The moving of goal posts definitely is starting this experience soured for me.
Pushing back the application deadlines, missing every deadline to announce the selected applicants. Then deciding not to go with the proposed 12 when quite clearly there were plenty of people interested.
I'm still excited but this is a rocky start.
I'm excited for all the Ambassadors and think it's great that Wayforum involvement wasn't required for applicants...but it also seems odd that of the 12 11, hardly any of us have Wayforum experience. That shouldn't be the most important thing, just something that was interesting to me. I would hope their involvement will increase, but starting with only 12 11 it should be expected that a few will simply lose interest and drop out through the year. 12 11 already seemed arbitrarily low, but you'd expect a few more "regulars" to be picked for this pilot program.
I know I'll never be selected for the ambassadors program because of the sheer amount of abuse that I report on the daily.
I can think of several names who have called out abuse on here. None of them were picked. None of us selected (that I can recall) have called out the mass abuse.
I'm excited for all the Ambassadors and think it's great that Wayforum involvement wasn't required for applicants...but it also seems odd that of the 12 11, hardly any of us have Wayforum experience. That shouldn't be the most important thing, just something that was interesting to me. I would hope their involvement will increase, but starting with only 12 11 it should be expected that a few will simply lose interest and drop out through the year. 12 11 already seemed arbitrarily low, but you'd expect a few more "regulars" to be picked for this pilot program.
I think it is especially odd that many of those chosen have little to no experience on the forum, given that this was on of the questions on the application:
Share a link to a discussion in the Wayfarer Community or other Niantic Communities that you have either started or Participated in that best reflects your approach to community engagement:
The application made it seem like they would want the Ambassadors to be dialed in the community, which is a very good thing for very obvious reasons. The results don't seem to match that though. With no disrespect to those who were chosen, as I'm sure they all have good intentions, it does seem that some of the people chosen may not have a long term investment in Wayfarer, and perhaps that's why Niantic struggled to find people who could even check their email.
@NianticTintino I have an idea hear me out... for the 12th Ambassador... you should do a review contest... whoever finds the golden ticket review, becomes the 12th ambassador.
Oh no! You know it’s World Book Day in the UK. For sure some kid’s parent with 40 nominations is now going to find the Golden Ticket from the Charlie & The Chocolate Factory outfit and sub it with the title of “You win!” 😂
The community doesn't seem to know at this point. The ambassadors don't seem to know. I'm not even sure that Niantic knows exactly what they want to do with them. Which raises the questions, why rush to close the application process and why can't we fill that 12th spot if they don't even have a purpose yet!
what i would expect from an Ambassador is being a middlesman between Niantic and the "common" Wayfarer.
The Ambassadors would have duties like talking to people that Niantic filteres out because they submitted **** or other stuff that isnt eligible. Ambassadors also would be helpful in things like checking stuff locally, making internet research in their country.
Also an Ambassador would help players generally that are not good at submitting/reviewing.
NOTHING of that can be done, because Niantic has to keep everything secret and hush hush. They are the only ones that communicate with the Wayfarers.
Also i would have expect that an Ambassadors are the ones that tell Niantic what the community wants. BUT: Niantic never hears us. They hear what their CEO whispers in their ears.
Also another great function would be an ambassador that reviews local Appeals, AGAIN: nada. They wont do that.
Also alot of shenenigans is going on behind closed doors here in germany. Many wayfarers made their own rules, follow their own agenda, misuse things that Niantic wants to keep silent.
An ambassador would be very helpful just like a "Streetworker" here - he knows the scene, he knows whats going on behind closed doors. AGAIN: nada. NIA isnt capable of doing themselves all the needed things to stop fraud, misuse and general misconduct agains other people.
And this group is only for this year, so I think enough time has been spent getting to this stage. Why exactly it has become so protracted is something for the wayfarer team to consider, for next year as it all clearly became too stressful for those that applied.
There were large assumptions made as to how many people would be involved - there nothing said in the original post about numbers
I think there has also been a lack of clarity over the criteria they were looking for.
a reminder of what it said:
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.
So I do think I would have expected a broader geographic spread.
But a balancing factor might have been around getting both experts and novices. It is highly likely that most applying will be very experienced, so perhaps that did constrain some of the choices??? 🤔 Along with communicating in English, which may again have biased the geographic base available?
It probably was a more complicated picture to resolve than expected.
As a matter of principle I think some feedback to those that did apply, so they can be ready to apply next year.
Perhaps the best thing is to let this experimental batch get on with the role, and use what remains of the time to learn from it. I wish them all well and in particular the one from Ukraine.
I think most people were turned off by the fact that they had to lay down bare all their inners to Niantic, so they can check out the applicant. What for? Something unknown.
