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Suggestions for minor route amendments following survey

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20 comments

  • Official comment
    Slow Ways Support

    Great, thanks for working this through everyone!

    Yes.

    - Review the route you think can be improved.

    - Suggest a new and better route. Downloading and adapting a current route is fine.

    - Upload the new route option. It will not replace the earlier route, but become an alternative.

    - Feel free to review your own route. It will need two other people to give it a positive review for it to become verified.

    I've noted the point about crediting people. The spirit of the initiative is definitely about iteration and our overall objectives, but but it would be good to find a way to show the history of who's contributed to a routes history. We'll add it to the list of things to look at! 

    Thanks.

    - Dan

  • Sofa Jockey

    I asked about this when I thought the route I was surveying has just one 'broken' section and was told editing is not a thing and to submit a 'better' route.

    In the end I had several route issues so the new route submission felt fine.

    Nevertheless, a route shouldn't be verified if it sends you into someone's back yard, surely. So in your case this is going to need fixing one way or another. 

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  • Michael Dewison

    Thanks - unless advised differently, I'll do that then. The route itself is perfectly OK apart from this one bit - it just seems a bit discourteous to the original route-maker to describe a very minor tweak as a "better" route!

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  • Sofa Jockey

    I agree. If the route has a 'named' poster rather than 'Slow Ways volunteer' perhaps it would be nicer to just reach out to them.

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  • Michael Dewison

    Nice idea - I'll have a look...

     

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  • David Sanderson

    I think it pays to be ruthless if it leads to better routes in the long run. The whole process of making routes and then the meeting points changing means nobody has authored a whole route (unless neither start nor end changed). I reviewed Licalr today and will need to submit a new version to improve the start (which was altered by the change in the Lichfield meeting point) and a section in Fradley where a footpath between houses is overgrown and nearly impassable which the author could not have known. I don't need to reach out to the person who devised Licalr because it was me!

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  • Sofa Jockey

    If someone makes a small change improving a route but uses mine as the basis, what does it matter that their name is on it if the route is improved even by a small amount. A route I made built up the work done making the first route so it's all iterative.

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  • Michael Dewison

    Totally agree, it's about the route not the individual - I'm much more interested in the practicalities. So, I've reviewed and surveyed Prelon one and submitted both. I've now created an alternative (Prelon two?) but if I upload this, does it sit alongside the original or replace it? If it replaces it, I guess the review and survey may disappear with it.

     

     

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  • David Sanderson

    It will sit alongside

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  • Michael Dewison

    Thanks for the answer Dan. That makes sense to an extent, but, due to the way I've gone about this, that would then leave an active route which has does not work because of an access problem. It was only after I submitted the review and survey that I realised this small route error could not simply be corrected in the original route. 

    I personally don't think it would be appropriate to have two alternative routes, sitting alongside each other, which are practically identical but one of which doesn't work due to an access issue. Can you advise if/how this should be resolved? Also, my survey and review are attached the original route - is there a way of transferring these or copying them to my new proposed route (yet to be uploaded)?

    Apologies for the fuss - I'll try and get it right next time!

     

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  • Paul Cooper

    I agree with the sentiments here.  A "correction" should not be taken as an alternative new route unless the unworkable route can be deleted.

    Case in point - someone reviewed one of my routes and pointed out that a railway crossing didn't exist but that a short 100m detour over a road bridge was possible.  So I've made a correction but don't want to upload it as a new, alternative route because it isn't.  If a solution to this issue isn't found then Slowways is going to be littered with obsolete routes that should just be deleted.

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  • Clare

    We're in the same position - what action should we take if a route once surveyed doesn't work?

    The one we surveyed yesterday has 3 issues: a footpath no longer exists (on the definitive map there's an alternative), a stretch of walking along a dangerous road (easy option to avoid this), and lastly a (400 year old!) wall blocks the suggested route (again, there's an easy alternative).

    Basically the route is not navigable as it stands. How do we go about getting this corrected? And should we still submit the survey at this stage?

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  • Michael Dewison

    I have now submitted this as a request to the Slow Ways Team and I'm advised by Cristie that they will be looking at this issue.

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  • Robert Bagnall

    Just to echo the sentiments here, I surveyed 'Newtor one' yesterday (7th May, not 7th April as I've erroneously put - if somebody could amend I'd be most grateful!!).  I have a route improvement, and an alternative section to offer.  Having taught myself how to create a gpx. file, I tried submitting my small improvement under the 'alternative routes' option only for the page to tell me that the start/finish points were at least 50 metres adrift of where they should be.  Of course they were, as it was just a stretch covering a few hundred yards.  So where does this go?

    More generally, is it possible to send in route suggestions as text instructions?  I appreciate gpx files are less open to misinterpretation, but I'm concerned that suggestions will be discouraged if we can't just say 'Dear Dan, take the second right, not the third right...'

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  • Michael Dewison

    I suspect that  your improvement could not be submitted because an alternative route needs to cover the whole route from "New" to "Tor". If you download the existing GPX of the original route, then import it into the OS app, you can then edit it to make the changes to the relevant part of the route and then resubmit the whole route. This still leaves the issue of making very minor changes, without the need to submit an alternative route, which I think will need to be resolved.

     

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  • Sofa Jockey

    I think it's likely that this process will change.

    I've been trying to get one of my own routes deleted, but after 11 days and 5 messages exchanged, no luck yet.

    But the site is in 'beta', these are all learning points.

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  • Chris Dodge

    Hi,

    Any update on this, i.e. how to make a small modification to a route?

    One route close to me (Saftha) has a couple of issues, including a dangerous road section and a clamber over a 3m brick wall. It was created by a Slow Ways Volunteer, and has one review giving it one star as a result of these issues.

    It's a good route and these issues are easily corrected, so submitting a new route doesn't seem appropriate.

    Thanks!

    Chris

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  • David Sanderson

    Submitting a new route is the only game in town at the moment. Submit a review for the original explaining why it shouldn't be used and say that a walkable version can be found at (name of the new version that you submit). I've had to do this quite a lot!

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  • Robert Bagnall

    A 3m brick wall! Wow - is this a walk or an assault course?

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  • Chris Dodge

    Thanks - I'll get the GPX file sorted out and submit it as a new route.

    Passed the wall again today and it's approx. 2.5m not 3m. Still a 5+ though.

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