Adopt a (road, street, trail ) signs
yanghao1-ING
Posts: 56 ✭✭
What is your view on these kind of signs? Should they be waypoints or not? Many cities have the adopt a street/road/trail program. A sign or a few signs are placed on the street saying "This street is maintained by (name of person, company, organization) " Thanks.
Comments
Do they meet any of the following criteria?
A great place for exploration
A place you love to venture out to; a destination or a placemark of local interest and importance and which makes our communities unique and shapes its identity. Somewhere or something that tells the unique story about a place, its history, its cultural meaning, or teaches us about the community we live in.
A great place for exercise
A place you’d go to get some fresh air, stretch your legs, or exercise. Places that encourage walking, exercising, and enjoying public spaces. Or something that teaches or encourages us to be our healthiest selves.
A great place to be social with others
A favorite gathering place for friends or strangers alike, where you can share a drink or meal, be entertained, or watch public life happen. Or something that draws us together to share an experience in a locally and culturally relevant way.
Well, using the criteria, the groups that adopt those stretches usually meet socially to do the clean-ups, and definitely get exercise. While those engaging in it may be quite limited, we don’t let that stop us from accepting limited-membership clubs or other POIs that don’t involve the masses. I would consider it, and I am curious as to whether others would, too. Definitely there would be pedestrian access or the stretch cannot be adopted. It is certainly more interesting to see who is civically engaged in good volunteerism rather than just another generic soccer field or baseball field. I usually notice the signs for that reason.
My instinct would be to 1* them unless there was something especially interesting about a particular one. They aren't the sort of thing I would seek out or take a visitor to see, or places I would go to hang out. They don't generally have any sort of historical, artistic, or cultural merit. I think they are generally just like every other road sign.
I think most would fail for not having safe pedestrian access. Yes, I know people work alongside the road cleaning it up but workers (even volunteer workers) have protected access to things that most people don't.
Thanks for your input. Here is a surrounding photo and not the submit photo of one of the sign submits I've come across. The first thing that struck me was the adopt a road person hasn't raked the leaves yet😂.
It is safe access for pedestrians . It's not cultural or unique or historic. It's not on private property.
My guess some of these adopt a road people use it to advertise their business or organization in a "We help the community" kind of way. However, I have seen some saying the "Name" family.
Since these adopt programs are in many cities, I think maybe Niantic might want to make a ruling if they are acceptable or not.
What do you think?
Your analogy to an ad is exactly how I think of them. It's an ad paid for with labor instead of cash, regardless of whether it's a for-profit business, a non-profit organization, or an individual sponsoring the ad. An ad taken out by any of these groups wouldn't likely meet any criteria, and neither would an "adopt-a-[whatever]" sign sponsored by any of them.
In addition to what others have already said, I'm not convinced about the permanence, either. I'm not familiar with such programs, as we don't have these in my country, but I imagine these adoptions would be for a limited time (a year? 6 months?).
It looks like I'm running into these adopt a street signs more and more so I looked into them. They are at least two year commitment and can be more. two types family/individual and business organization. Volunteers must come around once a month to clean the street of trash/litter. It does promote "community" and exercise. Plus 2 years is a long time but I suspect the signs will be up for more than that.
Plus there is a whole process to get one of these signs. it includes filling out application forms, interviews and cleanup forms as well. So it's not just a sign on the street to be forgotten.😄
1* - Does not meet eligibility criteria
Does not seem to be a great place of exploration, place for exercise, or place to be social. The object is mass-produced, generic, or not visually unique or interesting.
Is it possible get an official decision on the adopt signs? Just seen another submit. This time the sign was called "Adopt a Spot". I've reviewed a few since I started this thread and have rejected them with the following remark:
"At this time Niantic has not given an answer if these adopt signs should are eligible. Therefore I will reject them till further notice."
Thanks.
the sign is hard to read, so my guess is 1*
We have adopt a trail signs around me. They aren’t quite a trail marker but they give a marker on a trail that could be used as a waypoint. I generally give them either a weak review or a 1* if I can mark for a loophole like a bad picture. But since trails are eligible, and are long-linear/need a marker, I too wonder if these particular ones are eligible (and I’ve scanned the long trail debate post so I realize everyone has their own viewpoint).
However if it’s just on a road I would 1* because of reasons others mentioned above.
I know I have very few posts so it looks like I’m a wayfarer newb but I do a lot of reviewing and have a great rating and get a lot of new poi’s in games! Just new to community.
There is no need for an official decision. If the object does not meet one of the acceptance criteria, then you should not vote to approve it. If an adopt-a-whatever sign is going to meet criteria, it won't be for being an adopt-a-whatever sign, which is just an ad.
I just got a wayfarer submit with an Adopt sign. This one is an "Adopt a Stream" program. Since it's a signpost about a natural feature I didn't reject it. Also on the map look around it seems that another "Adopt a Stream" sign was already accepted .
Do not make a decistion on whether something similar or identical is already a Waypoint, that is the way the system fills up with incorrect or ineligible Waypoints. The current criteria are the only things by which to judge a submission.
I don’t see any way that adopt-a-street signs qualify as Points of Interest under the current Wayfarer guidelines.
