Incentive to submit Wayspots from a PoGO, Ingress and Wayfarer-perspective

dustinyeeaah-PGOdustinyeeaah-PGO Posts: 526 ✭✭✭✭✭

As you might know, there was a certain time frame (late 2021 - february 2022) where the the notorious 20m rule was gone. This was a welcomed chance for Wayfinders to go out and explore again. It was now possible to get Wayspots to show up in Ingress and PoGo, even if they are less than 20m away from an existing Portal (Wayspots that show up in Ingress).

Now the 20m rule is back and I thought about the reasons why I submit Wayspots (rewards will be formatted in bold). tldr at the end.

Pokemon GO - perspective

I started with PoGO in 2019 and after some research, I found out about cells. Knowing the game will only allow one Wayspot per S2 Level 17 cell, I submitted only one nomination per cell, because there is no incentive as a PoGO player to submit more than one, because only the first one will show up in the end. What do I get from successfully submitting Wayspots and playing PoGO? Well, in the best case scenario, the PokeStop/Gym will be added to the game board. Great. I also get bragging rights, because my name will be displayed on the picture of the PokeStop/Gym in PoGO.

What do I get if the accepted nomination doesn't show up in PoGO? Well, I get nothing, but it might be added to Ingress and it will be added to the Lightship database.

Ingress - perspective

In 2021 I also rediscovered Ingress and I wanted to get to rank 10, so that I can submit more Wayspots AND I also really liked the "Portals Discovered"-Counter. If one of my nominations is accepted and it shows up in Ingress, this counter will increase by 1. Such a simple but effective implementation! Other Agents (playerbase of Ingress) can visit my profile and see that I have created random_number of Portals. I also get the specific Portal key as an ingame reward and 1.000 AP (experience points in Ingress). Another positive aspect ist that my name will be displayed on the picture of the Portal for other Agents to see (Again, bragging rights).

What do I get if the accepted nomination doesn't show up in Ingress? Well, it will be added to the Lightship database.

Wayfarer - perspective

What happens if one of my nominations is accepted in Wayfarer? Well, it shows up as accepted in the contributions-page. I might get access to the hidden number of all my accepted nominations, but I need an inofficial userscript for this.


Conclusion

Being a Wayfinder, I want to populate the world by adding interesting Wayspots to the Niantic games and the Lightship database. What I realised is, if my Wayspot nomination is not added in the respective Niantic game, from a player-perspective I don't get anything at all. Hence, there is no incentive to submit nominations, if they won't be added to the game I'm playing.

So why should I nominate these candidates? They will be added to the Lightship database and if for whatever reason one of the Wayspots in Ingress/PoGO will be deleted or their location edited, they might get replaced by one of the Wayspots in the Lightship database. I actually don't know if this is true, so please tell me if you do.

In my opinion, there should be more incentives to submit in PoGO and in Wayfarer. This is not a PoGO-forum, so won't talk about it that much. I just think PoGO-players should get ingame rewards like it's happening in Ingress (Maybe Rare Candy XL? ^^). Also, add a counter like the Portals discovered-stat.

Now let's move on to incentives as a Wayfinder. It's not enough. Please let us see extended Wayfarer Stats like total nominations accepted. Also, I'm thinking about other rewards. Upgrades come to mind. Maybe 1 Upgrade every 10 accepted Wayspots? Does this sound reasonable? Let me know what you think!


tldr:

  • From a player-perspective, I don't have an incentive to submit Wayspots that won't make it to the game I'm playing
  • Rewards for submitting Wayspots for PoGO-players too little, make it like in Ingress
  • From a Wayfarer-perspective, I have bragging rights for every accepted nomination and nothing else. Let me earn rewards like Upgrades

Comments

  • Gazzas89-PGOGazzas89-PGO Posts: 2,619 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Personally, my priority is


    1. Pogo, I'll like for pokestops first and foremost and rhats what I'll use my submissions on first


    2. After I've exhausted the pokestops, then I'll submit portals

    Thats its, if it won't appear in those 2 games, I don't bother, cause ingress will most likely have the most waypoints, if uts not in the games, I'm not doing it for naiantics benefit only, they already make enough money as is don't need me doing free work for them for no gain for me

  • PkmnTrainerJ-INGPkmnTrainerJ-ING Posts: 5,121 Ambassador

    Another thought on perspectives, what about from the view of a player of Pikmin Bloom, or Transformers: Heavy Metal? If they can eventually submit, what’s a good in game reward for them?

    As for my main thing when submitting, it was Pokémon GO as my focus via Ingress but as I got more into Ingress, that became my focus so that I didn’t let good nominations go un-submitted just because it wouldn’t make a new PokéStop.

  • dustinyeeaah-PGOdustinyeeaah-PGO Posts: 526 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Such a shame, but I haven't thought about abuse at all. The idea with the gift is nice..."A gift from your newly added PokéStop/Gym". Sounds good!

  • dustinyeeaah-PGOdustinyeeaah-PGO Posts: 526 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @PkmnTrainerJ-ING there could be something like an extra category for my added PokéStops/Gyms in the postcard book! Maybe then I would use this feature more often...I also like the idea of the visual presentation (pictures of the Wayspots).

    I can only speak of Pikmin Bloom and something rare like blue nectar comes to my mind.

  • dustinyeeaah-PGOdustinyeeaah-PGO Posts: 526 ✭✭✭✭✭

    This might be coming soon with the recent introduction of the Niantic ID. I'm curious to see how this will be implemented!

