Live in Wayfarer 3.1 is a new set of acceptance criteria! Please browse the information in this category with caution as it is in reference to the previous review guidelines. To learn more about the new criteria, see here: https://niantic.helpshift.com/a/wayfarer/
Answers
Travel guides are a curated set of restaurants, accommodations, and other local attractions and provides information, advice, or tips about each. TripAdviser, on the other hand, lists every restaurant, accommodations, and all attractions in an area and provide no such advice or tips. There is no curation at all. It is because of the lack of curation that makes TripAdviser a directory instead of a travel guide.
EDIT: Clean up language usage and make things more clear.
It took me a while to find your post. I'm not a fan of how it gets pointed to the top rather than reading in chronological order.
Your analyses reads sound. It is up to Niantic to offer better clarifications and I hope that gets cleared up, soon, all the next wave of debates can occur.
Since your post is now flagged as answered, it seems the discussion does not need to continued with one person who sees vastly differently.
I accept that this is your opinion. Thanks for sharing it. But I felt like the guidance was not as clear as you seem to think it is. That's is why I asked the question and opened a discussion.
TripAdvisor as a whole seems too general to me to be called a travel guide. The general pages on TripAdvisor are autogenerated and can be quite dated. They are more of a ratings site than an actual travel guide. The Travel Guides (specific articles not ratings pages) available on TripAdvisor are fine as a resource. They have been thoughtfully prepared to determined high-quality spots to visit when you go to a location.
Google is definitely not a travel guide. Google offers some travel guides, but google in general is not a travel guide.
I do worry about whether a travel guide is 'pay to feature' or genuine reviews. The former doesn't really help reviewers fairly judge how much a business is a true 'hotspot'.
It does? Wow, I've been a high ranked Local Guide for years and never realized that!
Unless you mean that "algorithmically generated list of categorized POI based on search history and current map view" to be synonymous with "travel guide"...
They do have some featured travel guides. Here is one for St. George, Utah https://www.google.com/travel/guide?dest_src=yts&tcfs=EgsKCS9tLzAxMGg0ag&dest_mid=%2Fm%2F010h4j&ved=2ahUKEwjVi56Aw9ToAhUB41sKHfmLA8gQm_ECegQIARAy&hl=en&gl=us#dest_mid=/m/010h4j&dest_src=yts&tcfs=EiUKCS9tLzAxMGg0ahoYCgoyMDIwLTA0LTIyEgoyMDIwLTA0LTI2
@JSteve0-ING I've seen those before, but I haven't been able to confirm that they are curated by an actual human. All the documentation I've ever seen indicates that those guides are computer generated based on factors like number of visits, user ratings, and text from third party sites.
Jumping in on this. If that is what TripAdvisor confirms is as a restaurant than yes because they meet the requirements of a Travel Guide. Reasoning is because it is a location for tourist to visit when going to your city. That is the point of having the travel guide requirement. To help confirm what is a valid submission versus a portal at someones home.
It is the responsibility of the submitter to provide information that can confirm a location exists. If reviews in a travel guide such as TripAdvisor is what someone provides. That is sufficient information to meet the requirement of being in a travel guide. It is not the reviewers choice to question TripAdvisor. This is not owned by TripAdvisor. We are to follow guidance and guidance says we must prove that it exists. Well we are if TripAdvisor already has other reviews from other people that the location exists. If Satellite view, street view, facebook, google maps, and other things all say it is a location, what are you questioning then?
@grsmhiker-ING I can understand where you are coming from. There are elements that appear to me to be written by a google employee, not just autogenerated. I personally would rank this on the lower end of travel guides. There are only a handful of featured locations and they are likely to be the ones featured in other travel guides.
What I am saying is that there isn't much depth and it is not going to reveal the value of a local hotspot, but it is a travel guide. If someone were to mention Snow Canyon State Park as a valid wayspot near St. George and justify it because it was featured in the Google Travel Guide, I would regard it as extra information, because I would be approving the park because it is a park, not because it was in the Google Travel Guide. But for someone not familiar with the area, it would be some nice background.
You are using circular reasoning here. And yes, I was referring to those Google travel guides... everything I've ever seen points to them being little more than an automatically generated list of places in a geographic area, with computer generated links and information borrowed heavily from third party sources.
All travel guides pull information from third party sources. That doesn't mean you can't confirm the location exists because they are listed in the travel guide. You are using linear reasoning. You expect I can go here and get an answer if it exists. Well you can go to TripAdvisor and confirm this location exists because it is already in TripAdvisor.
Wow, so based on your logic both my local FAST FOOD Chick-Fil-A and Domino's Pizza are eligible to be waypoints because they are on Trip Advisor's list. So your saying a location could have 1* from people and still be eligible because a town only has 8 restaurants? It literally could be the worst food ever and because Trip Advisor Lists it, its okay?
Seriously?
Actually your response is why they all are eligible.
"Still be eligible because a town only has 8 restaurants"
8 Restaurants and if you don't have duplicates of the same restaurant, then they all are eligible yes. That is what guidance for having travel guides included does for everyone. People asked for guidance and it was decided by Niantic on what they allow.
Wouldn't that also make the phone book into a travel guide?
As I understand, the purpose of suggesting people use a travel guide to justify their submissions is to determine if the pub, restaurant, business or theater has cultural significance or a is a popular tourist destination, not to verify that they exist at the location.
Yep based on @Gabriel0322-PGO knowledge of travel guides I do believe the Phone Book would be a travel guide. It lists the businesses and confirms they exist.
(PLEASE DEAR GOD NO ONE TAKE THIS SERIOUSLY)
Nope because Niantic doesn't say that. They say the eatery must be in a travel guide. Well TripAdvisor is a travel guide. Phonebook is not a travel guide. Could reviewers use a phonebook to confirm if a eatery exists, yes, but most people do not have current phonebooks of every city in the homes. TripAdvisor is an easily accessible app on all of our phones to confirm locations exists.
Phone books are distributed annually in my area and are free of charge, unlike many online travel guides that are behind a paywall and have the otherwise prerequisite of having internet/mobile access to it. Thank you for your sincere help. I will use the phone book to confirm location, per guidance. It is the way.
Actually the issue is location exists. Culture significance of a restaurant is a place the community can socially gather at, all restaurants already do that. You are expecting more out of cultural significance than it really requires. We are not making a travel guide with Wayfarer. We are approving wayspots not reviewing restaurants like we are Travel Experts. Yes restaurants people can gather at and socialize that is culture. Niantic deems restaurants acceptable as a place to have wayspots. The only requirement that people need to provide is they exist in a travel guide. Sharing a link for TripAdvisor that it exists is valid supporting information.
Not to mention phone books are free of the mafia-style tactics that many online review sites use. They won't make negative review prominent if you don't pay, or let someone make multiple accounts to hype up their own business. It's a very trustworthy source. And it's updated every year unlike some online reviews that are YEARS old and very out of date.
Guys, don't thank me. Please thank @Gabriel0322-PGO for his kind insights. On this topic.
Because of him I am able to go submit my Chick-Fil-A and Domino's Pizza.
Disagree. Phonebooks are still out of date and most people who have a phonebook is from years back if they even have it.
Don't forget the insight previously provided by @Dice976jr-ING that got us here.
Knowing all I must do is confirm location from a phone book will surely speed my reviewing up. There is a laundromat down the road from me with half a page color advertisement in the phone book, I will see if that qualifies.
Make sure to include a picture of the full page color ad in the phone book in your submission statement and directly link to @Dice976jr-ING @Gabriel0322-PGO's confirmation posts for eligibility.
Phone books are wonderful, delivered free yearly to my front door!