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Re: New Forum, New Adventures, Same Explorer Community - Discussion
What will happen to uncleared appeals posted in current forum? You do know that some appeals are left unanswered up to 6-12 months, right?
Or do I need to bump every unanswered appeals? @NianticAaron
Re: Trailmarkers - warning received
That is why the disciplinary ladder is something that needs to stop.
For a player who is sincerely abiding by Niantic's rules and trying to contribute to Wayfarer with a single account, the first warning email is the equivalent of having a knife to the neck.
But for real abusers, it has no effect whatsoever. The real abusers can simply buy an account from the market that they can sacrifice. You can then apply for a fake Wayspot or coal Wayspot with that account and collude with the purchased account to create a cluster of Pokéstops. You Niantic prohibit the use of multiple accounts in your terms and conditions, but have made no attempt to address the lack of technology or effort to detect them, making it a de facto blanket clause.
The result is exactly what has been criticized in this discussion. Despite faithfully adhering to the terms and conditions, the warning emails received from misidentification have created a decision to never again be involved with Wayfarer. If this continues, Wayfarer will become a convenient tool for real abusers who will buy as many accounts as they can sacrifice.
Now is the time to rethink how we handle the punishment ladder. And it is time to decide how to deal with real abusers who use multiple accounts. Please realize that you have done a terrible disservice to honest contributors to Niantic.
Re: Trailmarkers - warning received
There are several per location, usually marking which paths to take. Since this is a pilgrimage trail, some roads often lead to shrines, small chapels, or places where saints or other notable figures in Christian mythology walked/visited. Some locations have many, others have few.
We could link to official information on the trails, etc, but from my experience, reviewers don't read those. Even I seldom read descriptions unless I'm inclined to reject something and I'm looking at the supplementary information to see if something comes up that I missed. I don't need to be persuaded to accept a playground - that's inherently approve should the photo and description be appropriate. But if I think something isn't interesting enough, I will read the supplementary information and see if there's something else to consider.
A graffiti might not be interesting until you read that it was put in place as a public program to teach youths, painted through workshops for kids to learn from the greatest graffiti artists in the country how to depict graffiti as art and not vandalism, painted in walls or buildings with permission given and media coverage. Then that graffiti becomes quite interesting on many levels.
But you try to pass this message to reviewers. They always reject them, even with links to local government webpages detailing the program and newspaper articles coverage the program. Fortunately, appeals have all been favourable, but those don't exactly grow on trees and even my friends tend to get tired of me asking them to submit a graffiti because we know it will only pass through appeal, and I have four other graffiti in line for appeals... so we have to rotate which people submit what, factoring the appeal queues.
This is the absurdity involved in wayfarer and why people are done with it. I have a couple that just lends me their phone and say "you do it, I don't care" and it's one less people reviewing and submitting. And where there were 30 or so, now there are six, with only three active. And one of them had a huge fit yesterday with an amphitheatre being rejected for who knows what reason, so we might be two by tomorrow...
Re: New Forum, New Adventures, Same Explorer Community - Discussion
Just kidding you are all lovely 🙃
Re: Trailmarkers - warning received
Not every trail marker needs to be a wayspot. Sometimes they are clustered together, I would recommend about 200-300 metres minimum spacing. If you think about the "exploration" criteria, the most useful wayspots guide players along the route. It can be more useful to have a wayspot where the route turns or converges with other routes rather than a close series of almost identical markers in a straight line.
This is a fairly important point, I think, although I cannot picture a perfect solution - Wayspots that close together and identical would surely be considered "not visually distinct" but how would any distance rules be evident to reviewers? How close is too close, especially with the tiny map we see? I love trail markers, because I love trails, but agree that some marker types can be tricky.
I've failed to get one trailhead accepted that's been bugging me: trails in this particular area are marked by color, and this one was a fairly simple purple square on a post, accompanied by the standard "no motorized vehicles" and "dogs must be on leash" signs. It is, though, the trailhead for the Purple Trail at the edge of a park. I have appealed, with a link to the official park map, but mine was rejected for being "a normal sign with no significance". I wasn't submitting the sign itself, but the point on the trail that the sign represented. I had definitely hoped for more clarity on this point.
Re: Chased off By the manger
It is sad that it has escalated to the property owner chasing off the raiders, I don't know that buying a drink will fix things at this point. I can understand the feelings of the players who were put off by the behavior and don't want to start patronizing the shop now. Yes, the property owner is fully in their rights to ask the players to leave, particularly if they were taking up the majority of limited spaces at the shop. The players should have been mindful to avoid potentially impacting business, and should consider buying a drink now and then. But business owners also really need to remember that these situations can have effects down the road.
We had a local historic home that was converted to an event center. The early Pokemon Go community contacted them to host a pokemon event there, and the location had 2 stops that were both lured up and a gym right next door, and going to that event helped introduce people to the location. Later, some disrespectful pokemon players walked right through a wedding taking place in the lawn, apparently to raid at that gym. This made the location's owners so angry, they got their stops removed, and started yelling at players who used the public, streetside parking to access that gym across the street. Soon after that gym across the street got set to be closed for all but 3 hours a week because it's a genealogy center with very limited hours. I am in no way defending the actions of those pokemon players who were rude to the event center. However I was so disappointed with the feud behavior of the owners that I stopped going to any sort of events there, and I don't think I'm the only one. Recently the event center has changed hands, I hope the new owners will foster a better relationship with the community.
Respect is a 2 way street.
Re: Wayfarer-approved portals do not appear on the ingress map.
This issue should be fixed now.
NianticAaron
Re: Chased off By the manger
In my case, I'd probably go back another day when that manager's on duty to plead my case (after the heated emotions had passed) under the guise of giving her the link to the owner-removal form. Explain to her how you don't mean to inconvenience her and are sorry for causing her alarm, but also that many businesses actually pay for sponsored gyms to drive traffic to their businesses, and that you regret that you were unable to purchase items that day as planned because you left as she requested. One never knows what led to her response - maybe she had just been accosted by a gang of youths the day prior, or there were crime issues in the area, or she was just in a particularly bad mood for some reason. Everyone, everywhere, has some kind of struggle. Maybe suggest that she get the gym "demoted" instead to a Pokestop (so a new gym can take its place if there are enough Wayspots nearby), because it's always nice to sit down to a nice cup of coffee at a lured Pokestop? I'm all in favor of a civilized discourse at this point, or at least the attempt. Granted, that manager may not be amenable, but it's at least worth a try.
Re: Wayspot removal appeal: Suolahden Ikkunagalleria
You should ask this enl player @MrDaddy, WHO has seen paintings today. So maybe it is not ok to comment If your facts are not right. Same to finnish- suu suppuun kun et mitään tiedä
Re: Trailmarkers - warning received
It is not about the marker, it is about what it represents. A section of a trail. It is a section of a trail that is being nominated. Many park signs are generic. You wouldn't (or shouldn't) reject a park because the sign is generic.