They are suppose to be rejected for obstruction emergency service. This shouldn't have changed with the 3.1 "refresh" because that rejection criterion remained the exact same through the refresh.
Thinking that a fire hydrant is even close to the same as a fire station or hospital is nuts. Players on foot standing within a few feet of a hydrant aren't going to obstruct anything. would something 5 feet from a hydrant need to be rejected for this reason? would something adjacent to a fire lane need to be rejected? ems vehicles park wherever is most convenient for the incident they're responding to and more often than not that's not near a hydrant, so by the logic of rejecting hydrants for obstructing ems we should reject literally anything near a curb.
the logic just isn't there. they're fine and when they're artistic they can and should be accepted.
in my city, there's an app made by the city with a virtual tour that encouraged users to visit each art hydrant and uses their gps to notify them when they're near one. if there was a concern of obstructing ems they wouldn't have made this app let alone funded the project to paint them.
If it was "criteria" it would be in the "new source of truth." If Niantic wants these prior clarifications followed, they really need to be in the published criteria and not random posts to the Wayforum that the majority of reviewers will never see. I'm tired of my rating taking a hit when I approve/reject nominations that have only ever been "clarified" in here.
@TheFarix-PGO There are so many reasons this is wrong:
Niantic specifically said that all previous AMA answers and guideline clarifications were invalidated and the new guidelines supercede them. That includes the prior clarification about fire hydrants.
The rejection criteria did not remain the same. In fact some of them were adjusted, some were added, and some were removed. If they wanted us to continue to reject fire hydrants, they could have and should have clarified that.
They also said to be comfortable with grey area. This is definitely in the grey area. You should vote how you feel on it.
Not every fire hydrant mural is going to be an actively used hydrant or something that would realistically block emergency services as a wayspot. Even if you are of the opinion that these block emergency services, a rejection reason like that should still be investigated on a case-by-case basis.
Now, please ask yourself the following:
Do you think a portal at a fire hydrant is truly going to block emergency services, or are you exclusively applying an outdated blanket opinion that wasnt even your own?
If a mural was on a wall, and in front of that mural/wall was a non-painted fire hydrant, would you reject the wall mural for obstructing emergency services?
Outside of the entrance to your favorite local hotspot there is a fire hydrant. Would you reject that for obstructing emergency services?
In an event where a building is on fire and emergency services are forced to respond, do you truly think players would continue to play Pogo/Ingress next to a burning building in a capacity that could truly obstruct emergency services from accessing such a fire hydrant in a time of need?
I regularly see you comment on a variety of the topics on the forum, and while I imagine that is out of a desire to help others, it would be better for the community if you focused on the quality of your answers, not the quantity.
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
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.
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.
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
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Comments
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.
They are suppose to be rejected for obstruction emergency service. This shouldn't have changed with the 3.1 "refresh" because that rejection criterion remained the exact same through the refresh.
Thinking that a fire hydrant is even close to the same as a fire station or hospital is nuts. Players on foot standing within a few feet of a hydrant aren't going to obstruct anything. would something 5 feet from a hydrant need to be rejected for this reason? would something adjacent to a fire lane need to be rejected? ems vehicles park wherever is most convenient for the incident they're responding to and more often than not that's not near a hydrant, so by the logic of rejecting hydrants for obstructing ems we should reject literally anything near a curb.
the logic just isn't there. they're fine and when they're artistic they can and should be accepted.
in my city, there's an app made by the city with a virtual tour that encouraged users to visit each art hydrant and uses their gps to notify them when they're near one. if there was a concern of obstructing ems they wouldn't have made this app let alone funded the project to paint them.
Before 3.1 a lot of people were already approving them.
If it was "criteria" it would be in the "new source of truth." If Niantic wants these prior clarifications followed, they really need to be in the published criteria and not random posts to the Wayforum that the majority of reviewers will never see. I'm tired of my rating taking a hit when I approve/reject nominations that have only ever been "clarified" in here.
@TheFarix-PGO There are so many reasons this is wrong:
Now, please ask yourself the following:
I regularly see you comment on a variety of the topics on the forum, and while I imagine that is out of a desire to help others, it would be better for the community if you focused on the quality of your answers, not the quantity.
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
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.
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.
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
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?
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
And WHO are you making such claims?
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.