| About: | Fellow Wikimapians, it has been so long that we users have been patient enough for the Admins to fix serious bugs at least, if they could not keep up with some really useful feature requests. For that very long time, I tried to see it in a good light by focusing on fixing the map. But the Admins haven't been solving the issues that we users keep on addressing. They could have acknowledged it at least, but they almost always don't. You send a bug or feature request which they don't respond to, or solve at least. You send them a PM regarding these serious bugs but they never even reply. Additionally, instead of adding more, several useful features in the past have been removed. The Map Shift tool, Add Water and Add Land patches features were invaluable to make the map accurate, but now they are gone. Several bugs are not being solved. Map on Your Page feature is present but is actually non-functional. Inaccurate red dots on the map could not be removed. It seems the development of Wikimapia has come to a halt. Are the Admins busy on something? They have released the first version of Wikimapia for Android this last January. Unfortunately, it currently doesn't have a search, add or edit features. How many months has it been since January? You see other independent apps that frequently update, but why not a popular website like Wikimapia? Admins almost never post in the forum. In fact, the only time they post is when they need to summarily end a discussion, then either lock it or post an authoritarian or humiliating comment. This type of behavior has caused seriously negative impact on the behavior of the general Wikimapia community. Cynicism and negativism is so widespread in this site that most often, users are misunderstood and "labelled" for what they just said. We are people who make mistakes. It is just not right to label a person just because of a single mistake. I am an Advanced User, but many users who deserve to be promoted BASED ON THEIR WORKS are not being promoted, while several past AUs (who were summarily appointed) are hardly even imaginable to be considered as "Advanced" compared to the new and very active Regular Users. Why? Like I said, negativism. The voting procedure is leaning toward the side or cynicism. Many people distrust users, or maybe they just think too high of themselves? In the past, voting was a way of giving positive feedback to people, ESPECIALLY to NEW USERS. Now, I see a very good and dedicated new contributor, and he has just a single or even no votes at all! Very unfair and disheartening for the new user. The forum is dying (or maybe almost dead). Most people prefer to be silent, nowadays, especially in the forum, probably to avoid being harassed or labelled for what they say. "Awards", as the Admins call them were added, but for no useful reason, like it has become a joke. A note about Wikimapia: even if it is a "commercial site", the Admins have to realize that in business, LISTENING to you CUSTOMERS is the top priority. Having said all of these, I believe Wikimapia has become a shadow of its former self. I love Wikimapia, but I would not want to spend my time contributing to a website whose future is uncertain. It has become more of a "prison" to me than a hobby that actually gives me satisfaction. I am leaving the site and deciding to give my time, effort and contributions to OpenStreetMap instead, not for a single company or a few people but for the whole world to own and openly use. Wikimapia will always be in my heart and I will cherish the good moments I have been through in this site. -Oct. 28, 2015 |
JAT86
