Need Clarification- Are this Niantic System Abuse? If Yes, How to Report them

iiElvioniElakii-PGO

Some months ago, a group of player start reviewing with rules that are not exactly same as what niantic say. They follow some Niantic rules, modify some rules & act as the way they want. They also spread their modified version to new users under name of Niantic Rule.

Here's I need clarification whether some of their rules are Abuse according to Niantic or not. They have already made 500+ pokestop/gym based on this rules,

1. They submit & accept nomination that they submit 30/40meter far from original location to get empty cell. they say to others niantc allows this type submission.
2. without any safety access reason, they just edit pokestops from original location to far area to empty cell. due to 10m limit, they does 2/3 times of edit after one another
3. there is a category of institution that holds classes 11-12 for age 16-18 students & also for mature students who pursue degree education. They say, as adults are also able to study, so any submission on the institution boundary are accept & not reject under school K-12 Rule
4. they will accept anything without following pedestrian access rule. by them, just submitting to road-side is enough even if they cannot reach to the exact position by walk without harming them.
5. they accept any govt. building office, big/small even though they has no historical & cultural value. some ex: Water administration, electric administration building etc, even some private company that works on govt project.
6. they divide a church into multiple category, they submit all the entrances of church as separate sub & accept them, the entrances often are just door

Please clarify if these 6 rules of them are Niantic System Abuse. IF yes, how to properly report them.

SPD85-PGO

This type of abuse is far too common. I see similar things in my local community, and their submissions are often accompanied by lies about Wayfarer criteria.

1. The pin should be placed on the object in question. I'm not necessarily sure that I would call it abuse as many people do it by accident; however, a long-standing pattern of this behavior is abusive
2. Any move of a location away from an object should be considered abuse
3. If the school is primarily for students 16-18, but night classes are held, then it is supposed to be marked K-12. I would consider lying about Niantic's policies in the supporting information section to be considered abuse
4. Not sure I would consider these submissions abuse, but a pattern of the behavior likely is.
5. Certain government buildings like town halls are acceptable as they are gathering points for the community. Still others could have historical important and be approved. However, other ones, like the ones you described as just buildings, and shouldn't be treated any different from a commercial office building
6. There really should only be one submission for the church, even a sign in front is a duplicate. Not sure that I would consider this abuse, but once again it's the pattern.

To me this gets to the problem of abuse. It's about the pattern of behavior and encouraging other Wayfarers rather than the individual submissions/edits, some of which are abuse, but most of which should simply be rejected.

You can try marking the submissions as abuse and edits, as well as using the form; however, I have had very bad luck when doing so. I have also emailed Niantic about an abusive behavior, and provided proof of their abuse (describing abuse on Discord), but Niantic refused to discipline the player.

In addition, many people use alts for the abuse so if the lose the ability to make edits/submissions, their primary account will be unaffected.

Jtronmoore-PGO

for the church usually 1 is the usual. Although if they have a sign far away it could be eligible. If the church has some really nice stained glass windows that may be eligible on its own as well. Other than that comment above me pretty much covered it

iiElvioniElakii-PGO

@SPD85-PGO as you have mentioned more about pattern in multiple option, The group is organizing everything to submit every possible things, so I am seeing this rules applied more often. as I have already said, they made around 500+ already within these rules.

patsufredo-PGO

https://community.wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/discussion/12799/need-clarification-are-this-niantic-system-abuse-if-yes-how-to-report-them

And where did this happen? I'm not so suprised if they want to make another Zaragoza.

WheelTrekker-ING

1 and 2 are already defined as abuse and you can report it directly from Wayfarer if you get those nominations or edits. You can also use this form (I hope it's the right one) https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeXTFKKkhHmapgsLN7VuhKHkT7qWj9bJjH9I2UWPf2qwo20UQ/viewform but you won't get any feedback.

It's hard to tell if the rest of cases is abuse or not. Surely it will be hard to report it because one action itself is not abuse, but the repeat of actions against the rules.

For those wayspots approved in K12 or without safe access, you can report them from the game and they will be promptly removed, or if Niantic rejects them you can appeal creating a post in the "Invalid wayspot appeals" category.

Also you can report a wayspot as a duplicate if you think that it has been incorrectly approved as a separate entity.

Keep in mind that if a bad nomination is approved but doesn't match the removal criteria you can't request to remove it from the games.

So the first step is to use the options available in your game and report those that shouldn't exist.