Wayfarer Ambassador Program - Discussion

NianticTintino-INGNianticTintino-ING Posts: 1,103 admin
edited June 2022 in General Discussion

Hello Explorers, 

I’m incredibly excited to announce that we will be launching our very own Wayfarer Ambassador program! From Day 1, I’ve been looking forward to getting this up and running and now it’s here! Check out more details below:

What is it? 

The Community Ambassadors program is for a group of Wayfarer Explorers who believe in Niantic Wayfarer and are active participants in the official Wayfarer Community. They’re passionate about exploration, excited to engage with other Explorers, and share Explorer best practices (nominations, reviewing, edits, etc). The Community Ambassadors believe in the Wayfarer Community’s Mission and Vision by collaborating with the Community Manager and lifting the voice of the community. All Wayfarer Ambassadors embody the following in their participation:

  • Driven by Wayfarer’s Mission
  • Lead by Example
  • Respectful Towards Community Members
  • Knowledgeable about Wayfarer
  • Curiosity for Exploration  

Who is eligible to be a Wayfarer Ambassador?

Any Explorer (18 years or older) that has demonstrated a strong commitment to Wayfarer, the Wayfarer Community, or the Niantic Mission and has a strong understanding of our product. Lastly, applicants must have a Wayfarer rating of at least Good.

What’s the time commitment?

Being a Wayfarer Ambassador is completely voluntary. While there are no set time commitments, actively participating and engaging with other Ambassadors to provide feedback to the Wayfarer team is how you can make a real impact on the Community’s Wayfarer experience. Participation can look differently from week to week. Active participation can look like joining group meetings, providing insights from the community, helping to clarify community concerns, etc. 

Term Length

If selected to be an Ambassador, your term will extend for the calendar year for which you were selected. Regardless of when you start, there will be a new cohort of Ambassadors at the beginning of the new calendar year. This is meant to maintain a healthy amount of diversity and creativity. 

Selection Criteria

The Ambassadors are chosen for their diverse representation of the Explorer Community. Explorer levels within Niantic products have limited impact on the selection process. Selection criteria does not require Explorers to be considered community leaders, although we recognize that some may be viewed as such already. 

Explorers will be selected to become Ambassadors primarily based on their geographic location, knowledge of Wayfarer (both experts and novices), historical Wayfarer Community engagement, Niantic’s Mission, and their responses to the application questions. The ability to read, write, and communicate verbally in English is a requirement as the key updates and feedback requests will be in English.

Why would I want to become a Wayfarer Ambassador?

Becoming a Wayfarer Ambassador comes with its perks! You’ll have the opportunity to 

  • Pilot some of our upcoming features before anyone else
  • Provide feedback on features, updates, and events to ensure they’re loved by Explorers
  • Aid in making our community safe, welcoming, and FUN
  • Community Voice - share your ideas and that of the community with the Wayfarer Team
  • And of course, SWAG! 

Ambassadors Relationship with Niantic 

To participate in the Ambassador program, Explorers will have to agree to and sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Violating the NDA may result in immediate removal from the program, legal action against the person, and the termination of the person’s Wayfarer and game accounts.

What are the limitations of an Ambassador?

Ambassadors are Explorer community members who volunteer to represent and advocate for other Explorers for the purpose of enhancing the overall Explorer experience. They are not Niantic employees and do not represent Niantic. They do not have access to Niantic systems, including personally identifiable information. They are not authorized to make any decisions related to Niantic or its games, including but not limited to help center tickets, nominations, appeals, or account bans.

Where and When can I apply?

Applications are open NOW and will remain open until the end of next week (1/12/2022 - 1/21/22). Please make sure that if you are interested, you submit your application before the end of the day (11:59pm PST) on 1/21/22. Application can be found HERE

Check out the application for more information and feel free to ask questions below!

Original post HERE!

Post edited by NianticTintino-ING on
Tagged:
«13456710

Comments

  • Gendgi-PGOGendgi-PGO Posts: 3,535 Ambassador

    I'm glad to see this has progressed! Thanks for sharing, @NianticTintino!

  • GearGlider-INGGearGlider-ING Posts: 1,335 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Oh man we've been waiting for this. Very excited to see what the program brings!

  • DactarJarvis-INGDactarJarvis-ING Posts: 2 ✭✭

    I think this is a good way to encourage agents who lose their desire to play every day, having people close to them to help them understand the game better.

