Is reporting abuse/correcting abusively misplaced POIs really useful?
TL;DR Cell optimization is still enabling massive POI clusters
I was currently thinking about this when I noticed something:
I have edited a few misplaced locations. While I did this, some s2 cells lvl 17 got changed. What happened with a PokeStop that switched the cell into an occupied one? Here is what happened:
First of all: Every cell had one PokeStop like intended
no picture
When moving one of those POIs into an occupied one the following happened:
The stop disappeared, a new POI appeared in the same cell
One day later:
The PokeStop that disappeared now appeared again, even though the cell was occupied
Now, let's pretend the same happens when you report an abusive cell optimization as I did here:
https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=50.944361,7.100439&z=17&pll=50.944361,7.100439
Old path/53 occupied lvl 17 s2 cells:
The new path, 72 location edits:
I have turned on the "POI in a cell counter" for this picture to show how many POIs are in such a small area.
Now, let's pretend every of this gigantic educational trail with 100+ signs (around 75 are POIs) is now a PokeStop. Like this, abusive clusters are still possible. We saw a lot of location edit abuse in the past, but this trail is put there by Niantic. And every sign is located correctly.
Now think about abusers also submitting the other signs on the wrong locations so they will also get corrected by Niantic later on. Like this, a new way of abuse is born. Exactly this is what's also happening in one of the fake hotspots I have already removed/edited over 120 POIs.
Slowly, a growing cluster is building up. I sadly never saw the educational trail or this example live:
https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=54.164902,9.862787&z=17&pll=54.164902,9.862787
The marked POI is for sure not there. It will probably be somewhere inside the cell with the 5 POIs.
This tactic is making use of people like me trying to correct mislocated/cell-optimized POIs.
Here is my review map from this area:
Since they are "likely to exist somewhere there", you need to actually vote positive for them or get f****d by the system with rating drops.
Here is a typical supplemental picture of those nominations:
Here the Intel with the old marked locations of the POIs before the location edit
Like you can see, the next two POIs are in the "submission cells" waiting for a player to edit them into the blue cells where they actually are and the cluster grows.
All of this leads to a boost because of abuse.
There was/is also a possibility to get back PokeStops that disappeared earlier because of cell switches. But I WILL NEVER TALK ABOUT THIS HERE!!!!
With this, having multiple PokeStops in one cell was easy.
In total, we need another change to the system. I was thinking a lot about this. How to create a system that treats correct edits well but doesn't support abuse? Because losing PokeStops would not help to create an excellent portal network. This exercise had Niantic a few times before. In the end, the abuse is still possible and the players actually improving the network are suffering from it. Now, it's time to inspire Niantic a bit. And for this, I am hoping for a constructive discussion here.
Thanks for reading, please share your opinion in the comments!
Comments
Abuse reports should be handled by humans that look at the corrected locations and are able to spot that something wrong is going on.
Do we know if it's being handled by Niantic employees or via automated systems?
I've been wondering how come incorrectly placed wayspots I've reported in the past just became big, convenient (if more correctly placed) clusters after Niantic "handled" them.
There is definately a human reviewing reports, at least here. The Ingame report reviews might actually get processed by a bot.
I have just recently recieved a picture from the second example in PGO:
Compared with cells:
(All the ING markers are PokeStops)
The map I used in the original post:
At the end, the location edit reports are all supporting the abusers and not block them. And that sucks. I already recieved more location edits from there. And I am slowly not willing to give them even more clusters.
We have taken another look at the reported locations. Based on our research, the Wayspots are at the correct locations and do not require any adjustments at this time.
yes, because I edited them to the correct location. And that's the problem. Slowly, clusters are getting created, and with old tricks, you could reactivate the PokeStop. Those Wayspots were only examples.
I'm kind of confused as to what this post is about, if I had to guess, are you saying that editing a pokestop so that it goes into.an already occupied cell should still stay in game like.it used to, rather than lose polestop status. Im not against that if so, but I know why it shouldn't happen
The example is: Abusers submit Waystops in wrong places and unoccupied cells. Then someone like me reports it, and the POIs got edited. Normally, they should disappear, but with bug-using, you could re-activate such PokeStops. This will lead to clusters, even though they should get blocked by the anti-abuse system.
Ah ok, I didnt realise some could come back in after being moved
Way to miss the point 🤡
So are you saying the clusters made by that way "working as intended"?
Then anyone should better not to report clusters again. And I bet those clusters that were reported here, including Zaragoza, are back online.