and precise when corresponding with other users (in conversations in the community, in map item comments, and in private messages).
The answers that moderators provide to users should be clear, intelligible, and polite.
Moderators should devote particular attention to novice users.
There are new novices on the service every day. Some of them only want to put their own home or organization on the map, while others want to draw their whole village, and still others want to fix errors they found.
Try to chat more with novices: tell them how to do things correctly, send links to instructions, help them figure out map item categories and follow the drawing rules.
If a user makes the same type of mistake several times, it's usually enough to leave comments on two-three items and correct one or two of them so that they see a correct example.
Prepare standard answers for frequently encountered situations (using templates if preferred).
Also bear in mind that sending multiple similar messages might result in you being suspected of spamming and blocked in Messenger, so we recommend avoiding that.
You can write a welcome message to beginners with links to the drawing rules and Yandex Map Editor community.
It's important to not only show excerpts from the rules, but also explain why users must produce accurate drawings.
For example:
“Building polygons should align with the foundation. Satellite images are taken at an angle to the ground (not straight down from the top of the building), so building polygons may overlap with other map items if you don't shift your outline to align with the foundation (especially if the building is tall). You can read more about how to correctly draw buildings here”.
This will be much more effective than just saying “You drew it wrong, read the rules”.
The earlier you start communicating with a novice, the fewer “newbie” mistakes they'll make.