You wont apply for a PAYED job if you dont know what you would have to do, but you would have to let the company check out the inside of you.
I would have guessed, that at least one German ambassador should have been necessary, since we have very special problems here:
nearly no streetview, and so we have lots of fakes, highest fake density worldwide I guess
we are a picture book example for the language problems: all of our neighbour countries (except Austria) cause lots of trouble because of totally different languages ....
Deep breaths everybody. Before we get through the 2700 different lists of "demands" that we expect ambassadors to do on our ( or just my perhaps) demands list, lets just see:
a) How things go for a month or two and
b) See if any of our Ambassadors are actually allowed to accomplish anything by Niantic. I know a lot of the regulars in here have a lot of things they might wish our Ambassadors to do (back to those 2700 demands on my / our list), but reading the job description my first though was "Well, this is not going to help with the real issues of the Wayfarer POI system". However, I am happy to be proved wrong, so good luck to the 11 team members.
On a more positive note, how about suggesting one positive thing you think our Ambassadors could potentially accomplish or do during their 1 year tenure?
I'd like to see Ambassadors being very active on social media in some of the various Wayfarer groups actually saying things like "This nomination is simply just not eligible, so it's not worth subitting or appealing" etc, and pointing people to this forum for more discussion - something like that.
That in and of itself was controversial, as many people expected it to have significantly more people like the ambassador programs for Ingress have had. Now they can't even manage to fill the 12 they promised.
Niantic has thousands of people doing free labour for Them, maybe they could add more than 11 people to be really helpful.
Theres alot bright Guys and Girls Out there that would be able to make the Broken Plane fly, But without Niantic even be straight and Open to the Community (s2 anyone?) These people will stay in their rooms and Not Play with niantic.
Comments
The moving of goal posts definitely is starting this experience soured for me.
Pushing back the application deadlines, missing every deadline to announce the selected applicants. Then deciding not to go with the proposed 12 when quite clearly there were plenty of people interested.
I'm still excited but this is a rocky start.
I'm excited for all the Ambassadors and think it's great that Wayforum involvement wasn't required for applicants...but it also seems odd that of the
1211, hardly any of us have Wayforum experience. That shouldn't be the most important thing, just something that was interesting to me. I would hope their involvement will increase, but starting with only1211 it should be expected that a few will simply lose interest and drop out through the year.1211 already seemed arbitrarily low, but you'd expect a few more "regulars" to be picked for this pilot program.@NianticTintino An ambassador has spoken! Now will you hear us?
I know I'll never be selected for the ambassadors program because of the sheer amount of abuse that I report on the daily.
I can think of several names who have called out abuse on here. None of them were picked. None of us selected (that I can recall) have called out the mass abuse.
maybe the email ended up in SPAM.
That's very interesting... considering why the call for ambassadors was originally made.
exactly what are Ambassadors doing?
we will see once @PkmnTrainerJ-ING fills us in on the meeting deets.
Sitting idle like everyone else lmao.
Oh, right. Should probably ping everyone with those. 😆
I'm excited for all the Ambassadors and think it's great that Wayforum involvement wasn't required for applicants...but it also seems odd that of the
1211, hardly any of us have Wayforum experience. That shouldn't be the most important thing, just something that was interesting to me. I would hope their involvement will increase, but starting with only1211 it should be expected that a few will simply lose interest and drop out through the year.1211 already seemed arbitrarily low, but you'd expect a few more "regulars" to be picked for this pilot program.I think it is especially odd that many of those chosen have little to no experience on the forum, given that this was on of the questions on the application:
Share a link to a discussion in the Wayfarer Community or other Niantic Communities that you have either started or Participated in that best reflects your approach to community engagement:
The application made it seem like they would want the Ambassadors to be dialed in the community, which is a very good thing for very obvious reasons. The results don't seem to match that though. With no disrespect to those who were chosen, as I'm sure they all have good intentions, it does seem that some of the people chosen may not have a long term investment in Wayfarer, and perhaps that's why Niantic struggled to find people who could even check their email.
@NianticTintino I have an idea hear me out... for the 12th Ambassador... you should do a review contest... whoever finds the golden
ticketreview, becomes the 12th ambassador.Perhaps the 11 can choose 1 more.
Oh no! You know it’s World Book Day in the UK. For sure some kid’s parent with 40 nominations is now going to find the Golden Ticket from the Charlie & The Chocolate Factory outfit and sub it with the title of “You win!” 😂
First one to get boba and tacos to tintino gets the 12th spot! Quick whats NiaHQ address?!!!
The community doesn't seem to know at this point. The ambassadors don't seem to know. I'm not even sure that Niantic knows exactly what they want to do with them. Which raises the questions, why rush to close the application process and why can't we fill that 12th spot if they don't even have a purpose yet!
