Best Of

Hello Explorers, 

The time has come to announce our Wayfarer Criteria Challenge results! Again, thank you all who participated in our new form of Wayfarer Challenge. I’m excited to continue bringing new challenge types but don’t worry, the past challenge types aren’t gone. Now, a quick challenge summary and the Top 3 winning criteria! 

• Total Participants: 1,045
• Criteria Least Submitted: Post Offices (.2%), Sports Arenas (.4%), and Pavillions (.5%) of all submissions
• Top 3 Criteria Submitted: Unique Art or Architecture, Hiking Trails and Markers, Private Residence or Farmland 

Submissions Summary: While there are very unique and interesting nominations that would make great Wayspots, there were others that seemed to tip-toe very closely to the rejection borderline. We hope that the clarifications and poins made below will help you with your nominations next time you come across a great Wayspot candidate. Several things were very apparent across majority of the submissions, check out these points below: 

1. Our Eligibility and Acceptance Criteria do not mean that the nomination will or should be accepted. There are many great nominations that meet one or two criteria but then end up being clear rejections based on location, intended use, presentation, and overall falling within the rejection criteria.  
2. For many of the submissions, we kept asking ourselves “What story does this place tell? What makes it interesting?” There were many submissions with potentially great Wayspots but the description, titles, and supporting information could have used some work. If this is something interesting to you, tell us why. This can help take what may be a generic and commonplace nomination to the next level and make it a more interesting and eligible candidate.
3. Do what you can to prove its uniqueness, permanency, and access. Dig a little deeper into its story to share with us. Keep this in mind with something that may be generic to some people but is actually important in the local community. Think about the supporting information you're adding (photo, description, pin location, etc). 

These points were a higher level summary of the submissions and points that kept being questions. Now we’ll dive deeper into some of the submissions. While I wish there was a better way to show this, I wanted to make sure we gave you more information than not enough. Hope this helps! 

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Hello Explorers, 

As you may have seen, there’s been an update to the level requirement for Wayspot nominations from Pokémon GO Trainers. Previously, Trainers had to be level 38 or higher to become Explorers, however, starting today, Trainers will now need to be at least level 37 to make Wayspot nominations! We’re excited for the update and hope you’ll help us welcome new explorers into the community! This update will be available to all trainers over the course of several weeks, we ask for your patience as it rolls out.

Check out the discussion here.

Safe Exploring!

Hello Explorers,

The results are in! We had a ton of fun seeing all of the submissions for accepted Wayspots, community wayspots, and enjoyed even more, your Explorer group pics! Thank you all who participated! Now, here are our #WayfarerTwitterChallenge winners for part 1, 2, & 3.

#WayfarerTwitterChallengePart1 Winners 

• Social 
  • 1st - Zadra MegaCoaster w Energylandii
  • 2nd - Cattyshack Cat Cafe
  • 3rd - Henohenomoheji's Ping-Pong Hall
• Exercise
  • 1st - Thors Klopp
  • 2nd - Farley Jr. Purple & Yellow Playground
  • 3rd - 宮崎県体育館
• Exploration 
  • 1st - Siamotyrannus
  • 2nd - Red Ash Coke Ovens
  • 3rd -  Giant Steel Orange Blossom

#WayfarerTwitterChallengePart2 Winners

• Pokémon GO
  • 1st - 新宿の目
  • 2nd - El Perro de Colores
  • 3rd - Las Semainier Et Son Double

• Ingress
  • 1st - Acnabreac Rock Art
  • 2nd - Xwnocebi
  • 3rd - Leuchtturm List-West
• Pikmin Bloom
  • 1st - Parque Nacional Camino de Cruces
  • 2nd - Montezuma Refuge Eagle Sculpture
  • 3rd - At the Top - Burj Khalifa Art

#WayfarerTwitterChallengePart3 Winners

• IRL
  • 1st - Agentx1976
  • 2nd - KOWLOONsGT
  • 3rd - Gilbert_edd
• Virtual
  • 1st - Wayspotters Podcast
  • 2nd - WayfarerMSE
  • 3rd - Handa_wamin

Hey Explorers! 

