Proposal for bootstrapping "dry" voting areas
Hosette-ING
Posts: 3,470 ✭✭✭✭✭
Niantic definitely has a bootstrapping problem. There are two main ones that I see:
- Areas where there are not enough reviewers to review the things that are submitted
- Areas where there are not enough wayspots for anyone to level up so that they can start submitting things
Jamie Kay on Facebook has done some outstanding work on both of those things. They're creating gifting groups who level people up to L38 in PoGo by sending gifts and earning friendship bonuses so that there are players in the area who can submit. They're also organizing groups of people to change their bonus locations to areas where reviewers are needed. This is really awesome and several areas have had great success, e.g. the Solomon Islands have gone from one wayspot to around 50, but it's a lot of effort and it doesn't scale very well.
Niantic really needs a systemic way to handle this issue. I don't have a solution to not being able to submit in dry areas, but I do have a systemic proposal for not having enough reviewers. Here's my concept:
- Set a maximum length of time for something to be in voting without reaching a consensus. I'm going to pick a number at random and say one week, but I'm just using one week as an example.
- If something has been in voting for a week and it hasn't reached consensus then expand the review area. I believe the default review area for non-upgraded things is a 3x3 grid of S2 cells of I don't remember what size. When the one week deadline passes expand the review area to a 5x5 grid centered on the submission.
- After two weeks expand to a 7x7 grid, then after three weeks to a 9x9 grid... keep growing the review area every week until there are enough reviewers for everything to reach consensus.
This would help with dry review areas, but may also "unstick" things that get stuck in voting for months for no apparent reason. It's a pretty simple algorithm, should be reasonably easy to implement, and wouldn't require ongoing manual effort by Niantic.
Comments
Oh! As soon as I hit submit I realized that I do have a solution for #2, but it would require some ongoing work on Niantic's part.
Create a program to grant players in dry areas a special Bootstrap License. The bootstrap license would allow players who qualify to submit things without level restriction. Require Bootstrap License players to pass the Wayfarer test in order to do this so that they understand the guidelines, then give them a fixed number of submission slots that refresh more slowly than normal so that they have to think carefully about what they submit. Bootstrap Licensed players should have their submissions sent directly to Niantic, at least at first, because they may not have enough reviewers nearby.
Once the area exceeds a certain number of wayspots then reviews can be handled by the player base, and perhaps the Bootstrap License expires until players have leveled up enough to continue submitting. There are lots of details that would have to be worked out but I think the Bootstrap License concept is a good way to get dry areas off the ground without too much manual work by Niantic.
I would also like to chuck in edit and photo contributions into the conversation as well. You do not get edit or photo reviews from bonus or hometown locations. My hometown is in rural Australia, and I have not received a single response to any edits I have made there, now dating back three years. It is impossible to correct even a typo.
I like the thought of people volunteering their bonus location to help seed rural places. These people hopefully put effort into it and not just blanket reject anything unfamiliar. At least they can get the obvious wayspots through that weren't getting through because they are in review barren areas.
I'm in southern Japan. Ocean on 3 sides. Hometown is set but I still review the entire country. I should check my next twenty or so reviews to see how many are within 200km. I think I'll be lucky if it's even half. Funny thing is that my own nominations get stuck in voting or are in queue a long time. I'm guess it's because... ocean on three sides.
There's some science involved in how edit requests are routed, as well as reviews and possibly even photo edits as well. Not getting into the whole nitty gritty, the range where I get edit requests is actually quite small. One boundary for example, is that edits that are in Lithgow, NSW speed through the system rapidly, whereas anything in Bathurst (the next town over) still have edits pending from May this year.
I can understand why edits would only be situated to one's immediate area, but it is as limiting as the editable distance it takes to edit a nomination more than 100km away via Ingress. Imagine seeing the same portal being used as someone's anchor to a field and it just appears as "pavilion." in COMM. You read that right, with the full stop, and because it's about 127km from where I am, I'm out of range to make such correcting edits.
Sydney's edits go through in mere days, and some photos too, although there are some stuck areas. But Canberra's edits is a whole different story, very rare. We get Canberra's nominations to review but not their edits. We'll occasionally get their photos, but I think the further photo edit I've seen is Wodonga, VIC, which is the edge of New South Wales.
I reckon the range of reviewing edits (and probably also making edits) and also photos should expand outwards once you hit a certain level of trustworthiness, or Wayfarer progress. Heck, I wouldn't mind reviewing edits across Australia (except the urban centres of other states, they have their own nominations to deal with). Try simulating an "upgrade" to an edit to a select group of trusted Wayfinders (preferably in a special queue), like how upgrades can help route nominations to review and reach a decision from places like Sarina QLD, Jindabyne NSW, New Town TAS, Nhulunbuy NT, or even the Heard Island and MacDonald Islands.
It seems reasonable to give edits the same expanding radius treatment, although waiting for an edit to come through is generally less impactful than living in an area with no or very few wayspots. The majority of the edits I see are either minor text changes or moving something a short distance. While it's annoying to see misspelled text every day it's not an impediment to playing the games.