Military Bases seem to be getting through wayfarer, is there a process to flag these locations?
thundercracker1-ING
Posts: 89 ✭✭✭
Dear @NianticCasey-ING and the wayfarer community,
I appreciate that it is not possible to know all the guidance and nomination acceptance criteria for all locations but a rule that has been clarified on numerous occasions is Military bases. pre-OPR /wayfarer POIs are grandfathered in and will not be removed, but all new nominations should be 1* rejected. This doesn't seem to be happening round here.
In Suffolk England near where I live there are 2 USAF bases that require military authorisation to access the sites. The number of POIs was ~15 but this has been increased to more than 50 with the efforts of the local gaming communities. Reviewers fail time and again to spot that they are looking at military bases. The bases have been reported lots of times to NIA but there is never any response and the POIs continue to be submitted and get accepted.
@NianticCasey-ING these sites are clearly marked on many official mapping resources, are niantic actively looking to implement an automatic solution to block submissions in these locations and are the non-grandfathered POIs eligible for removal? Thanks for your time
https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=52.393402,0.540706&z=17&pll=52.393402,0.540706
https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=52.36991,0.470462&z=17&pll=52.36991,0.470462
Best Answer
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patsufredo-PGO
Posts: 3,765 ✭✭✭✭✭
No, they are still don't meet criteria. But those waypoints existed in the base won't be removed since they also don't meet criteria for removal.
The only way to remove them is asking any supervisor in military base to request all waypoints removal in their base to Niantic, and also block the entire base area for future nominations.
Answers
On the help page it says it's invalid if it may interfere with the operations of a military base. From the way I interpret this it means some waypoints in the base can meet the criteria
When brought up in the AMA, it seemed they were uninterested in removing Wayspots on military bases, however if the claim can be made that they obstruct operations then by all means report it invalid.
Unfortunately we've been asking since Wayfarer launched to include text in the guidelines about military bases and have thus far been ignored.
It's very frustrating that the help page still has not been updated, but based on the last word we have from Niantic on this subject any candidate within the boundaries of a military base should be rejected:
https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/comment/44213#Comment_44213
Unfortunately NIAops say one thing but then they don't update the guides to include the information. I think that they need to step up and resolve the situation. They can geofence areas as we don't get any PoGO features on the site where I work as there was a complaint about pokemon trainers when PoGO 1st launched in the UK. So it's not impossible.
And yes I think you are talking about removals.....they have stated that they will only remove POIs that interfere with base ops, but they have also stated that anything inside the fence isn't a valid submission so nothing new should turn up.....but they do as reviewers don't know.
No, they are still don't meet criteria. But those waypoints existed in the base won't be removed since they also don't meet criteria for removal.
The only way to remove them is asking any supervisor in military base to request all waypoints removal in their base to Niantic, and also block the entire base area for future nominations.
They really need to update this on this on their help page. Reviewers aren't going to know they are doing anything wrong otherwise from the way it's explained on there
@NianticCasey-ING any update on this ongoing concern? It would be nice if this was actually on the published guidelines.
Thanks for the feedback, we're overdue for a clarification post in general.
In the meantime, I'll resurface this clarification from an Ingress AMA: The current guidance is to one star all new [Wayspots] on military bases. This supersedes any sub-category of eligibility like gathering places, exercise equipment, etc.
Thanks @NianticCasey-ING, this seems clear to me from what you have said.....what's more pressing is the fact that 100s of ineligible POIs have gone live through OPR and Wayfarer because a) In some cases it isn't clear that they are on Military sites especially if the reviewer is speed reviewing and b) reviewers aren't always aware of this clarification as it isn't (wasn't) very prominent in the test or guidance.
NIA need to step up and take this responsibility from the wayfarer community and geofence all publicly available military sites to prevent this from happening and use this geofencing to resolve the remaining issues about military sites. We see time and time again that these locations cause tension in the various communities playing your games.
4 more inside the fence sine I posted this thread :(
We have the same issue with the military base HMAS Cerberus in Victoria, Australia. There have been a large number of POIs allowed on this base in the last 3 or 4 months as there is an active submitter and reviewers don't know to one star.
Not as cut and dry as some people **** when discussing this place; the public are expected to be able to access certain parts of HMAS Cerberus. Yes it is technically "a naval base" but it is really kind of a big learning precinct, kind of like a military university. From their website: "The RAN Museum of HMAS Cerberus is located within the Public Access Precinct of HMAS Cerberus. "