Missing Pokestops
0Lavender420-PGO
Posts: 1 ✭✭
I’m slightly confused about the process of nominating POIs in Pokémon Go.
While some of my approved nominations have shown up in the game, a lot more of them have not. I asked in game about this and was told that one of the reasons could be that the nomination was too close to an already existing pokestop. But when going through frequently asked questions it says that when we’re rating nominations the amount of already existing pokestops and density doesn’t matter. Why? These two statements contradict each other.
Not only that, but I was also informed that my nominations could be added to different games. I don’t understand why this is a thing. The nominating was sent in game through Pokémon Go. Not other games. So why is this feature offered if it doesn’t have any effect on the game?
How can I contribute to the game and help my community if the feature that was supposed to allow this isn’t even honored?
After reviewing so many nominations in hopes to help improve the game for others while working my way to getting upgrades to speed up the process from my own nominations, nothing has changed and nothing got better. What was the point of all that work? It’s kind of a really big slap in the face. It took away any and all motivation to nominate new stops and completely stopped me from reviewing new ones.
Comments
This is the most commonly asked question on this forum, and Niantic does a very bad job of explaining how the system works.
When you submit something you are not submitting a PokeStop, despite what it says in the game. You're submitting wayspot for Niantic's Lightship database. Each of Niantic's games populates its game board using a subset of the wayspots in the Lightship database based on a set of rules that is specific to that particular game.
If I submit something through Ingress it may or may not appear in Ingress. It can also appear in Pokemon Go, Pikmin Bloom, or any of Niantic's other current or future games.
If it helps you feel any better, consider the fact that the majority of the wayspots in Pokemon Go were submitted by Ingress players over the years.
Wow, folks. How many times have we seen this particular form of complaint message this week?
@0Lavender420-PGO, have a look through the recent messages over the past few days and you'll see that your question/complaint has been asked and answered a couple of times there alone. I think one of the regulars might even have a handy-dandy text file they can cut'n'paste a pre-prepared response for you as soon as they see this one.
However and to give you the clip-note response here and now... When you submitted a nomination via the PoGo game app you would have seen a message from Niantic where they explained how you were submitting a nomination for a waypoint - or waySTOP as we've been reliably informed they're called by Niantic - into a database (called Lightship) from which Niantic draw to add to the maps of their various game/products. Pokemon Go is only one of those.
Secondly, just because your nomination was accepted into Lightship it does not mean it has been accepted into Pokemon Go. There are certain parameters related to what are known as S2 cells which could mean your nomination was at this time unacceptable by Niantic for Pokemon Go but could be accepted into another Niantic game (such as Ingress).
Look at the post headed 'Tired of Ingress Stealing my Approved Nominations' first posted on 4 July for a recent in-depth answered one along the same lines as your own.
One of the big problems is that there are always some people quickly reporting these threads because "it's not wayfarer related".
Let's see how long do this one last and how many disagrees do I get.
@0Lavender420-PGO
do ask if still unclear.
It can be frustrating, but once you understand what is happening it should help you towards your goal.
So don’t be discouraged from submitting and reviewing.
You’re not nominating PokéStops, you’re nominating Wayspots that go into a variety of games (or not).
To quote the acceptance email;
Remember that not all accepted nominations will appear in all Niantic games (and may take up to 48 hours to appear).
Also note that by submitting a Wayspot/Portal/PokéStop you’re agreeing that it can be used by other Niantic games. The below says Portal as the Pokémon GO one isn’t working.
Note About User-Submitted Content and Ownership
When you submit a Portal nomination to Niantic, we don’t claim ownership of that content. You still retain your rights to the content as the creator, but you do grant Niantic a license to use the content in any way we see fit. This means, for example, that we have your permission to use the Portal images and descriptions to create new in-game locations in Ingress, but we also have your permission to use them to create locations across different games. This is just a brief summary of how we use user-submitted content. For the full details, please review the Niantic Terms of Service.
Niantic do a terrible job of making this clear in game, but going forward think that you’re nominating something that may go into help all of the Niantic games, not just one.
In layman terms;
People's accepted nominations from different Niantic games get added as entries in a single combined database. Niantics games have different rules which determine which of those entries get shown in-game.
They may have decided in Pogo for example that having stops too close together makes it harder to spin them or too many in a small area would create too many gyms. So only stop in a set area (cell) is allowed.
Ingress portals are just dots so it's easier to put more in a small area without it causing problems and nothing is gained from having more in an area in the same way as pogo where more gyms get created.
So that is an example of why different games have different rules as to what they show out of Niantics combined database of accepted submissions
From a March 2022, interview with NianticBrian
@AisforAndis asks, “Why restrict new Portals with the 20m proximity rule?”
NB: I’m trying to remember back to The Before Times when we originally implemented the 20m rule for new Portal submissions, and IIRC I think it may have been related to UX/UI of the mobile client and our disambiguation menu. If you’re in an area with extremely high Portal density, it makes it difficult to play in addition to creating performance issues.
