Another Military Base clarification post
cyndiepooh-ING
Posts: 1,324 ✭✭✭✭✭
@NianticCasey-ING many of these posts quote you saying that military bases are ineligible and submissions there should be 1*. I finally located this quote: "NianticCasey-INGAug 19, 2020
Hi there,
Thanks for the question. To be clear, Wayspot nominations on military bases are not eligible and should be 1* reviewed as not meeting the Wayfarer criteria.
There were some Wayspots that were previously approved before this ruling went into place, so you may notice some Wayspots on military bases. In order to consider these for removal, we would need to receive a request to remove from a person with the appropriate credentials on the base."
But I can't tell if this was before the criteria refresh. Now I only see the rejection criteria of "Location obstructs the driveways of emergency services or may interfere with the operations of fire stations, police stations, hospitals, military bases, industrial sites, power plants, or air traffic control towers." It doesn't appear to me that a playground would interfere with operations, but I know nothing about military bases. Should I be 1*ing every nomination that has Fort Bragg or Seymour Johnson Air Force Base as the address? And if that is the case, can we get that as a separate line item rejection reason?
Comments
Its SUPPOSED to be a 1* for obstructs emergency services.... Although I have made a few posts that I think this should be overturned and US military bases should be allowed because military bases are gated communities with playgrounds and parks and bowling alleys etc. But as the current guideline goes its 1* emergency services block. So you do what you think is right.
Anything that is already on the map is there and unless the commander of the base/wing requests for it to be removed its going to stay in the game.
I thought the whole point of the criteria refresh was that we no longer needed to go by all these mini updates that are not gathered anywhere by Niantic, but I keep seeing reference that Niantic said to reject everything on military bases. I would love to have someone from Niantic say we don't need to track every comment by Niantic personnel on specific questions ever that are not gathered in the Wayfarer Criteria and/or Help sections. And specifically this comment.
It does say on the criteria page under "rejection criteria" about military bases:
It only says “obstructs or may interfere” and leaves entirely open the prospect of acceptable objects and locations that are safely in compliance.
It's unfortunately the closest I could find to it being in the criteria.
Personally, I would say that any wayspots on a military base would interfere with the operations of the base since it's not exactly appropriate to have random players (regardless of which game they're playing) wandering around a base, especially ones that have nothing to do the base.
There is also the evident issue of scanning wayspots as well. I'm sure no military governing body would be happy about scans being uploaded to any company's servers.
The issue is that if NIA refuse to remove wayspots from active military bases, some players (again, regardless of game) will think they're all fair game to submit/approve.
This has been discussed at length elsewhere. Different countries, regions, and bases have widely disparate configurations, standards, and norms.
Until or unless official guidelines dictate otherwise, all wayfarers can do is try to nominate and review responsibly.
Nobody should be screwing around in any secure, classified, secret, dangerous, or off-limits areas. Bases in the U.S. cover all sorts of normal, everyday things like parks, housing, and recreation areas.
It shouldn’t be too difficult to distinguish one from the other.
Well this appeared in my feed today pinned right smack dab in the middle of the area marked on Google Maps as Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. I am going to take that as a definitive answer that my reading of the criteria - okay as as long as they don't interfere with operations - is the correct one. Unless Niantic responds differently and officially.
As @NianticCasey-ING has long told us, and occasionally other staff members like @NianticGiffard will act to correct the offending Wayspots...
The "Featured" list of wayspots ARE NOT indicative in any way of Niantic's policies. They are not curated in any way whatsoever, but are randomly selected from recently-approved locations. The only thing the above image shows is that one nominator managed to convince a number of reviewers to flout Niantic's rules.
The only current rules I could find were of the ‘obstruct or interfere’ variety. This bowling alley does not appear to do either.
The confusion seems to be around that people don't understand that military bases in the USA are just gated communities, so we have privatized housing developments, playgrounds, parks, museums, bowling alleys, gyms. Some bases have hiking trails or boat rental launches or beaches. They literally thing that they are top secret warzones that are illegal to map, which is 100% untrue.
So I agree with you, if its a normal benign thing, it doesn't "obstruct or interfere" with emergency services. Gets a thumbs up from me.
Casey did say the Showcases would reflect good examples about the time they added the names to the showcase - now to dig through the forum and find that....
I we making USA a different set of rules then the rest of the world? Since we can really vote anywhere….. Here some bases do not allow any type of really world game play for safety reasons.