Are regular cell phone towers elegible now?
Because there's nothing mencioning them on the guides, and I've noticed people are starting to approve them in significant numbers.
Best Answers
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TheFarix-PGO Posts: 5,063 ✭✭✭✭✭
No, they are not eligible. But this is taking place in Brazil, so I'm not that surprised to see that they think Niantic's guidelines on what is and is not eligible doesn't apply to them. But I will ping @NianticCasey-ING in case they want to investigate the situation.
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Dazzz123456-PGO Posts: 301 ✭✭✭
Old guidelines said something along the lines of niantic often support industry that are a nod to communications I cant remember what it is but there used to be something along those lines. Maybe that is the criteria they are hoping to meet
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Theisman-ING Posts: 1,001 ✭✭✭✭✭
What @Dazzz12345-ING is referencing was in the old OPR guidelines but it was about post office's.
Easy to see why they thought it rang a bell as the new guidelines have taken the bit gor poat offices out, moved them to the clarification section, and replaced it with.
"In addition to using the above acceptance criteria, we often accept nominations that are a special nod to industries and networks that connect people around the world, just as products built using Wayfarer connect Wayfinders around the world"
I suppose it could be attempted to be argued that a mobile phone tower is a network that connects people, but im pretty sure thats not what Niantic meant when they wrote that, and I certainly wouldn't accept one as a POI
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tehstone-ING Posts: 1,154 Ambassador
I think Post Offices benefit from an in-person social aspect that cell and radio towers do not. And post offices aren't explicitly listed on that page anymore either. The page lists 4 example under "includes" so presumably it's not meant to be an exclusive list but these towers don't seem to be in the same spirit as the examples listed to me.
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NianticCasey-ING Posts: 538 admin
Hi folks,
Great question and good discussion here. Jumping in with my opinion, I can see why people might think that they're eligible (in line with the water tower and/or post office discussion) however these are not unique or infrequent enough in my opinion to be easily distinguishable from one another and are unlikely to be unique in construction or have some sort of artwork associated with them, like some painted electrical boxes do.
Additionally, I've seen some in my local area with access restrictions and/or safety measures in place.
In short, no I don't think these are good candidates.
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Sugarstarzkill-PGO Posts: 437 ✭✭✭✭✭
Yep, the featured wayspots are still broken. This is pretty well known. Just because local reviewers accept certain things don't mean they are eligible. Niantic even specifically said not to use these as educational/as things that are eligible. They are working on fixing this issue and replacing it with something useful, hopefully.
Answers
No, they are not eligible. But this is taking place in Brazil, so I'm not that surprised to see that they think Niantic's guidelines on what is and is not eligible doesn't apply to them. But I will ping @NianticCasey-ING in case they want to investigate the situation.
No they aren't. Also scraping and bitting is against tos.
No, looks like it may be mass manipulation if those are getting through.
Old guidelines said something along the lines of niantic often support industry that are a nod to communications I cant remember what it is but there used to be something along those lines. Maybe that is the criteria they are hoping to meet
Really? Can you find any reference to that?
I'm more aligned that this is the case of just bad nominators (nominating as many times as required), bad reviewers (let's approve anything or let's approve that and I'll be able to nominate a tower myself) and coordination to approve bad wayspots.
What @Dazzz12345-ING is referencing was in the old OPR guidelines but it was about post office's.
Easy to see why they thought it rang a bell as the new guidelines have taken the bit gor poat offices out, moved them to the clarification section, and replaced it with.
"In addition to using the above acceptance criteria, we often accept nominations that are a special nod to industries and networks that connect people around the world, just as products built using Wayfarer connect Wayfinders around the world"
I suppose it could be attempted to be argued that a mobile phone tower is a network that connects people, but im pretty sure thats not what Niantic meant when they wrote that, and I certainly wouldn't accept one as a POI
That's exactly what they are putting in the support texts. Because allows us to communicate through our cell phones. Others say it's notable monument, etc.
What is "scraping and bitting"?
That's the statement. Cheers for finding it.
I mean I maybe wrong but just reading that it could easily be seen as they could be accepted. They do connect wayfarer an with wayfinders.
That's not me saying I'd accept them, to be honest I would want niantic to clarify this.
Question now is what connects wayfarer with wayfinders mean in regards to what niantic are saying?
So roads should also be accepted? They communicate people
If you are communicating with roads then there maybe a problem lol.
All jokes aside I'd like to know what that criteria means.
I developed for myself the following criterion: if you can approach the portal to put your palm on it, then it is a suitable candidate.
As a rule, mobile communication towers are placed on a leased territory, which is fenced (I’m not sure, of course, as it is done in Brazil), which means there is no direct access, which means it's private territory, which means it’s an unsuitable candidate. No palm touch.
It's a nice theory but as niantic have said you dont have to be able to touch it, Waypoints dont have to be accessible. I can think of one near me that is about 40 meters from being able to reach ingame I'm not sure if it's ever been captured by anyone as from its photo it has been taken from behind the fence and I'm guessing placed there so would be impossible to ever interact with.