Adopt-a-park could maybe have some niche purpose in a community that is not afforded official signage. Watch out for abuse!
Adopt-a-stream, river, pond, beach or wetland? These could really be something Niantic should look into and rule upon. They are reconsidering how to handle scenic views and natural objects, and these fragile natural water systems need help, anyway. This sort of sign might be all the recognition an area gets, and the idea of encouraging careful stewardship has some appeal.
As a signpost for a natural feature it qualified.
I googled that stuff, because I didnt get how this works from the given information ..... I only ended up in shaking my head about Murica xD
I think, that it is a bad sign for the inhabitants of a town, that projects like this are needed to keep the streets and trails clean. I'm from Germany, of course we have community projects for cleaning different places too, but those are exceptional for areas, where noone else feels responsible for. In rural area there is often a local rule/law as well as a social pressure, that evryone is in duty to keep the pavement and/or street in front of their property clean. Urban area, where the responsibility is a bit more complicated, has usually a lot of scavengery and street cleaning, that is payed by our taxes (US GOP may call that a manifestation of socialism). Maintenance of hiking trails is also a task of the local administration and their employees, but often there are volunteer clubs too.
To review this adopt-a-street project signs under the Nia criteria:
The signs are no infoboards in the sense of criteria, since they don't show educational contents. They don't help to explore. But I see the criterion for gathering people partially appliable, since they are kind of proxy for a community project - but that is farfetched and so it's not enough for me, that this outdoes concerns about the (at least for a town) generic style of the signs. So for the sign like in your picture I would choose 1* no criterion, maybe if the texts are very well done, I would choose 2* ....
Dude, it is not really helpful to copy-paste Nia wordings. You don't provide more information than "1* no criterion". Try to explain, WHY you do this in your own words....
That is an interesting point. These adopt signs are not just for roads and streets. I've even seen an "adopt a spot" signs submitted as well. In this case as a signpost/signboard for a natural feature it does follow the wayfarer criteria (as stated at the natural feature rejection info). I've seen a few adopt a trail sign submits. With the new wayfarer rules does that fall under a trail marker or a way to identify a trail?
Adopt a road sign I would generally reject. They are mass produced and generic. Don’t provide any historical or cultural significance. Doesn’t meet any 3 criteria. Just a sign towns put out to help get funding to improve roads
Thanks for your comment. I've been rejecting adopt a street/road signs for pretty much the reason you stated. However **** across adopt a natural feature signboards and adopt a trail signboards. The most recent submit was a photo of an adopt sign with the name of the stream. I was about ready to reject it then I realized it's a signboard for a natural feature and didn't reject it. As for adopt a trail signs they have the name of the trail and are along the trail. Would those qualify as a waypoint?
Adopt a (road, street, trail, stream, etc.) are not nature signs. The purpose of nature signs is to promote education of nature. But an Adopt a (road, street, trail, stream, etc.) sign is mainly an ad to promote a local organization.
Difficult questions. So this may be more personal view than profound by the rules....
I think it's okay to treat these signs for trails somewhere in the nature like hiking trail markers. How this then ends up may be very dependent on country or region, especially how the trail markers are organized and designed. So for example in the Netherlands the whole country has an extreme desity of strange knooppunt markers. These things are waved through there in huge numbers. Compared to these simple generic stuff those signs could shine. In Eastern Germany a 5* trail marker looks like the one on this website. Bad trail markers are symbols sprayed on trees or rocks. We don't really have something in between, so that an adopt-a trail-sign doesn't fit our usual scale for hiking trail markers, but I'm sure one wouldnt find a standalone adopt sign here, if they would exist. Thex would be combined with a regular trail marker, and they would be a nice additional feature. Third example ..... looking at the official Niantic example picture for good hiking trail marker .... I guess they are acceptable for the US, 3 or 4* may be reasonable.
For other natural features:
My personal view is, that lots of natural sights can be to easily end up rejected as "natural feature", and the reviewer community rejects way to much candidates in that way. So preserved natural features like small waterfalls or very special very old trees are acceptable in my oppinion, as long as I can find any manmade excuse in the submitters picture to accept them, although I know that this won't end up in an agreement for me. So I would easily wave through any combination of an adopt sign with any kind of unique natural feature. So here only your example of a stream isnt the very best. A stream/river is boring and very common, but there are way more intresting things out there..... waterfalls, cavern entrances, prominent rock formations, geyser, .... all of these examples are for me copybook-examples for the exploration criterion and so they are acceptable for me as long as there is at least a bench, a sign, or any other manmade excuse right next to them in the main pictures....
The adopt sign is also a Man-made marker for a natural feature. Not all natural features that are unique or great places to explore have a man-made sign markers. Therefore they get rejected. In the case of the adopt natural feature signs they are used to identify the natural feature at the same time showing a community/local government program of keeping it clean. The same goes for trails as well some of them are not marked except for an adopt a trail sign.
Let be put this simply. The "adopt-a" signs are not signs that name or tell about a natural feature. They are signs that name an organization or group. To claim that they are nature signs is akin to claiming that a car is an spaceship.