Rural Area Stops - Rules
GranolaGirlKY-PGO
Posts: 2 ✭✭
I’m a new reviewer. Being in a rural area, I sympathize with some of these submissions of people who are in rural areas that are just farms and neighborhoods. We have no stops near us and the closest gym is a trek.
I have seen submissions of the closest thing to a potential stop possibility because of the remoteness. I just saw one for a road. It hurts me personally as I get it. What is the criteria to handle remote and rural areas with nothing close to the urban and suburban definition of a stop?
please help.
Comments
The criteria remain the same for urban and rural areas.
However for smaller communities I judge borderline nominations with a little more leeway, for example memorials to a 'notable person' - I try to set the bar for notability at an appropriate level for the community.
I would not accept a road anywhere.
Yeah, for rural areas you can give more leniency towards hotspots/hidden gems, memorials to people notable to the community, gathering places, etc. But the main criteria stays the same.
try OFSC trails or heritage route markers, plaques, historic sites, entrance of notable local farms. Same issue here they, had simple trail markers rejected several times when neighboring transcanada trail marker stops exist. But mine get reject. Its nonsense
If the farm doesnt do any kind of tourism, fairs or anything for the community it is not eligible regardless of rural or urban locations. It falls under the private residential property/farm rejection reason
The majority of rural farms in the Northeast rely heavily on local tourism to stay profitable/afloat. We have a place that does a fall corn maze to drive more foot traffic but when I've nominated the farm with that information it gets rejected as seasonal/private farm.
Basically, if someone can find a single reason in some obscure interpretation of Niantic guidelines they reject it. Ruins it for the rest of us.
I get that's not what you are saying but I guarantee there are folks who would assume its private or assume the submitter is lying or think that others will likely vote it down, since it happened to their own and they are looking for agreements rather then legitimately reviewing.
Yup i totally agree. Corn mazes are awesome and would definitely be eligible. Would be hard to get accepted without any signage im afraid
Here's an example of where I might be more lenient in a rural area: a produce stand on the edge of a farm. If it's a fairly generic stand I would generally reject those for not meeting criteria. However, if there was nothing around for miles I would consider accepting the stand if it was physically present and accessible year-round.
Similarly, and even easier... if someone submitted a local restaurant or general store in a town with no other wayspots I would generally be inclined to accept it even if it wouldn't qualify if it was in an area that was already well-populated with wayspots.
Umm. I would not expect much success, given the impermanence of any corn maze. They have to be regrown every year.
Granted, the one at the local pumpkin farm is at a permanent location with a permanent sign, even if the place is only open for the touristy types for all of 2 months in any year. (As is the mecha Pumpkinsaurus, clearly visible on google's satellite view.)
As it is, I've personally not spent money on the entry fee for some years now, and only submitted the sign at the main entrance. Nobody else nominated anything else valid inside the farm/attraction, but there are definitely SOME things in there (like the 'saurus) that would make some fairly impossible-to-**** field anchors for most of the year lol.
I guess you kind of missed the point. The corn maze proves that is not just a private farm as they make a corn maze to get more foot traffic. LOL they don't make it for themselves. But to your point its temporary, but it proves its not a private farm or residence. Its a close duplicating loop in a flowchart.
Its a private farm, rejected.
No they have a corn maze every year, its open to the public
Oh well that a seasonal thing so rejected
Ok but its a still a farm.
Oh that's a private farm not eligible, rejected
But its not they do a corn maze every year open to the public.....
Who's on first!
For a place that hosts a corn maze to be a stop i'd think they'd need a permanent sign to be eligible. Niantic used to allow seasonal things way back but the criteria makes no mention of seasonal locations now so that's up to interpretation.
I always ask myself would the property owner tolerate public traffic for the 11 months out of the year that the display is not present. I lean to no most of the time.
For Rural areas there just aren't many things that qualify. Some places have roadside pullouts with memorials or plaques, maybe public accessible ponds and trails. Scenic viewpoints, and there's always at least a couple eligible locations in small towns. People live rural because they're away from the big town
so much this, I get that's not what you are saying but I guarantee there are folks who would assume its private or assume the submitter is lying or think that others will likely vote it down
@GranolaGirlKY-PGO coming asking for advice for rural areas is the worst idea possible.
you should focus on your own national wayfarer group to see what examples you can find.
If you came here, giving examples, you will be discouraged a lot since the most ative people here are city-players/portal abundant areas.
rural communities should have existing ,libraries, churches, town governments, housing, and water/sanitary systems, businesses, public and federal lands. Try getting involved involved in the community. Is there anything open to the public? Donate a tree with a Plaque. Any historical sites or buildings or trails? Be creative, explore.... do some research Google is your friend.
