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Painted Fire Hydrants

124

Answers

  • TablogEimrats-PGOTablogEimrats-PGO Posts: 98 ✭✭✭

    Considering there are people who refuse to wear a face mask when it has been mandated for an entire state, yes, there will always be morons who don’t adhere to emergency requests.

  • JetDerrick-PGOJetDerrick-PGO Posts: 11 ✭✭

    This is lunacy. Many of my bus stops growing up we’re at a corner with a fire hydrant. It’s such a concern that the school made us congregate around it. There is no common sense. No one is standing on top of a fire hydrant that is a portal. They’d be in the general area, and it’s totally unrealistic to expect they won’t move when the fire truck comes pulling up. The car is a different story, because it can be left unattended and can’t instantly move. That’s why blocking one with a car is illegal. I’ve seen a painted hydrant on the middle of a busy park. If ems was concerned about having a bunch of people around the hydrant, they wouldn’t put it there, or they would block it off. The reality is that EMS has zero concern about people congregating around a fire hydrant, so why should Niantic?

  • tehstone-INGtehstone-ING Posts: 1,154 Ambassador

    Exactly this. I spent some time last night looking at streetview where each of the 40+ painted hydrants in my neighborhood are. They're in front of businesses, right next to crosswalks & driveways, in parks, in front of the walkway from the street to homes, etc etc. These aren't meant to be off limits locations other than the restriction against parking cars in front of them (which incidentally happens a lot around here regardless of how the hydrants are painted and for some reason isn't enforced).

  • Roli112-PGORoli112-PGO Posts: 2,236 Ambassador

    I dont stand in front of a garage door because i expect that garage door to open any minute, i dont expect a fire to spruce up any minute.

  • Roli112-PGORoli112-PGO Posts: 2,236 Ambassador

    I think thats a big jump from a virus that people refuse to believe in and a fire thats going to cause noise, smell, heat and chaos. All of which make people run away or run to, to help. not stand dumbly at a fire hydrant finishing a raid or spinning a pokestop.

  • TheFarix-PGOTheFarix-PGO Posts: 5,063 ✭✭✭✭✭

    There is always plenty of warning before the doors open and the vehicle leaves. There is an alarm that sounds out to let all passersby know that they need to clear out of the way. It is also SOP for a firefighter to clear the driveway of any pedestrians and stop traffic on the road before the truck(s) pull out of the garage. And once the truck(s) leaves, pedestrians are allowed to stand in front of the garage door again. It is no more or less of a problem than them "shewing" way pedestrians standing next to a hydrant as they attach a hose to it. Once the hose is attached, pedestrians can stand next to the hydrant again. But because both are part of the emergency response infrastructure, Niantic has said that they are both ineligible. They just simply clarified that hydrants are included.

  • Roli112-PGORoli112-PGO Posts: 2,236 Ambassador

    What the heck does a Facebook group have to do with this? Get your facebook hate out of here.

  • 0X00FF00-ING0X00FF00-ING Posts: 769 ✭✭✭✭✭

    For the same reason that the membership does all of their argument over there instead of over here where they can either:

    1. become better informed
    2. potentially change Niantic's mind (at least in theory)

    I don't partake much in that FB group's conversations, except to occasionally ping Niantic when I happen to notice things getting out of hand.

  • Roli112-PGORoli112-PGO Posts: 2,236 Ambassador

    I'm arguing for fire hydrants and have never said to 5* everything (in fact i have been muted in that group in the past for arguing based on criteria), I review based on criteria and merits, I'm being very vocal even though I have 0 fire hydrants to submit because I have reviewed and accepted several that i feel 100% deserve to be POI's. It doesnt make sense to me that i can sit on a fire hydrant and admire a mural 3 ft away, but I cant lean on the wall and admire the same my hydrant i was just sitting on.

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

    I'm part of that Facebook group. Hell, I got roped into being one of the moderators. I'm also one of the people arguing for thoughtful reviewing, lobbying Niantic to consolidate their guidelines into a form that is easily consumable by both reviewers and submitters, and helping to educate people. I've even compiled an extensive list of links to places where Niantic has made official decrees.

    As a moderator mostly I'm kicking out spammers, verifying members, and nuking the occasional abusive comment.

    Right now what I'm doing is lobbying Niantic for both clarity and logical consistency. I think that this is a very silly restriction, though it's easy to see how the lawyers would come down on this side of it. My partner is an attorney, so I can pretty much hear the meeting right now. It seems completely illogical to me that art painted on a fire hydrant would be unsafe while art painted on a bus shelter three feet away would be safe. It is nonsensical and absurd that I could touch two items at the same time and one of them is safe but the other isn't.