This idea is good. In fact, I’ll add it to the meeting notes.
what i would expect from an Ambassador is being a middlesman between Niantic and the "common" Wayfarer.
The Ambassadors would have duties like talking to people that Niantic filteres out because they submitted **** or other stuff that isnt eligible. Ambassadors also would be helpful in things like checking stuff locally, making internet research in their country.
Also an Ambassador would help players generally that are not good at submitting/reviewing.
NOTHING of that can be done, because Niantic has to keep everything secret and hush hush. They are the only ones that communicate with the Wayfarers.
Also i would have expect that an Ambassadors are the ones that tell Niantic what the community wants. BUT: Niantic never hears us. They hear what their CEO whispers in their ears.
Also another great function would be an ambassador that reviews local Appeals, AGAIN: nada. They wont do that.
Also alot of shenenigans is going on behind closed doors here in germany. Many wayfarers made their own rules, follow their own agenda, misuse things that Niantic wants to keep silent.
An ambassador would be very helpful just like a "Streetworker" here - he knows the scene, he knows whats going on behind closed doors. AGAIN: nada. NIA isnt capable of doing themselves all the needed things to stop fraud, misuse and general misconduct agains other people.
Well, he's not an Ambassador. So you might not be kidding :D
Sure…twist the knife in further. 😭 😆
It is now March.
There is an initial meeting next week.
And this group is only for this year, so I think enough time has been spent getting to this stage. Why exactly it has become so protracted is something for the wayfarer team to consider, for next year as it all clearly became too stressful for those that applied.
There were large assumptions made as to how many people would be involved - there nothing said in the original post about numbers
I think there has also been a lack of clarity over the criteria they were looking for.
a reminder of what it said:
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.
So I do think I would have expected a broader geographic spread.
But a balancing factor might have been around getting both experts and novices. It is highly likely that most applying will be very experienced, so perhaps that did constrain some of the choices??? 🤔 Along with communicating in English, which may again have biased the geographic base available?
It probably was a more complicated picture to resolve than expected.
As a matter of principle I think some feedback to those that did apply, so they can be ready to apply next year.
Perhaps the best thing is to let this experimental batch get on with the role, and use what remains of the time to learn from it. I wish them all well and in particular the one from Ukraine.
Nope. At least one appropriate candidate from German speaking area was out there ....
(not me. forgot to fill out the form, but it woud have been only a sarcastic "take me, before you take [insert a list of very special persons]")
I think most people were turned off by the fact that they had to lay down bare all their inners to Niantic, so they can check out the applicant. What for? Something unknown.
You wont apply for a PAYED job if you dont know what you would have to do, but you would have to let the company check out the inside of you.
And tbh:
I would have guessed, that at least one German ambassador should have been necessary, since we have very special problems here:
I agree it wasn’t inviting and could be a poisoned chalice.
I don't recall any "inners" needing to be laid down in the application... specially none that would deter anyone.
Niantic's got my spleen now! (it's cool the NDA doesn't cover spleens)
I wonder if any of the current Niantic Wayfarer Team knows these issues.
Deep breaths everybody. Before we get through the 2700 different lists of "demands" that we expect ambassadors to do on our ( or just my perhaps) demands list, lets just see:
a) How things go for a month or two and
b) See if any of our Ambassadors are actually allowed to accomplish anything by Niantic. I know a lot of the regulars in here have a lot of things they might wish our Ambassadors to do (back to those 2700 demands on my / our list), but reading the job description my first though was "Well, this is not going to help with the real issues of the Wayfarer POI system". However, I am happy to be proved wrong, so good luck to the 11 team members.
On a more positive note, how about suggesting one positive thing you think our Ambassadors could potentially accomplish or do during their 1 year tenure?
I'd like to see Ambassadors being very active on social media in some of the various Wayfarer groups actually saying things like "This nomination is simply just not eligible, so it's not worth subitting or appealing" etc, and pointing people to this forum for more discussion - something like that.
There were large assumptions made as to how many people would be involved - there nothing said in the original post about numbers
There wasn't anything in the original post, however, on February 10th Tintino commented on this thread indicating there would be 12 people chosen.
That in and of itself was controversial, as many people expected it to have significantly more people like the ambassador programs for Ingress have had. Now they can't even manage to fill the 12 they promised.
Niantic has thousands of people doing free labour for Them, maybe they could add more than 11 people to be really helpful.
Theres alot bright Guys and Girls Out there that would be able to make the Broken Plane fly, But without Niantic even be straight and Open to the Community (s2 anyone?) These people will stay in their rooms and Not Play with niantic.