I feel like each nomination submission accepted should be in every Niantic game, that way every one of their games can get more players excited getting a new wayspot to interact with. I feel like that would be a win for both Niantic and the players.
I don't think that amount of wayspots in each game would be too overwhelming considering there aren't an unlimited amount of things that can get accepted in the world. There is a limit on that. At the same time, I don't know how many pokéstops would actually appear in Pokémon Go everywhere if all wayspots were to be in all Niantic games. It might get overwhelming, I don't know.
unrelated to Wayfarer comment:
The way pokéstops and gyms appear in-app now, it is overwhelming to get them all appearing at the same time. Find a spot where four or more waypoints are close to each other, it is difficult to spin or catch accurately already. Lures are also hampered due to other objects within the lure radius being occupied.
There was a suggestion here to have the waypoints appear/disappear after an interaction or within a timeframe which could be a solution. This isn't up to Wayfarer apparently but the PoGo team to decide on improving its game board mechanic however.
I'm personally happy the dislike feature here exist. Important for people to show which comments they don't agree with 😅
That's not me though. Other than the overwhelming part, I have the same sentiments for all points to be interactable.
Right now as I'm posting this comment reply, it's me actually... 😅
Niantic uses a grid system like shown in the picture below for Pokémon go and if your nomination shares a cell with another poi(pokestop/gym) it will not be in the game. That is most likely your problem. However I for some reason this one does not appear in Pokémon go. Out of the 400+ noms I have had accepted this is the only incident of this occurring I have had. I would love an explanation why? It was accepted over 6 months ago.
If a wayspot were to appear exactly inside a 2cell's line (which I think the smaller squares are called) or between 2 2cells' combined line, I would be confused in that situation which 2cell that wayspot would be included it or belongs to. I'm confident that there are many wayspots inside the line between 2 2cells.
Perhaps how much of the wayspot inside each of the 2 squares in terms of percentage defines which square the wayspot will belong to. That's what I thought could be the answer. But if a wayspot were to be exactly 50/50 inside the line between the 2 2cells, then that I can't think of a logical explanation to which square the wayspot would be included in.
A wayspot is always on one side or another of those lines. They are lines, they don't have thickness so if you zoom in enough you'll see which side the wayspot is on.
In the picture above it's clearly in the east cell
They fall into whichever cell the majority of the nomination is in. I have never heard of one being being exactly 50% haha thats a great question and wonder if one has ever been exactly 50%. Im guessing with the millions and millions out there this has happened before haha
I'm not talking about the east cell in that photo, I'm talking about cells inside lines overall. And yes, apparently, if you zoom-in max with ITCC Mobile app with PoGo Tools, the squares and lines becomes way smaller.
The incident of a wayspot being exactly inside the line between 2 2cells' squares can still happen. The odds are lower because the lines are smaller, but can still happen.
I'm pretty sure there are wayspots in the world located exactly like that inside the line.
I was going to edit my reply comment to your reply, but it was automatically deleted instead. Is my original reply before the edit still visible for you?
oh wait wrong ping
Hopefully that ping was correctly
Even when IITC stops zooming in, the underlaying coordinates are points. Using a tool like Pogo Tools will always show the cell where a wayspot is, I don't remember anyone posting a screenshot of a wayspot that was exactly on a line and the math behind the S2 cells didn't assign that point to a cell, because the lines doesn't really matter for that math. Whenever someone claimed that their wasypot didn't show in Pokemon it ended up being due to being part of an occupied cell or because the owner did request the removal from Pokemon.
I don't have a good example of a wayspot being exactly on a line in my local area sadly...(I don't feel like searching the map for a long time to find an example) All I'm saying is that I don't know what happens when a wayspot is exactly 50% on each of 2 2cells between 2 squares of those.
@Spinky108-PGO
I’m finding in hard to keep track of this conversation so forgive me if I have got something wrong
Its the weekend so…
this explains it and how as @WheelTrekker-ING says it is all about a mathematical rendering of a sphere on paper. Any one exact point will go through the maths and the correct cell will be selected.
As you you will see The S2 cells are used extensively by Niantic in Pokémon Go and also in other games.
Wayfarer appears uses the cells to define areas you review and also the speed of the flow. Go a few inches over a line when you nominate ( and let’s face it none of us is going to be that accurate ) and you can change from years to get a submission resolved to weeks. So understanding a bit about the S2 system is quite useful.
Of course Niantic doesn’t comment on any way about these but the research has been done and is known about.
Hope you like ( or at least can bear) maths 😂
ignore - simply clearing comment box🙄
I never said I dislike or can't bear maths, so I think I can bear it actually
😀
I don't feel like checking out that link, so I'm just going to assume you're correct instead 😀
It's very telling that we get this question so often, niantic really needs to work on their communication.