Reviewing literal duplicates
Gendgi-PGO
Posts: 3,355 Ambassador
Over the last 24+ hours, the system has been flooded with exact duplicates of existing nominations. While the most obvious review choice is to mark these as duplicates, there is conflicting guidance in the Photo Guidelines (https://niantic.helpshift.com/a/wayfarer/?s=how-to-review-wayspots&f=photo-guidelines&l=en&p=web) that tell us...
The following should not be submitted and, when reviewing, should be considered as rejection criteria:
· Exact duplicates of existing photos
As of yet, there has been no clear communication from Niantic on what is causing this and only vague statements that they are aware.
It appears that Niantic has no intention of any true public posts about what's happening, but could somebody at least offer clarification on if these nominations should be flagged as duplicates or rejected as exact duplicates? Bonus points if you can add it to the Wayfarer home page to hit the entire reviewer audience.
@NianticCasey-ING @NianticAtlas @NianticAaron
And probably the one most likely to reply: @NianticGiffard
Comments
I’ve just been put on a 4 hour cool down because loads of duplicates came up and apparently my voting behaviour is suspicious because I marked them all the same 🤦🏼♀️
The review time for duplicates should be cut down - so when your speed is calculated it should be taking into account duplicates - as well as 1* for someone's kitchen table.
Here is an example from a friend that helps show these photos are truly identical:
Other examples provided in online groups have even verified that the url link for duplicate photos are the exact same.
I believe clarification is needed for this, as voting either way could be considered explicitly reviewing against guidelines and be rewarded with all erroneous ban.
It's the least any Niantic staff could do after this issue has happened as long as it has.
Over the past day I have reviewed 50+ exact duplicates as described above by @Gendgi-PGO
Below is an example of one I have found.
The Photo URL with this nomination matches the already existing waypoint, showing this is the exact same photo used for both the existing and current nomination. Proof they are exact duplicates into the system: https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/uEPlOU4AFse7OGPiolUG6r-ddFo8HrlN3fA_2a2xJwyxl2glfZVeZqeQgM_o2X1BAo_t6T0hFk3O25AGfOB757ZFIQ=s0
Hi folks,
Just wanted to provide an update here: we're actively investigating this issue. Keep your eye on this post for more information once the Wayfarer team has found the cause and we're able to share any updates.
Thanks for your patience.
That...doesn't answer my question in the slightest, @NianticCasey-ING.
How do we REVIEW these? Duplicate or reject?
Why did you move this to the bug report thread, @NianticCasey-ING??? This was a CRITERIA QUESTION!
They hit the equivalent to the generic business button on your request.
Apologies @Gendgi-PGO, my first read of your thread read like a bug report, but I see your true intention now and the question that I missed the first time. I'm also re-moving this thread back to it's original category and will also add this to my announcement.
I've synced with the Wayfarer team to get a better understanding of the current issue and how this impacts how these duplicates should be reviewed and they've confirmed that these should be marked as DUPLICATES. This will not impact the previously made decisions to approve or reject the Wayspot.
You do realize this flies against your criteria for photos, correct?
https://niantic.helpshift.com/a/wayfarer/?s=how-to-review-wayspots&f=photo-guidelines&l=en&p=web
I get where you're coming from, but this isn't a typical situation. These "submissions" aren't really submissions. I mean they were at one point in the past, but the current iterations of them are not submitted by anyone. They are basically glitch data.
They are quite literally an exact duplicate, and I think marking them as such is the only thing that makes sense until they manage to get them out of the system, though I still think that Wayfarer should be disabled until these issues are fixed, as it basically nullifies the point of anyone reviewing whilst most of the submissions are not actual submissions and are just glitchy echoes.
@NianticCasey-ING
I wanted to add to this point:
"[Investigating] Previously closed (both accepted and rejected) Wayspot nominations appearing for review. This appears to be related to the previous point, and is still under investigation. In the meantime, please mark these nominations as DUPLICATE"
It appears previously closed edits may be appearing to be reviewed again as well. Specifically I have recognized multiple location edits that were previously resolved.
I can provide details and approximate locations of 2 examples of edits that were previously resolved being opened back up by the bug. Please just let me know.
Except we dont know how these will react, will they count towards our agreements? Will it act like a normal duplicate and get its photo added in games? Where fo we report these exact duplicate photos if they make it in game?
Hey there,
Thanks for the great questions @Roli112-PGO @Gendgi-PGO and for your comments @HankWolfman-PGO and @AgentB0ss-ING.
I've updated the announcement post to reflect this, but the Wayfarer team has confirmed that they've deployed a fix to address these issues.
@AgentB0ss-ING, this fix should also cover the edits you referenced, but please feel free to let me know if you're still seeing duplicate edits appear and I'll re-open the issue with the team.
Thanks again!
Thanks for answering. I only did a few reviews yesterday because the system was so much buggier than usual, and duplicates I did see I rejected for the criteria I listed above. Clarification during such a major bug like this really needs to be made sooner. Will there be an impact on agreements because of this? Will that affect our reviewer ratings? Why was there no immediate response about this and the impact to us?
And just to be clear for future instances that we may review a nomination with the exsct same photo as a duplicate, you said to mark as "duplicate" but my concerns above still stand, how should we review, and if you stand by your last guidance, how should we handle possible exact photo duplicates in games?
There is even scanner (REDACTED) submissions affected:
There is no supplemental picture or supplemental information. Only a white area.