  • auntergoaf-PGOauntergoaf-PGO Posts: 159 ✭✭✭✭

    I can't apply for the program because I don't have any English skills, but I hope that Wayfarer will become even better with passionate ambassadors.

  • FeThorn-INGFeThorn-ING Posts: 71 ✭✭✭

    Interesting...Hope this works well!

    Out of curiosity though, why the NDA's? That seems a bit extreme for people that won't be employees or have any real decision making ability. Wanting to keep upcoming features a surprise is all well and good, but...those sorts of ramifications just strike me as overkill for a volunteer program.

  • Selner-INGSelner-ING Posts: 14 ✭✭

    I'm going to guess the NDA is for the "pilot features" part, which sounds kind of like beta testing.

    I had to sign one for a volunteer position with another game several years ago.

    I plan on applying, it sounds interesting.

  • tp235-INGtp235-ING Posts: 1,383 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think a lot of it will be confidentiality for new features.

    @NianticTintino

    I know this is too much to ask, but does this mean that if you are found to be cheating in any way in the game, you will be disqualified from being an ambassador as well?

    I hate it, of course, and I'm sure none of the Wayfinders here do, but I'd like to know what Niantic does when it comes to multi-accounting, spoofing, false wayspot nominations, and other forms of cheating.

  • Kellerrys-INGKellerrys-ING Posts: 696 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The Community Ambassadors believe in the Wayfarer Community’s Mission and Vision

    @NianticTintino Could you open this a bit? Mission is somewhat clear, but what and more importantly whose vision I'm supposed to believe in?

  • DragoniteDare-PGODragoniteDare-PGO Posts: 26 ✭✭

    Sounds like an exciting initiative. Let's work together to make Wayfarer brighter and more inclusive!

  • Rodensteiner-PGORodensteiner-PGO Posts: 1,705 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thank you @NianticTintino and welcome back into office. Sadly the jobdescription is a bit vague.

  • MalarjusVoynich-INGMalarjusVoynich-ING Posts: 116 ✭✭✭

    This is really exciting! I'm into reviewing and submitting since Wayfarer launch and this sounds so stimulating!

  • SiIverLyra-PGOSiIverLyra-PGO Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Will be interesting to see where that goes. The program's mission is a bit vague, but on the positive side, it means there are a lot of opportunities and directions where it could go. Hopefully it doesn't go to waste.

  • Nadiwereb-PGONadiwereb-PGO Posts: 1,119 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thus sounds very exciting indeed. Unfortunately, I'll be way too tied up in other projects until June/July to be able to actively participate and because of the yearly rotation, I'll probably wait a year to try and make a full year out of it.

  • patsufredo-PGOpatsufredo-PGO Posts: 4,214 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Too bad I'm not really interested to this, and if I would, I still won't meeting criteria.

    Besides, a certain people might still stalking to myself until now.

  • Cdk296-PGOCdk296-PGO Posts: 170 ✭✭✭

    Will ambassadors have a special hat in Pokemon go?

  • Cdk296-PGOCdk296-PGO Posts: 170 ✭✭✭

    I just sent my application as I am probably the only one knowing wayfarer rules and speaking English in my city. Well as far as I know, I would be happy to meet an other big reviewer/submitter here, but I would have already noticed his/her activities.


    But I really hope there is a special hat for the ambassador.

  • CheeryDog-PGOCheeryDog-PGO Posts: 23 ✭✭

    I'm going to go with the fact I'm not really sure how to answer the questions means I'm not suited for this task.

    Or I just haven't been active enough here to actually have meaningful contributions.

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    There's always room to start and pave one's own path to more future contributions!

    The fact that Tintino has mentioned "SWAG!" in capitals has me a bit eager. I do wonder how many ambassadors would be available for each country/region/continent maybe? Maybe we'll have a representative in Africa and India? A couple in Japan, for sure. We won't know until it starts.

    Just as a mirror reference, this is the job description for the XM Ambassadors (the Ingress equivalent of these Wayfarer ambassadors):

    To be fair, I just wanna meet other Wayfinders and travel the world again! So often Wayfarer is a lonely game, reviewing one's night away (or trying to) and feeling the sole frustration all by myself. I wanna see challenges and review contests! Putting faces to usernames and kind of crushing on other Wayfinders (bahaha half-kidding).

    Watching a real Wayfinder talk about Wayfarer is substantially better than generating an occasional, non-engaging, possibly infuriating resource. I'd like Wayfarer to be more... human. Weird, right?