This is the biggest problem with living in a rural community is that there is more than one of these in a large area. It takes 15 minutes driving to get to the nearest area to play. Rural areas have these things. One of them. Maybe two. And they are spread out all over great mileage because most of it is the farmland where your meat and veggies are grown and raised. Am I supposed to believe that rural areas aren’t meant for Niantic games? That we aren’t good enough to be part of the communities?
That's how it is for everyone, if I want to play i have to drive 15 20 minutes to a public university. That's how it is supposed to work. Rediscover your local community and help nominate in that area. Even if you had a pokestop outside your door that would not be enough to fully play the game. Help your community build a good place for everyone not just you.
@Vigihlantee-ING That's what this discussion is about, populating local areas.
One of the problems with rural areas is that they generally have far fewer potential candidates if the same hard-and-fast standards apply to urban areas and rural ones. Niantic is told us in the past that we should be somewhat more generous in what we approve in low-density areas. That doesn't mean approve anything, but it means a local diner that might not qualify in a city can be perfectly acceptable in a small town.
Oh I'm an idiot. I'm sorry for trying to help. I don't want to get trolled, harrased and bullied again 😔
@Vigihlantee-ING I hope you didn't perceive my message as trolling, harassment, or bullying. That was not my intent, and if it came across that way I offer my sincere apologies.
I'm sure that the above users didn't troll you, and the same goes for the other 2 things mentioned, they are only trying to help... Problem is, if there is nothing that meets the acceptance criteria, all they can do to help is to just tell you that it won't be easy .
I get a lot of these in our rural areas. I don't approve them, I believe they are **** traps. As you can see these are empty and painted but supposedly on private property
Rural areas should have utility poles or boxes. Some have unique paintings, murals. This is where you have to get permission, the whole part about getting involved in your community.
@Hosette-ING @WikiBlue-ING sorry
I don't think so, as well as being a desert location, it's a good place for Pokémon, if it's registered in the weather, in the OSM data and in the events, Ingress is more complicated, in addition to being a game without interaction with a doll (only with the portal), it is more difficult to find XM.
If it is a suburban (place with low housing in rural areas), have at least one church and art in an ice cream parlor.
This is based on the eligibility, acceptance and rejection criteria of Wayspots.
All Niantic games are essentially "urban" games that favour players living in urban areas , thats one of the things you have to understand. Been that way since Ingress first came out.
Yes, there are more portals in urban areas, where there is also a greater flow of people, urban locations, but small, it is difficult to play because of fewer POIs.
That's just the way it is because of how the game functions. Am I ever going going to get my Platinum "Connector" badge in Ingress? Very unlikely because I don't like in the middle of a major town / high densiity Portal area.
Then again, I just reviewed a submission asking for a Pokestop because "the nearest stop is 10 minutes walk away" !
That’s not a reason!
wayfarer is a part of the solution to create wayspots in rural area. But Niantic should also autorize more thibgs to be a wayspot, especially in rural area to make their game playble everywhere.
i think we can suggest some idea here.
for example, i think there is something to do with natural features. Some of them could became great wayspot even if there is no sign.
@Aeryle88-PGO I understand the frustration, but Niantic already did loosen the rules for wayspots in order to facilitate play in rural and other areas. That's why every playground and sports field/court is now eligible. It's why the rules for local gems are much looser than they used to be, including allowing chain restaurants to be considered local hotspots under the most recent rules if they actually function as such. It's why we're told to give additional consideration to things in low-density areas, to be more lenient in what we accept. It's not perfect, but it's better than it used to be.
That’s good modifications, but it’s only a step on the good direction.
And there are still some problem (like trail marker rejections despite Ninatic clearly said Trail marker are acceptable). And the are also still good possibility to improve the system and allow more things in natural area.
For games that request to walk to play them, it’s illogic to have no wayspots in the best area to walk.
It would definitely help if reviewers who don't frequent the forums kept up to date with the criteria and understood that things like trail markers and restaurants can be eligible, and if they would indeed give more consideration to reviews for rural areas. For example, consider approving the only coffee shop in a village where only 3 waypoints show on the "check for duplicates" map - it really would be a good place to socialise even if its nothing special to a city person!
I think the rules as they stand are able to accommodate rural areas (never to the level of a city, but enough to make most villages somewhat playable) but one of the issues is that things that can be eligible in these areas are often rejected unnecessarily.
I've personally noticed a huge improvement in my area since wayfarer. I live in the suburb of a large town, near the countryside where little villages are dotted about every few miles. My suburban area has a much better network of waypoints now. The villages are also getting little clusters of waypoints from submitting post offices, churches, parks and sports areas, trail markers and postboxes too. Every village I pass now seems to have 1 or 2 gyms and a few stops, where before they maybe had 1 or 2 stops. And that is now enough to be able to play daily, even if its not like a city. I know its enough because that is what my area had for the last 4 years before wayfarer and I was able to keep interested in Pokemon to play every day, and even start HPWU when it came out!