  • dustinyeeaah-PGOdustinyeeaah-PGO Posts: 526 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Very good point! I like to find out information when I submit Wayspots, I want my nominations to be informative and nice to look at. It's the nicest part of being a Wayfinder, I learnt a lot about my area and I've been visiting places I might have never been to! Sometimes I even add photos or submit another description if I feel like it!

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

    My only incentive now is I enjoy finding things people haven't found yet, so mostly they are in the middle of nowhere which encourages me to visit new places and go on long walks.

    When pogo first came out, I did do some local submissions so pogo would have more stops and gyms but more for other people than myself.

    Ingress has always been the main game I played and tbh, I dont want or require more stops particularly as it makes no difference to my game play or benefit me in any way. But at the same time the POI appearing in the game is what makes me submit.

    I have more fun exploring places than playing ingress these days and to be honest, without wayfarer and submissions I wouldn't be playing ingress now. The submission problems and abusive rejection waves is making me want to stop submitting and at that point im probably done with Niantics games completely

  • Shilfiell-INGShilfiell-ING Posts: 1,559 Ambassador
    edited March 2022

    I'd love to get a gift from a new wayspot I created which appears in Pokemon Go. I think 500 XP should be the max XP as a reward if any is given, as it should be a token non-strategic amount - basically the amount gained by spinning a new Pokestop, like Ingress rewards a capture/deploy action. There should be no new Objects Created badge in Pogo but it could be a stat displayed on profile pages if anything - Ingress has no such badge, just a stats line. The Wayfarer badge in Pogo's platinum level was set much too low to start with so if a new badge level is ever introduced, Onyx should be significantly higher, around 10k reviews.

    I do think that AP rewards for Photo additions and Edits should be removed from Ingress if they still exist. Many players in my area submit marginal photos and minor capitalization edits just to get AP, and it's a waste of my time as a reviewer. Edit to make things better for everyone, not just for you.....that's just my opinion, of course.

    I play both games, Pokemon Go more heavily but Ingress is a joy to me as well. When I submit, I submit what I want regardless of what game it may or may not appear in: I figure if it's too close, or in a crowded cell, then I may need a modicum of patience as older objects may be removed in the future which would allow my hidden waypoint to show in game or games. I do fully acknowledge Niantic's right, as owners of the database and linked games, to utilize my input in any way they wish - regardless of the benefits to me personally or players of the games I enjoy. I submit Waypoints because I like finding cool, undiscovered stuff out there in the world. Game benefit is definitely a secondary motivation for me.

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

    Recent actions have caused me to feel very de-incentivised from submitting wayspots. For example:

    • In Ingress, the migration of an insta-appearance of a portal or edit approval was instant right as soon as you got the email, that it was changed instantly, and you were promptly rewarded with 500/1000AP and its key. This changed once Ingress' POI database moved to the Lightship, which it now syncs only once a day. Which is usually around 9:15am my time.
    • My contributions to the Wayspot database feel very miniscule and worthless in comparison to the 500,000 Foursquare wayspots added to India. Oh and don't forget Turkey, Russia and several other countries too. Quantity is greater than Quality.
    • Despite clamouring for an elimination of auto-upgrades for the last couple of months, the best response is to simply just "hold a nomination". So instead of ever going into voting or being caught by the 'auto-upgrade' mechanism, simply "holding" a nomination is the only thing going for it.

    Eventually there will be Niantic Social profiles where you'll be able to show the amount of contributions you have (i.e. how many nominations you have approved, photos or edits added, etc etc), but a leaderboard would incentivise me enough. But if there was any real incentive for me to continue submitting wayspots, it is to reduce coal and bad actors in the system, to make the process as frictionless as possible without having to appeal or resubmit things over and over again.

  • Elijustrying-INGElijustrying-ING Posts: 5,482 Ambassador

    I have given up on getting the credit for portals discovered that u had agreed between the end of July and the move to lightship. Once the proverbial hit the fan with the move to lightship the ones that went missing then were restored but the first wave as far as I ‘m concerned got forgotten about. It gives me no faith that when goes wrong that the players will be listened to and action taken.

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

    A recent conversation reminded me that some ingress players only submit portals or add better photos because their in-game name appears at the portal or alongside their image in the photo list. It's a kind of way of tagging that you have been past that way.

    Without that, they wouldn't bother.

    Another funny thing is some people dont like seeing 'unknown' against a portal picture which happens if done from Pogo. So they submit a picture so that it can have a name beside it.

    Just goes to show that reasons for submitting varies so much between people and games. There is no one size fits all when it comes to submitters.

    A lot of people have stopped submitting POI/images and doing wayfarer voting because of syncing issues and not getting agreement's because of bad voting waves in some areas. Reasons for not submitting are as varied as for submitting but Niantic can at least fix some of these issues and shouldn't have let them go on for so long.

  • Duiomar-PGODuiomar-PGO Posts: 458 ✭✭✭✭✭

    It would be so neat if they did the same accreditation in pokemon go. You'd think it would just take copying a few lines of code so I assume its absence is intentional. Oh well.

  • PkmnTrainerJ-INGPkmnTrainerJ-ING Posts: 5,121 Ambassador

    I wonder if the Niantic Profile will mean that these will soon show the name you choose for that one, which will stop the “unknown” showing on games.

  • Duiomar-PGODuiomar-PGO Posts: 458 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Isn't that just for the image though? It's hidden away and susceptible to change.

  • WheelTrekker-INGWheelTrekker-ING Posts: 3,387 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • MiJi987-PGOMiJi987-PGO Posts: 49 ✭✭✭

    Is the 20m rule back for pogo too, or just for ingress?

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