As many of you have spotted, there is a new beta version of the Wayfarer App available on Android. This new beta is for developers and not yet ready for the community. However, we’re continuing to develop a Wayfarer App for everyone as a direct response to much of the feedback you’ve given us, so we’re delighted by the excitement we’re seeing in the forum already. 

Similar to the iOS test app that we released in May, the latest version of the Wayfarer App is a beta version which focuses on adding VPS-activated Wayspots. We’ve rolled it out to a small group to test core functionality to make sure we can meet both your needs as an Explorer community and the needs of developers building VPS experiences. At this time, this app is not yet ready for use by the broader community. 

While those of you who have tested it out may have experienced nominations and edits getting reviewed faster by our team, this speedy turnaround time is also part of the beta experience and cannot yet scale to support large numbers of users. Additionally, the nominations made with the beta app are provisional and only for testing; they may not appear in games, and will not appear in your Wayfarer Contributions page, Wayfarer stats, or your in-game stats, as the Wayfarer App is not yet linked to your account. Rest assured, however, that we are currently working on fully linking Wayfarer App contributions and this will be supported when we launch to Explorers next year!

For the time being, we ask that you continue to submit via the Ingress Scanner or the Pokémon GO app until the full version of the app is ready. We want to make sure none of your contributions go to waste. 

We’re currently working to finalize our roadmap for 2023 and can’t wait to share more details with you soon on what we have planned. In December, we plan to host an AMA walking you through our roadmap and sharing what you can expect in the new year.

Thank you again for your excitement around the Wayfarer app and for all you’ve done as a community. We apologize for any confusion and look forward to adding more explorers to our official beta group soon! 

Check out the discussion HERE

Safe Exploring!

Hello Explorers,

Just wanted to update you all that we have shipped the Wayspot Categorization in Pokémon GO for the following countries:

• US
• Canada
• Brazil
• Mexico
• India

More countries to come in 2022!

Hello Explorers!

We have a busy week ahead, and I wanted to make sure you were all in the know.

...

On Wed Dec 8th, we’ll be shipping our last release of the year (Wayfarer 4.4) which will include:

• Updates to the “What is it Question” (aka category validation)
• Ability to appeal a rejected nomination through Wayfarer
• Anonymous and private abuse reporting through Wayfarer

More info will be posted with the release notes.

...

This Thursday Dec 9th, we’re shipping the Wayspot categorization feature for Wayspot nominations and edits in Pokémon GO for the US, Canada, Brazil, Mexico, and India. We will roll this out to the rest of the world in January. Category selection will be required on your nominations and will soon also be displayed in the reviews in Wayfarer, so that reviewers have a bit more context from you.

Categories tagged on live Wayspots as edits will be funneled through Wayfarer for others to validate, but will not contribute to your Agreements for now, since there's technically no collective agreement to be made on these (yes I am thinking of better rewarding mechanisms for this type of validation question!). Ultimately the categories will be used by all Niantic games for new, more context specific, game mechanics and more!

...

Also this week, we’ll be launching our new and improved Wayfarer emails! We’re super excited about the fresh new look and updates to the emails you get about the status of your edits, reports, and nominations. New Explorers also receive an email inviting them to join the community once they reach eligibility in Pokémon GO or Ingress. They’ll now be coming from [email protected] so please make sure you keep an eye out for it in your spam if you’re not seeing them in your main inbox.

Thanks! Details to come later this week.

Product Updates

Hello Explorers, wow it’s been a minute! Since we just shipped Wayfarer 4.3, I've had a moment to pull together an update for you.

Pokémon GO Nominations Duplicates check

Later today we’ll be shipping a feature update in Pokémon GO’s Wayspot nomination flow. In the map used to mark the location of your nomination, you will be able to see approved Wayspots NOT used in Pokémon GO alongside those that are! Existing PokéStops and gyms will be marked with a PokéStop icon. This will allow you to see if the Wayspot you are nominating has already been accepted; saving you time to nominate other great places that aren’t in the Wayspots database yet. 