I think he was trying to say roads connect people (just like the post office text).
There were some clarifications in AMAs that stated you need to be able to access by foot and be able to touch/reach THE REAL LOCATION to be available (with some obvious exceptions like a mural painted on a top of a building, you can't touch it from the ground, but you can touch the building itself). Of couse it doesn't need to be acessible to ALL people ALL the time to be valid.
If I remember rightly Casey has updated this in an answer on here. I will have a look for it looks to be another one of niantics mixed messages.
Well, I find this to be an interesting issue... (what a geek, hey??)
I normally would not think that these towers should be approved, but upon reviewing specifically Niantic's stance on things that "we often accept nominations that are a special nod to industries and networks that connect people around the world", I've started to reconsider.
These are rather generic objects, and should likely qualify as "mass produced", with little to no cultural or historical significance. However, they certainly do connect clients to worldwide communication, and do have a lot of technological significance - we wouldn't even be playing this game without them.
Now, let me describe a post office: front counter with weigh scale and cash register(s) with scanner; display of mail-related items for sale (bubble-lined envelopes, boxes, pens, tape, etc.); standardized posters listing shipping options and prices; back room with shelving for parcels, usually with a double-swing door; side wall of PO boxes; post office clerk with standardized corporate uniform; standardized signage with logo and text. Sound familiar? And rather generic? And yet, these are 100% acceptable.
So... now I'm not so sure about the towers.
And now that I think a bit more on it, should we be able to include UPS and FedEx stores?
I think Post Offices benefit from an in-person social aspect that cell and radio towers do not. And post offices aren't explicitly listed on that page anymore either. The page lists 4 example under "includes" so presumably it's not meant to be an exclusive list but these towers don't seem to be in the same spirit as the examples listed to me.
It would've been great if Niantic does a clarification about this matter.
@NianticCasey-ING maybe?
In my humble opinion, I don't think cell towers fit any criteria. Unless they have some remarkable history somehow or something really unique.
For fed ex and UPS- I could swear I read something officially about them being ineligible. My take on it is that fed ex/ups are private businesses. US Post Offices are government entities. That's the dividing line for me.
Hi folks,
Great question and good discussion here. Jumping in with my opinion, I can see why people might think that they're eligible (in line with the water tower and/or post office discussion) however these are not unique or infrequent enough in my opinion to be easily distinguishable from one another and are unlikely to be unique in construction or have some sort of artwork associated with them, like some painted electrical boxes do.
Additionally, I've seen some in my local area with access restrictions and/or safety measures in place.
In short, no I don't think these are good candidates.
Would these kind of cellular towers fall under the same opinion. @NianticCasey-ING
While decorated, it is not artistic. Therefore it does not meet criteria.
Thanks Casey....I mean TheFarix, so u saying its not artistic.....
I wonder this is likely not a great example but the Sistine Chapel is both decorative and artistic....
I'm not trying to be funny at all if it's not acceptable it's not ,if it is great...
Do we now go around reporting all the communitation/cellular towers as invalid.....
@TheFarix-PGO was just trying to be helpful. Although Casey might come back and comment again, they truly don't have time to answer every time someone pings them.
That still doesn't look eligible. I've seem many towers camouflaged as trees. That's really what it is- camoflauge. So they aren't so ugly to look at and stick out like a sore thumb. There's nothing really remarkable or interesting about them. It's a part of normal infrastructure. If you somehow find a cell tower with a mural on it, then that might pass, but that's unlikely.
They shouldn't have been approved in the first place, and they could get removed if they fall under any of the removal criteria. They could fall under the "blocking emergency services" type of thing. I know these aren't for emergency services but I don't know any place that wants people hanging out around cell towers. A lot of them are also fenced off and not even accessible.
en las pautas decia no torres de comunicaciones, me imagino que incluyen las de aeropuertos y ese tipo que tu mencionas pero sabe, cuales sean los planes de niantic , aca en mi zona hay una wayspot dentro de un aeropuerto
In the guidelines it said no communication towers, I imagine that they include those of airports and that type that you mention but know, what are the plans of niantic, here in my area there is a wayspot inside an airport
If you mean general things inside of the airport such as murals or artwork, those are still eligible. Just because they are behind partially restricted access does not make them ineligible. Obviously something on the runway of tarmac would be ineligible, but not in lobbies or terminals.
I agree with @TheFarix-PGO's take on the camouflaged tower. General decorations doesn't always mean art. Casey touched on it briefly in this discussion about decorated utility poles.
That said, I could see some people interpreting those as "art" and I do understand how people have thought they are eligible as a nod to communications & technology.
Signage about projects intended to **** city infrastructure with nature could certainly be eligible.
He was talking about air traffic control towers, those in restricted area are not elegible, and they show the example in the wayfarer test.