    Having said that, if Niantic doesn't change their mind on it then I will absolutely follow the ruling and educate other people about it, while at the same time rolling my eyes at capricious and illogical rules.

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

    Oh! I found the perfect example of this literally outside my front door. I live in a historic district, and many of the buildings have plaques talking about the history of the building... mine included. Imagine that the fire hydrant was painted to look like a dalmatian. How does it make sense that one of these is safe and the other isn't, when they are two feet apart?



  • Gendgi-PGOGendgi-PGO Posts: 3,534 Ambassador

    @Hosette-ING I appreciate you blocking it out to keep from doxing yourself. For the sake of clarity, that's a educational history plaque for a historical building that you're encouraged to stand in front of for some amount of time and read, correct?

  • NorthSeaPoet-INGNorthSeaPoet-ING Posts: 895 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Well, that's easy to answer.

    The item to the left is an education information board and is meant to be read by the public. The item to the right is part of infrastructure used by emergency services.

    Since NIA haven't said that anything within a set radius of hydrants are ineligible as well, one would assume that those objects would still be valid.

  • Hosette-INGHosette-ING Posts: 3,469 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 2020

    @Gendgi-PGO Yes, you are encouraged to stand in front of it and read it-- there's a rather wordy chunk of text under that bar. It lists the designer of the building, the architectural style, the construction date, and the remodel date. It also talks about the purpose/history of the building, mentions that 250,000 pounds of coffee were roasted in the basement each year, describes its connection to the local railway, relation to a neighboring building, and the breadth of the distribution that happened from the building This is one of many in the neighborhood.

    @NorthSeaPoet-ING My point was to illustrate that Niantic's ruling that art on a fire hydrant would block emergency services is not grounded in logic. If turning art on a fire hydrant into a waypoint is unsafe then something two feet away from it should also be unsafe. The underlying reason for such a rule is that people should not block emergency services, and if you look at the existing rule it very clearly outlaws blocking driveways of emergency services. It isn't that the driveway itself is ineligible, but that anything which might block the driveway is ineligible. That makes sense-- you don't want people standing in the driveway of a fire department for a raid and blocking a fire truck from dashing off to a fire. If a plaque like the one in my photo was right next to a fire station driveway then it would be ineligible.

    Post edited by Hosette-ING on
  • Gendgi-PGOGendgi-PGO Posts: 3,534 Ambassador

    I'm not looking to argue or be combative. I 100% predicted this to be the Niantic decision. But do you at least, from a reviewer and nominator standpoint, understand that it's a bit odd that something a foot or less away from a hydrant would be acceptable but the hydrant itself is obstruction of emergency services?

    Until the guidance is published (and, well, after probably), I will worry that people will over exaggerate that obstruction to things nearby. I don't consider myself a long time reviewer by any means, but I have seen people use the excuse that something adjacent to a hydrant, fire lane, or across the street of a fire station must be rejected for obstruction of emergency services. I find that excessive and I feel like that leads to unnecessary disagreements.

  • oukonohazuku-PGOoukonohazuku-PGO Posts: 2 ✭✭


    I'm sorry for ignoring the flow, but one thing I was curious about
    
    I am Japanese, but most of the fire hydrants in Japan are buried as manholes on roads and sidewalks.
    And since there are many art objects in that manhole, there are many things that are currently registered as POIs.
    
    People and vehicles pass over the hydrants on a daily basis.
    Of course, it is legal to avoid it when you stop,
    
    But what about the open space in the park where doctors' helicopters are expected to arrive and depart?
    What should I do about a park that is supposed to be used as a shelter in the event of a disaster?
    These fire hydrant manholes are also used as parks and roads on a daily basis, but emergency service use is also expected, and in that case it is expected that game play will interfere with emergency service.
    
    If you deny any items that may interfere with emergency services during use, regardless of the frequency of use, wouldn't the above items be inappropriate?
    
    Please tell us your views
    


  • Sugarstarzkill-PGOSugarstarzkill-PGO Posts: 437 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The only thing that has changed about the guidance is that they don't want us nominating fire hydrants. If people keep pushing this I'm concerned they will come back and say "fine- don't accept anything within 20m of a fire hydrant or anything that could block emergency services"

    They have not said that. All that's been said is painted fire hydrants aren't eligible. I see what people are saying. But I also see why they wouldn't want to encourage us to nominate objects whose whole purpose is to be used in an emergency. I get that emergency services could be blocked by people standing at objects NEAR the hydrants, but allowing us to nominate the hydrants themselves could very well get them sued.

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