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Helpful Information to evaluate in Germany
Germany and K-12
You might have a lot of "fun" with map markers about educational stuff, because you'll see a lot of our infamous German compound nouns without spaces. In the following I'll show you the most common ones for our K-12. Read the full words, not only the beginning or the end, and search for the following parts:
- schul / schule (=school)
- kind / kinder (= child/children)
- Gymnasium
- KiTa
Please keep these 4 words/abbreviations in mind. If you find these, look at the syllables around them, then take the time to scroll through the following lists to evaluate it finally.
Daycares
Not everything with the word "kinder" in it is ineligible, but K-12 are:
- Kindergarten,
- Kindertagesstätte (or short: KiTa),
- Kinderkrippe
Schools
This is a bit confusing, because the literal translation of school is "Schule" .... and we use this word sometimes a bit different. So please double check with the lists below.
Schools often have a namesake person. In that case it's not one single large compound noun, but something with two "-" as delimiters in it. For example this one:
Two delimiters -> school with namesake person.
In this case it's easy, because the word "gymnasium" is always K12.
If ithe marker would have been Carl-Zeiss-Schule it could be primary school, high school or college (all K12) but it could be adult education, too. Adult education stuff is not K12 and therefore eligible. So you need to look at the schools website.
The K-12 school keywords:
- Vorschule (a special type of daycare, preschool)
- Grundschule (primary school)
- Gymnasium (highschool + college)
- Oberschule, Mittelschule, Realschule, Hauptschule, Gesamtschule (different types of highschools, lots of names because of the federal structure of our education system)
- Ganztagsschule (can be any type of school; the special thing of them is, that they offer additional activities in the afternoon)
- Waldorfschule, Montessorischule, Jenaplanschule (K12 schools with alternative, non-autoritarian teaching concepts)
Other words with "Schule":
- Baumschule (= tree farm )
- Fahrschule (= driving school)
- Tanzschule (= dance school / dance studio)
- Musikschule (music school -> usually not K-12, in very rare cases there are specialized highschools with additional music education, that could be labeled that way)
- Hochschule (specialized university)
- Volkshochschule (adult education, there you can upgrade your high school diploma or learn additional languages; our organized community considers these to be eligible)
- Berufsschule, Berufsfachschule, Fachschule (something like a trade school ..... If you leave the highschool and start vocational education, then it's in most cases a bipartite system: 50% of your job training happens at your future employing business, 50% of the job training happens in lessons in such a type of school. It's not K12 and all pupils there are usually 16+y/o. The opinion of our community: these type of school itself is usually not eligible, but valid candidates like sculptures or murals on the grounds of these school are usually accepted.)
- Schulzentrum, Schulungszentrum (a place with different kinds of schools nearby; look for additional markers and other keywords to evaluate this .... )
- Schulamt (not a school per se -> education authority, supervisory school authority)
One confusing thing, that you might encounter, are historical school buildings, that arent school anymore. You won't encounter them as markers, but maybe in the submission texts. Don't be suspicious about that. Even if the buildings have totally different usages now, local people call them still school decades later. In most cases these examples are in very rural area and they are not very large. So this size or even smaller:
(this one was a primary school, and now it's used as a club house of the village9

Re: REAL STOPS REMOVED-
As pointed out by @PkmnTrainerJ-ING, inclusion rules are not an excuse for abuse. Wayspots should not be submitted away from their real world locations. Submitting Wayspots at incorrect locations is bound to attract punishments for abuse.

Re: Account reset
This is the current expected behavior resulting in an account deletion request from our other games.
We are working with the game team to make this behavior clearer in the help center pages explaining the impacts of account deletion request.
Currently, if you do not want your Wayfarer stats to be reset, do not request account deletion for any game related to your Niantic ID.

My Wayspot nomination was accepted, but does not appear in my game(s). Where did it go?
Hello Explorer,
Thank you for your contribution! Getting a Wayspot nomination accepted is a great accomplishment, you should be proud.
Your accepted nomination has been added to Niantic map and helps keep it fresh and engaging for all users around the world. While your accepted nomination is guaranteed to show up in our database, all other Niantic products (such as Pokémon GO, Ingress, etc..) choose which and how to include accepted Wayspots from the database. While not all accepted Wayspots will show up in every one of our games, it will be available for future products to include as they see fit for their experience.
Each game has its own schedule as to when it will sync with the database. It can take up to 48 hours for the systems to update and for those wayspots chosen to appear in a game.
Safe Exploring!

Pokémon GO Nomination Level Update
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!

Re: Wayfarer Twitter Challenge
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
- 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
#WayfarerTwitterChallengePart3 Winners
- IRL
- 1st - Agentx1976
- 2nd - KOWLOONsGT
- 3rd - Gilbert_edd
- Virtual
- 1st - Wayspotters Podcast
- 2nd - WayfarerMSE
- 3rd - Handa_wamin

Wayfarer App Update
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!

Re: Upcoming Wayfarer features and updates
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!

Wayfarer 4.4 Release Notes - Last release of the year!
Hello Explorers! We’re excited to ship Wayfarer 4.4. Here’s what it includes
New “What is it” question
As we mentioned in the November Product Update, Wayspot nomination and edit experiences in Pokémon GO will soon 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.
So we’ve updated the ‘What is it?’ question on nomination reviews, to include the categories submitted with the nomination. We’re changing this to be a yes/no response, as well as providing a drop-down for you to select another as you see fit.
Wayspot categories that are submitted with the Nomination will help reviewers better understand what you are nominating. Category submissions on live Wayspots will be optional as with other edits, and will be funneled through to Wayfarer for you to validate as well. They will not contribute to your Agreements since we don’t technically generate agreements on them.
Nomination Appeals
Your rejected nominations may be appealed from within Wayfarer! When you view the details of a rejected contribution, you’ll see the top 2 reasons the community rejected it, and a button to Appeal this decision to Niantic.
You’ll be allowed to appeal contributions one-time per contribution, to Niantic. Appeals will be limited to one (1) appeal per 30d from the date of your first appeal. In addition, you’ll have a chance to further explain in writing why your nomination should be accepted by Niantic.
Appealed nominations cannot be edited after it has been submitted to Niantic, but you can track the status from your Nomination Management page. Upgrades may not be applied to Appealed nominations. Niantic will review your appeal and send you an email when a decision has been made, with a written explanation from us. This does not apply to contributions that have been reported. Review times are not guaranteed at this time, but we will be tracking it over time to see whether the appeal limits could be adjusted.
Update: Note that when you submit an appeal you will not currently get an email confirmation that you've appealed. Please check your Nominations Management page for updates.
Anonymous and Private Abuse Reporting
You’ll now be able to submit abuse reports to us from the Help pages in Wayfarer! We heard a lot of prior feedback directly to us that abuse reporting in the forum made many of you feel vulnerable, especially in cases that involve trolling and harassment. With this new method, you’ll be able to quietly report things to us. It also allows us to better ticket and track each report, rather than using the forum features to do so. Look for the chat button on the bottom right of the Help page to open up a reporting flow. This chat will remain on screen as you navigate to other pages, until you close the chat or reload the website. We’ll temporarily keep the General Discussion & Appeals categories abuse discussion in the Forum open until the end of the year, and will be addressing those reports at a slower rate than through the Help page. Please do not submit duplicate reports during the transition period.
Safe Exploring!
