Niantic - enough with the words, show us some real improvements

So when are you guys going to announce some real changes? Like you promised for rural players (show you really care with actions)? When are you going to rework the system so it works for EVERYONE? We gave ideas/suggestions on multiple levels the last year but nothing really changed... show us you really care about the players and not just grab your profits.
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Yeah, let's assume they pretend not reading that thread...
By the way Casey is no longer in this forum and so does Danbocat, and Giffard went missing. Better to tag other staffs instead.
The changes will be released on the 31st of February 2023 at Niantic'o'clock. Secret insider info!
I feel this. I'm visiting my sister and it's awful. I did manage to get some stuff when I lived with her for a few months but unless you live downtown I do not see people playing the games for long.
words? there arent even words anymore.
I agree that Niantic needs to deliver on long awaited changes and improvements... but complaining about rural bias? Wayfarer is already heavily biased in favor of rural players. Players in rural areas have their nominations prioritized by the algorythm and have the fastest review times. While rural areas arent going to have the sheer number of opportunities for wayspots as places like New York City, the current criteria allows for a lot of leniency in "local hotspots" that are best taken advantage of in rural areas.
A roadmap for 2023 would be nice for sure.
As for rural Pokémon GO players, I would imagine the new daily incense is helping but the issue you note (and the help I’ve mentioned) only relates to one game. It doesn’t help out a Pikmin Bloom or Ingress player at all.
We've been promised so many things, for so many years - we have to consider that maybe Niantic WANTS it this way.
For example, the nomination process saying "Portal" or "Pokestop". That would have been an easy template change, as soon as PokeMon was created. What, 4 years ago? It's just text. Not fancy coding. If they'd wanted it to say "Wayspot", it would have been a quick easy change. But they didn't. I can't imagine WHY, but the inaction could be on purpose.
Should all pogo player know about the cell rule, niantic will only get 1 wayspot per cell, which will be a loss to niantic coz they will losing out on the other potential wayspot in that cell, so maybe that's why they don't want to change the text
I don’t see how saying Wayspot instead of PokéStop tells those players about cells?
I don’t think that would be a consideration.
There are not many areas where there are multiple potential POI ( different enough not to be considered duplicates) in a level17 cell as these are general in the heart of towns cities. They are hugely outnumbered by the number of cells with potential for 1.
I know the oft quoted reason is to prevent manipulation and this is more plausible, but in realistic terms it doesn’t work at all. But fundamentally I think they just like to keep things “secret”.
@Elijustrying-ING Publishing density details for each game essentially commits Niantic to those rules. That doesn't mean they can never change them but changing published rules requires more process and communication than leaving the rules unwritten.
Having said that, Niantic could improve lots of things simply by using clearer, more descriptive, and more precise language. Using Wayspot instead of Portal or PokeStop is a change that would be both trivial and impactful, as would making it clearer in the email they send that not all Wayspots will appear in all games. I know the text is there now but based on the number of "Where's my stop?" questions here and on other forums it's not effective. Just changing these two things would be a trivial engineering effort and would improve the experience significantly, and it well and truly boggles my mind that they haven't done it. It's like they don't care about the customer experience...
A year ago Danbocat was open to changing the template. However, it did not happen.
Guess we need to wait for their replacement.
@Hosette-ING there is that.
communication is not a Niantic strong point 🤔🙄
If would even help if they said there were spacing rules……
We select wayspots from lightship based on a set of rules to allow new points to be spread out. They could even say it’s based on a set algorithm (which may change) to make it clear that it’s not a human decision. And then the part about this does mean that new approved points from lightship will not always be accepted.
Let me say it this way: If they wanted to, they would have done something about this mess. They havent.
That is not correct; I live in a town with 750people so yes rural. Prioritizing worked in the beginning of Wayfarer for about 10 POI, after that all (about 14) get stuck in voting or queue - so no it is not bias if you have to wait for 2+ years for a poi to get approved and see urban/city players complain they have to wait for 2 months or so. And yes I understand how cells work etc, this is why I can only nominate max 24 POI in my town and not more. And if you would wonder there are some 4*/5* with it or do you think a WWII bunker along a hikingroute is not a great POI? And no - upgrades do not work because of BS-reviewers (I know it is BS but all appeals got approved). So the fastest way now is to upgrade, POI is rejected and wait for the appeal - does that sounds normal?
You are in a S2-Cell that shares a big city or more than 1 big urban area. Problem is that this cell already has many wayspots. Your area then gets shelved, because, it already has enough wayspots. But it hasnt.
I live 2 L9 cells away from a very dense area. I wait anywhere from 6 - 18 months to get natural approvals. When I upgrade, I run the risk that idiots will reject because they don't know what a "bocce court" is (for example).
Last spring I drove 2 hours away to a truly rural area and submitted 40 things. 31-32 of them were approved within 3 weeks. The others were rejected due to either bad reviewers or me nominating things I knew were iffy but I just took the shot while I was there.
So, I don't believe your explanation of how rural works when I've tested the difference. 3 weeks versus an average of 1 year is huge. The only cities that have a decent turn around time are those that have a significant surrounding area of water like an ocean. But if you're in a landlocked area, and near a POI dense area, your wait time is HOSED.