Best Of
Re: Trailmarkers - warning received
Everyone is entitled to an opinion, no one is trying to claim otherwise. Yours is very clearly in the minority here, but you are still entitled to it. You are being very acerbic with the way you're presenting that opinion though (it honestly feels like you're bordering on trollish behaviour), and that's likely why you're getting the replies that you are. A little bit more courtesy and politeness would likely earn you the same courtesy and politeness from other users (though I don't expect the number of disagrees you're getting to go down, as clearly a lot of people do disagree with your opinion, and that's completely valid).
I wholeheartedly disagree with the fact that users are getting warnings for things that have been (and to all intents should still be) prime examples of perfectly acceptable wayspots. I also wholeheartedly disagree that they're low quality wayspots, as that's somewhat subjective and they do exactly what they're meant to do - get people out exercising and navigating trails.
Re: Trailmarker
again, everyone who is still saying "geez ban these players that submit trailmarkers" - get out and walk on a wandering trail. Here in Germany you can walk for hours on amazing, natural, recreative and adventurous walking/wandering trails.
www.wanderreitkarte.de
If Niantic isnt able to see that these wandering trails are 5* candidates, then i dont know. Who cares what color, what size, what material the trail markers are? They are just there to guide the trail. A pokestop or gym (not talking about the other thing) is a perfect companion along the wandering trail.
People talking about the material and that they are ineglible because they are "machine made" and so forth dont have a fraggles clue what this is about. Also people here moaning that they have no cultural value or have to be distinguable - get outta here. You havent walked a second on a wandering trail and you still havent got what this is all about.
It´s not about the wayspots, its the wandering trail itself that is the POI, and it is just represented by the trailmarkers.
Re: New Pokestops for Kids
Hi, @DerGnom7705-PGO - your English is quite good, actually! Most nominations are reviewed for the quality of the actual thing nominated, not for the quality of the surrounding area (unless that area is unsafe for all, or on single-family private residential property, or at a school or daycare for those under 18). I live in a residential/suburban area myself, and I know I'll never have a Wayspot within reach of my home as a result. What sort of things are being nominated in your area? Are they great places to explore, exercise, or be social? I'd love to see some examples! There's also a great subforum here where on can post potential nominations and get advice that may lead to an acceptance, or reasoning why the candidate won't qualify.
Re: New Forum, New Adventures, Same Explorer Community - Discussion
Hey Folks,
We will be processing all the Wayspot appeals submitted on this forum. We will double check the appeals posted on or after March 1st, 2024 to ensure that we have resolved them. If you have any unresolved Wayspot appeals posted before March 1st, 2024, please repost them in the respective category and we will process them before April 15th, 2024.
Thanks,
NianticAaron
Re: Love a fake nomination
I see that this nomination has already been rejected by the community. We are already reviewing other submission from this submitter and will take necessary action once the review is complete. Thanks,
NianticAaron
Re: New Forum, New Adventures, Same Explorer Community - Discussion
Nice would be a landing page for new wayfarer.
What is it about, why I'm here, what will be expected from me, where can I find...
… bundeld informations like this, to reduce questionmarks and give a good start in reviewing and be part of a worldwide community (how exciting).
Re: New Forum, New Adventures, Same Explorer Community - Discussion
There had better be "TRAIL MARKERS ARE ACCEPTABLE AND ENCOURAGED" in there after all the backlash Niantic got after Aaron's stupid statement.
Re: New Forum, New Adventures, Same Explorer Community - Discussion
I really feel that there needs be a lot more proper communication. There are so many issues that could be resolved with minimum effort. The language used in the announcement is the sort of thing that they have come out with before, using buzzwords that sound great but don't seem to actually mean much to them when it comes down to it.
So many frustrations could be avoided with a bit more transparency and consistency. It really seems there's a lot going on that is just not made clear. They have asked for feedback and people have put across so many fantastic and well though out ideas but a vast majority have not even received any recognition, let alone action.
If issues are known, I'd expect any decent organisation to firstly acknowledge that the issue actually exists, then apologise for the frustration or inconvenience before laying out what they are doing to solve it with regular progress updates. I really hope something like this is put into place. Edit: To clarify, I realise that there are forum sections currently for bug reporting and known issues but it seems that many issues don't make it on here or are marked as resolved or working as intended when they clearly aren't. This system fails at reassuring many people that their problems are taken seriously or that many issues, sometimes longstanding ones are being worked on at all.
I've seen people insulted and berated by wayfarer staff for raising legitimate concerns and frustrations, this really is poor and causes even more ill will toward those staff. Everyone should be on the same page and putting across the same messages to avoid even more mistrust and confusion.
I really hope the community and Ambassadors are genuinely listened to this time around and issues are rectified swiftly rather than being ignored like so many others. Simple fixes that should have been done months or years ago are still causing problems with not a word from Niantic that they care to resolve them.
I would also like a better place for criteria and clarifications, to actually know what Niantic want from us with this new workflow, again, it is all so vague and opaque with conflicting messages and no clear information from an official source. I know that there are cultural and locational differences that mean that criteria need to be malleable, but at least we could have some robust guidance that can be updated as needed when decisions or clarifications are made. This is a tricky one but there must be something better than what we currently have.
I would love to see a proper roadmap, regularly updated so that we can see what is being worked on and reassured that progress is indeed being made. Frequent AMA's that genuinely answer questions rather than the noncommittal fluff and nonsense that we have had from the most recent ones. So many other issues that could probably benefit from attention rather than new forums but this is what they have chosen to prioritise.
I know I am jaded from all the previous promises that have come to nothing, I had such hope that things would improve but seem to have got even worse, it really does appear that Niantic simply don't care about their users at all, they certainly don't do anything to dispel this idea. I genuinely hope that things are better this time around, I'm still here so I must have some belief that things can improve, so many passionate wayfarers are giving up but it's not too late for some of us that remain.
Re: New Forum, New Adventures, Same Explorer Community - Discussion
While I'm glad they gave us notice of the upcoming change, I wish they could be more open about their intentions, thoughts, and plans.
These Vanilla forums has been something like an old pair of training shoes. We've grown accustomed to how it feels in them, even if they don't really give us the best comfort or support or style.
Are they going to try to grow their pool of Wayfarers by adding new users? Try to keep people engaged longer? Or put us out to pasture?
Perhaps human reviewers have no place in NIA's future plans, since they can give 'missions' to players to photo/scan spots from FourSquare, and use Emily to review them.
Are they adding staff, reducing costs, going in a new direction? Which is it? Why? What should we do to prepare?
As for what I would:
Information, freely shared.
Less language filtration with better human moderation.
Ease of navigation.
More comprehensive, more comprehensible guidance.
Be more careful. Use words correctly and don't let one guy's unconsidered off-hand remarks unbalance everybody's efforts.
Re: New Forum, New Adventures, Same Explorer Community - Discussion
I really hope these criteria clarifications are done right. That you listen to the Ambassadors, and that those clarifications are in line with Niantic's mission statement and the ideas behind the 3.1 criteria refresh. Lately it feels like the Wayfarer team has been reading their criteria from a scroll that was found in a cave in the Middle East somewhere (as in very old and outdated texts). If Niantic expects us to drive to a trailhead and interact with it, and then drive to the next Wayspot, without actually following or interacting with the trail, if Niantic wants us to play games while sitting down with a roof over our head, then I have way better options than anything Niantic has to offer, while staying at home.