Street art : Stencil ?

I need some clarification about street art. A player made a "street art" with spray and a stencil in the street around his house. Now it is a portal.

Is this eligible ? Report or not ?

Comments

  • MelodyS88Chi-PGOMelodyS88Chi-PGO Posts: 627 ✭✭✭✭✭

    On the street itself? Did he have permission (you could check with the local authorities) or is it temporary and going to be removed because it is unauthorized vandalism?

  • AScarletSabre-PGOAScarletSabre-PGO Posts: 754 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It sounds like somebody put in a lot of effort to get a Wayspot at their house. Street art isn't necessarily ineligible. This does sound like it could be abusive. Without further information or photographs it's hard to say for certain one way or another.

  • leoooonie-INGleoooonie-ING Posts: 5 ✭✭

    Not just one, he did it with 4 or 5 wayspots in the same street.

    If you want an example, this is the last one


  • AScarletSabre-PGOAScarletSabre-PGO Posts: 754 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It's hard to tell how big that is. But if it is just small stencil and this individual did not have permission from the land owner or relevant local authorities, then I have to say that Niantic does not want to be seen to be encouraging graffiti or vandalism and therefore this would be classed as abusive. I do like the artwork somewhat, but again, it seems to have been put there for the purposes of getting Wayspots.

  • leoooonie-INGleoooonie-ING Posts: 5 ✭✭

    For me street art must have something to tell. Here it's just small nice graffitis for a cluster of waystop at home (he respects the cell rules to optimize the number of Pokestop).

    I understand what you mean. The fact that he did it 4 times just to have his 4 wayspots at home it's for me the biggest problem.

  • Darkai-PGODarkai-PGO Posts: 22 ✭✭

    Let's remove your personal acquaintance with this person out of the picture and analyze things in an objective manner.

    As far as I know, just about every graffiti made by Banksy, world's most famous graffiti artist, has become a wayspot. The vast majority of those was done without approval. Some were approved after the fact and some were just left there. Nevertheless, it's works of art, that look like stencils for the most part, and they are valid.

    Now with that in mind, I'd like to point out the image you've uploaded is not a graffiti tag, a silly pointless stencil or just some sprayed on writing/nonsense image. It's genuinely more of a work of art with a deeper message than most things that get approved around me as artistic. If you had no prior knowledge of this player, you would likely approve this pokestop. I would say it absolutely classifies as work of art and should not be a problem.

    As for the "vandalism" angle - I can assure you 90% of the pokestops around me, you and everyone else, were done without approval. Yet if they are artistic and weren't removed by the authorities, they remain as wayspots. As for this one, if the authorities deem it vandalism and remove it, you would be able to report it and have it removed as a non-existing wayspot.

    I get you are troubled by the player's intentions, but judging things from an objective manner, we would either have to be okay with this... or remove the vast majority of graffiti art wayspots.

  • leoooonie-INGleoooonie-ING Posts: 5 ✭✭

    I don't have personal things against this player. But the fact that he makes tag in the wall of someone it's the main problem. If I follow you, if I make a "street art" like this in the wall of your house four or five time just to have my little cluster at home that's fine ? I don't think that Niantic want to encourage vandalism.

    The fact that he has to do like 20 propositions to have this pokestop shows that there is a problem. We create wayspot, in my mind we don't have to tag on the wall of someone who didn't ask anything for our own business.

  • CipherBlakk-PGOCipherBlakk-PGO Posts: 309 ✭✭✭✭

    For the specific example shown, it seems to be pretty tiny. There's a keyhole right next to it. At first glance, I lean toward rejection outright. Ultimately, it would depend on where it was placed and how big it is, and whether the area is a POI desert (in which case I tend to be more lenient). If it's on PRP, it's a nonstarter. If it's on an electrical box... maybe?

    It's not very artistic as it is. It's slightly better than bad free-handed things I've seen. I'd be more inclined to call it valid if it covered the object vs some isolated little graphic. So that comes down to personal taste and how well it meets the other criteria. Ultimately, even if it's eligible, it's still up to reviewers to tailor what they want to see in POIs.

    Regardless, the entire point of wayfarer is to benefit yourself and the community. So the fact that he's creating something nearby isn't much different from trolling your own neighborhood for eligible things already there. You're still benefiting yourself, but it's not like that's unusual or wrong. I get the annoyance. I also get the motivation behind needing to create something just to play reasonably. Other than eligibility, I try to focus on quality, permanence, whether the rest of the neighborhood is also benefiting, and whether all of these are reachable from one house or he has to get out and walk.

    Ultimately, is he creating an unfair advantage just for himself? Is it worth spinning wheels to remove these or are they harmless where they are? I don't think you're going to get a perfect answer because people are going to have different opinions on different days.

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