UPDATE: this is now live!

Pokémon GO Wayspot Categorization

Starting mid-December, Wayspot nomination and edit experiences in Pokémon GO will include a question on “category”, which is the same as the “What is it” question in the Wayfarer reviews. With this update, nominations will require a Wayspot category to be selected. In both nominations and edits, you can type into the search box to find the category or navigate the drop down menu (we recommend typing a category out to filter the list). Note that adding a category on an existing Wayspots will be entirely optional.

The categories will help our games develop more context specific gameplay mechanics and narratives.

Ingress In-game contribution limits

Also in mid-December, we’ll be replacing the old contribution limit mechanism in Ingress from a 14 day wait period to accrue, to a daily accrual system, with increased max daily quota based on the contribution type. This applies to Wayspot nominations, reports, and AR scans. You’ll see this reflected in the messaging in your settings and the nominations or editing screens. The limits will be the same as in Pokémon GO except for AR scanning which will have a daily accrual rate of 40 scans/day, at a max of 400 scans/day that you can submit.

Ingress Upload Later and Upload Management

We’re working on bringing you the same upload later and upload management experience we shipped in Pokémon GO to Ingress! This will apply to nominations, photos and AR scans only. Expect this to be released before the year’s end. 

Niantic ID + Wayfarer

Niantic ID is coming to Wayfarer! Niantic ID is your unique identity across all of Niantic’s games and experiences. We recently announced the claiming period to lock in an existing username as your Niantic ID. You will soon see your Niantic ID integrated on your Wayfarer Profile! Please stay tuned to Niantic’s blog for more information. We’ll be keeping an eye on this thread, so please leave any questions or comments here.

Make sure you claim your Niantic ID HERE before November 26, 2021.

Wayfarer 4.4 Sneak Peek of what's coming in December

• Private abuse reporting chat widget in the Help page (FINALLY)
• Wayspot category 'what is it' feature update
• Appeals of rejected nominations
• Niantic ID integration (see above)
• Swanky new notification emails redesign

We'll post details on the release in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned!

Hello Explorers, 

You spoke and we listened! I’m very excited to share that we’ll be shipping some new updates with Wayfarer 4.3 next week and hope they add to your Wayfarer experience. Check out the updates below for more information!

Unlimited Quiz Attempts

We’re letting new users attempt the quiz an unlimited number of times with a 15min cooldown period in between - enough time for you to revisit the Criteria pages. We felt it was a shame to limit the attempts and have folks never return back. We believe that practice makes perfect! For those who have already taken the quiz and failed it twice, they will also be able to retake the quiz an unlimited number of times. 

Nominations In Review by Niantic

Nominations that are in review by Niantic will no longer disappear from your Nominations page. Your nominations will be displayed and labeled as being IN VOTING by Niantic, with a Niantic logo badge. 

Rejection Reasons

We’ll display the top two rejection reasons your rejected nominations received - these are based on the rejection reasons noted by your nominations’ reviewers. We heard your feedback about the upcoming email changes and wanted to get this done before we launched the new emails.

Again, we hope you’re as excited as we are to ship these updates! Excited to hear how they improve your Wayfarer experience! Check out the discussion HERE!

Safe Exploring!

Hi Explorers, 

On October 26, 2021, all new Wayfarer Explorers will experience a Wayfarer orientation on their very first log-in. The experience walks Explorers through setting up their profile, understanding Agreements and Upgrades, the Wayfarer Criteria and finally taking the Wayfarer quiz. It will skip walking through the Nominations or Review pages for now, as these will face overhaul next year. Explorers who haven’t logged in for 6+ months (from the date that this is released) but have already passed the Wayfarer quiz will experience the orientation, but not have to retake the quiz.

Please share thoughts HERE.