  • PkmnTrainerJ-INGPkmnTrainerJ-ING Posts: 5,119 Ambassador

    The fact that Tintino has mentioned "SWAG!" in capitals has me a bit eager.

    This is where you find out SWAG is the Wayfarer version of CORE.

    Submissions - SWAG users get double submissions in each game they play

    Wayfarer Premium - SWAG users can see Streetview on their nominations, and update photos before the nomination goes In Voting, and are able to Upgrade one Appeal a month.

    Activity - SWAG users are able to see their voting history easily within Wayfarer, along with any comments provided by reviewers on their nominations

    Game Chat - SWAG users are able to access a special Niantic Chat channel to share their ideas across the whole scope of games that use Wayfarer directly with Niantic staff.

    Only $4.99 a month or equivalent

    (Please note, there are much better ideas that someone can come up with)

  • PkmnTrainerJ-INGPkmnTrainerJ-ING Posts: 5,119 Ambassador

    The fact that Tintino has mentioned "SWAG!" in capitals has me a bit eager.

    This is where you find out SWAG is the Wayfarer version of CORE.

    Submissions - SWAG users get double submissions in each game they play

    Wayfarer Premium - SWAG users can see Streetview on their nominations, and update photos before the nomination goes In Voting, and are able to Upgrade one Appeal a month.

    Activity - SWAG users are able to see their voting history easily within Wayfarer, along with any comments provided by reviewers on their nominations

    Game Chat - SWAG users are able to access a special Niantic Chat channel to share their ideas across the whole scope of games that use Wayfarer directly with Niantic staff.

    Only $4.99 a month or equivalent

    (Please note, there are much better ideas that someone can come up with)

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 1,725 ✭✭✭✭✭

    What does SWAG even mean anyway?

    Super Wayfarer Access Grant?

    For the most part, the Wayfarer Ambassadors will probably have a very equal with really not much else other than everyone else. Wayfarer Premium is supplemented by several plug-ins and the activity and game chat seems pretty mild anyway. The fact that the program invites people to apply so that they can PAY Niantic for such a privilege... woah-ah.

    People are paid to conduct Niantic reviews to varying degrees of success, reject many of our invalid wayspot requests (the initial report, not the appeal that comes after... although the first instance reporting has been more and more effective lately in my experience) and do many fun Niantic things like watch over the Wayfarer reporting chat like hawks and watch the forums gape for air.

    A subscription for more nominations probably would just mean I would drag one of my friends to a place where I want to submit things and force them to do the nomination there and then.

  • RandomExploit-INGRandomExploit-ING Posts: 948 ✭✭✭✭✭

    My only concern is that the people who usually get the most involved and spend more time in wayfarer forums are not necessarily the best people to be the voice of wayfarer users.

    At the same time, they are likely to be chosen by Niantic because of activity and free time.

    I get the feeling a lot of people will be chosen because they never give constructive criticism because it's seen as negative feedback.

    Ill never be chosen as in likely to say things like "what's the point of ambassadors for wayfarer when there's so much stuff niantic have broken and still not fixed after 6 months such as accepted pictures not appearing in games" and all the stupid rejections which stop people submitting anymore or bothering to do wayfarer voting themselves ;)

  • iFrankmans-INGiFrankmans-ING Posts: 268 Ambassador

    Let's hope they pick a nice mix. Plenty of people are less active on here, but more so in local (country-wide) chats that existed way before this forum was up. And those people are important also as they are a way to reach the players that do not come to the forum for various reasons such as language for example.

  • PkmnTrainerJ-INGPkmnTrainerJ-ING Posts: 5,119 Ambassador

    I think they’ll have to be careful to balance folks with ING & PGO tags otherwise one side will complain for sure.

  • iFrankmans-INGiFrankmans-ING Posts: 268 Ambassador

    I log in with my ingress account but I also have a pokemon account, so what do you do then?

  • PkmnTrainerJ-INGPkmnTrainerJ-ING Posts: 5,119 Ambassador

    I do as well, but I only use my ING one here. The survey did ask what Niantic games you play, so they would need a mix of those who play all, those who play a few and those who just play one.

    Outside of this, I’m not sure what purpose the tags at the end serve. Usually it only causes division.

    It’s not something that you see in the Ingress forums, highlighting which team a person is on, for example.

Sign In or Register to comment.