Painted fire hydrants

Are painted fire hydrants allowed?

Comments

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

    Before Wayfarer 3.1 "refreshed" the criteria, an AMA specified that they could be rejected for obstructing emergency services.

    After 3.1, a lot of people started approving them. So worth a shot if you're submitting one. I tend to rate safe ped access for them 1-3 stars now.

  • Jtronmoore-PGOJtronmoore-PGO Posts: 1,581 ✭✭✭✭✭

    If i see painted fire hydrants I reject them. There purpose is for firefighters not for a game. A curb is much different than a firehydrant. A fire hydrant is quite obviously for firefighters. They may try to decorate them but if a group of players can be seen to obstruct ems services on a sidewalk infront of a firestation/policestation/hospital I don’t see how its any different in front of a fire hydrant

  • Hosette-INGHosette-ING Posts: 3,469 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Did painted fire hydrants ever show up in an AMA? As far as I can remember, it was only a comment from Casey buried somewhere like three pages deep in a contentious discussion.

    My personal opinion is this: Nothing is an official ruling until it makes it into a top-level document, either an official guidelines page or an AMA. Players should not be expected to comb every single discussion thread in order to understand the guidelines. Unfortunately, Niantic has a long history of making declarations in exactly this way. I can think of a few Ingress "rules" that were buried 80 comments deep in a nasty thread/fight on G+. Those comments don't even exist anymore since G+ was shut down a long time ago, but there are players who still consider them sacred rules just like the TOS and code of conduct.

    I also think this is a ludicrous ruling. I live in an urban neighborhood and one day I went out with the intention of photographing something that explains why. I found an absolutely perfect example literally at my doorstep. The object on the left is a portal in Ingress and a PoGo gym, a plaque describing the history of the building and its relationship to the neighborhood. For sake of discussion let's pretend that the fire hydrant next to it is painted artistically. I can't think of any logical reason that the fire hydrant being a wayspot would block emergency services but the thing that's two feet away from it wouldn't.




  • Hosette-INGHosette-ING Posts: 3,469 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2021

    I'm also going to put in a plug for my Wayfarer search engine. You can search Niantic's official guidelines, AMAs, and the Wayfarer forum here: http://hosette.com/wayfarer

    You're welcome to share the link. It's just a simple Google custom search engine wrapped in a trivial HTML page. It shows Google ads but I don't get any revenue from it-- I put it together because I wanted it for myself, then decided to share it with other people.

  • ArabellaArdelia-PGOArabellaArdelia-PGO Posts: 236 ✭✭✭
    edited April 2021

    so I said this in the original thread where Casey commented, but the ONLY time I have seen a hydrant in use (car in the parking garage was on fire), we were actually instructed to stand NEAR the hydrant. Because it was across the street from where the fire was, and also across the (other) street from where the firetrucks were actually parked - in front of a trail marker that was a waypoint. So that trail marker was the ONLY thing that would be OES worthy in that scenario, since a crowd at it would’ve prevented the firetrucks from parking but the hydrant was where we were TOLD to crowd around. Here’s a photo to help illustrate what happened

  • GMiles987-PGOGMiles987-PGO Posts: 35 ✭✭✭

    These are all valid points. On top of this, the town/city literally approves people sitting directly around the hydrants for HOURS to paint them. If they say that's fine, how is walking around nearby them with your phone out for 30 seconds an issue?

  • patsufredo-PGOpatsufredo-PGO Posts: 4,213 ✭✭✭✭✭

    However it's Niantic criteria. They don't want players are doing something in their game nearby any fire hydrants and obstructing firefighters to use it whenever a fire breaks out.

    You think that you can just hacking Portal or spinning Pokestops and go away? Then how about growing flowers around the big flower?

  • GMiles987-PGOGMiles987-PGO Posts: 35 ✭✭✭

    Niantic criteria says it can't block the driveways of emergency services. It includes power plants as emergency services. Yet, painted electrical junction boxes get approved all the time, and those are required to be accessed far more often than hydrants. The logic isn't just flawed, it doesn't exist.

    Also, in regards to your second point: WHAT?

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

    Nominations for fire hydrants themselves are rejected, artistic or otherwise.

    However, eligible POIs that fall in a separate cluster next to a fire hydrant are not particularly problematic.

    Also, don't reject a civic hall just because it is equipped with indoor fire hydrants.

    However, if a fire hydrant is nominated separately from the Civic Hall under the title "Fire Hydrant in the Civic Hall," it is rejected.


    I am currently making this decision.

  • GMiles987-PGOGMiles987-PGO Posts: 35 ✭✭✭

    Who are you you "make this decision"? You're not Niantic. And according to three separate Wayfarer Ambassadors earlier in this thread, the things you're stating as fact here have no actual basis in current Niantic criteria. Please stop spreading personal opinion as fact.

  • AisforAndis-INGAisforAndis-ING Posts: 1,072 Ambassador

    Hi there. I appreciate the enthusiasm and that you've taken a liking to my two-year old opinions, however here are some things to consider:

    This post and the comments you are referring to were made in April 2021. The first Ambassadors were not chosen until February 2022. I did not become an Ambassador until February 2023. None of the ambassadors were ambassadors yet when these comments were made. These are just opinions.

    The landscape of Wayfarer is constantly changing, and as such, their opinions might have changed in the two years since these comments were made.

    While most of my logic remains the same, I personally would be more likely to reject these than I was two years ago. While my logic still stands and personally I think these fire hydrant murals are not problematic, Niantic's old stance remains unchanged.

    That doesn't mean I won't advocate for them meeting the criteria and the fact that I believe they are not problematic, but at the end of the day, Niantic seems to see more risk in them rather than value, even though I disagree.

  • GMiles987-PGOGMiles987-PGO Posts: 35 ✭✭✭

    I didn't make any concrete claims other than saying another user was not Niantic, which is fact. Otherwise I just cited the opinions of other longtime wayfarers as evidence toward an argument I was making that urban artwork should be given fair consideration regardless of the location of the artwork.

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