The first thing I saw was that they made 18+ no-no stuff as new POIs. I dont know whether Niantic would do something like this against their own criteria. Additionally, those POIs have no images so they will be created by a "not-normal" way.
It is very weird. If it was intentional, I would've thought there'd be an announcement, and the fact that some of the POIs are definitely not suitable makes me even more suspicious. Maybe @NianticCasey-ING has something to say about it?
People seem to be thinking that it's data from Foursquare.
Agreed that these wayspots were certainly not made the "normal" way. The reported ineligibility of several of those spots makes me wonder, too. Seeing as it's a very widespread phenomenon - reported from multiple countries across the globe - I definitely hope to get this addressed by anyone from Niantic. (Unfortunate that this wasn't properly announced in advance.)
Interesting, these kinda remind me of seed portals from way back in the early days of Ingress, odd that they are pogo-specific and not in Ingress though.
Niantic: "Well those snails at wayfarer are slow as hell. they review and review and nothing happens. they should quit their day job and review wayspots 24/7".
Wayfarers: "Your system is broken! Our wayspots are in voting for 12 month+"
Niantic EXEC: "Well, that is too bad. Here, have some POI from the foursquare-Database, that makes em snails redundand"
Probably leaked into the database due to some Ingress related issue like "XM Leakage from Ada Lovelace". I knew I should have kept up with the Ingress backstory arcs. 😂
The more I think about it, and the more examples of horrible new Pokestops pop up, the more I find this offending towards the Wayfarer community, and the huge effort all of us put into avoiding and rejecting exactly this kind of places.
It just reminds of of that comment that I saw here on the forum a few times - "If every L17 S2 cell needed a wayspot in it, Niantic would've just covered the Earth with automatically generated spots in every cell". This new situation isn't too far off...
I wonder if it's Foursquare API (Foursquare and Swarm)
However, there's a lot of terrible data because moderation is done by different Superlevels so it takes months for things to get fixed. There's also bots that do automation on there for businesses but they are far, far, far from perfect. If it's Foursquare, I'm just surprised no QC was done on looking at the categories of them.
So now that the culprit behind this has been figured out, I really just want to express how wrong it is that these Wayspots are only in PoGo. I hate to say it, but PoGo players seem to care far less about the quality of Wayspots and tend to care more about "need more stops". If these areas are dead zones, Pogo players shouldn't be the only people who are able to enjoy these new Wayspots. Ingress players and Wizards players should get to enjoy them too, and hopefully some of those players would care more about the integrity of the database.
I am totally down for enabling more people to play games they love, but restricting that ability to Pogo players exclusively doesn't seem fair or even logical.
There is already a huge problem with PoGo players seeing ineligible things such as aerator fountains, neighborhood signs, memorial benches, etc, in game and thinking these are eligible candidates. This only adds to that problem.
If Niantic would like to fly me out to their dry areas and put me up in a decent hotel near a restaurant with vegetarian options, I'll happily look around and submit some stuff. It would probably be cheaper than the database cleanup currently underway, would yield some great nominations, and would get me out of the house for some exercise and socialization. A few bonus upgrades would probably not go amiss, as well. I'm vaccinated and ready to travel! :)
That's what Pogo players have been saying since the start, since Ingress/WU gets to enjoy more "lax" cell rules. The general response is "different games, different rules, deal with it".
I'm not entirely sure why I should keep reviewing and following criteria and guidelines, which have never been communicated effectively, now.
Niantic have made players of both games jump through hoops to get things accepted. I'm sure everyone has more than one submission which has incorrectly been rejected, the fact Niantic are not willing/able to even follow their own guidelines is a joke.
Niantic did mention the other day they were taking on more staff - perhaps this is the result, somebody new got a little overenthusiastic.
Then again, if it were new staff pressing the "accept" button, it could mean that some of the new hires were unsure of how the criteria should be applied in various situation or perhaps did not fully understand exactly what is meant in some instances. In that case, welcome to the club people.
So, are Niantic going to roll-back all these new PoGo stops or what. Considering how difficult it is to get Waypoints removed, even if they go through when they should not have been accepted by Wayfarers, it seems the most sensible suggestion.
Comments
The first thing I saw was that they made 18+ no-no stuff as new POIs. I dont know whether Niantic would do something like this against their own criteria. Additionally, those POIs have no images so they will be created by a "not-normal" way.
It is very weird. If it was intentional, I would've thought there'd be an announcement, and the fact that some of the POIs are definitely not suitable makes me even more suspicious. Maybe @NianticCasey-ING has something to say about it?
People seem to be thinking that it's data from Foursquare.
Agreed that these wayspots were certainly not made the "normal" way. The reported ineligibility of several of those spots makes me wonder, too. Seeing as it's a very widespread phenomenon - reported from multiple countries across the globe - I definitely hope to get this addressed by anyone from Niantic. (Unfortunate that this wasn't properly announced in advance.)
That happened in India during the India Wayfarer challenge.
I have just seen a picture of a new gym on a Mcdonald's. Free advertisement????
Also a Lidl, another big company:
And here is an 18+ no-no POI:
What the ****** Niantic???
Interesting, these kinda remind me of seed portals from way back in the early days of Ingress, odd that they are pogo-specific and not in Ingress though.
Niantic: "Well those snails at wayfarer are slow as hell. they review and review and nothing happens. they should quit their day job and review wayspots 24/7".
Wayfarers: "Your system is broken! Our wayspots are in voting for 12 month+"
Niantic EXEC: "Well, that is too bad. Here, have some POI from the foursquare-Database, that makes em snails redundand"
I always knew that one day automation would make our work obsolete but I didn't expect it to happen this quickly :'(
only for the areas that would have priority*
In my city there's a Pogo-only stop. It's at a business, and its photo violated enough rules that Wayfarer would NEVER have accepted it:
I pointed it out to @NianticCasey-ING (screenshots and all), but don't yet know if anything has been done to fix it.
My best and only guess is that this business was a successful recipient of a "nominate local businesses" initiative.
Probably leaked into the database due to some Ingress related issue like "XM Leakage from Ada Lovelace". I knew I should have kept up with the Ingress backstory arcs. 😂
They are also adding POIs with HTML/URL in them:
The more I think about it, and the more examples of horrible new Pokestops pop up, the more I find this offending towards the Wayfarer community, and the huge effort all of us put into avoiding and rejecting exactly this kind of places.
At least those POIs that got rejected would have pictures on them. Now, we got that beautiful grey...
Yup.
It just reminds of of that comment that I saw here on the forum a few times - "If every L17 S2 cell needed a wayspot in it, Niantic would've just covered the Earth with automatically generated spots in every cell". This new situation isn't too far off...
at least, they could put that database through the wayfarer system to be reviewed by us... using their guidelines/criteria.
but no.
Hi folks,
Apologies for this situation, I have been chasing down an update on this with the Wayfarer team and will be posting more information soon.
Hi Casey. Did you know about this ahead of time or not?
Nice to see how good the communication is within the team.
The effort is appreciated. Looking forward to any information when it becomes available.
I wonder if it's Foursquare API (Foursquare and Swarm)
However, there's a lot of terrible data because moderation is done by different Superlevels so it takes months for things to get fixed. There's also bots that do automation on there for businesses but they are far, far, far from perfect. If it's Foursquare, I'm just surprised no QC was done on looking at the categories of them.
For anyone who hasn't seen, an update has been posted here: https://community.wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/discussion/16876/an-update-on-newly-added-wayspots#latest
So now that the culprit behind this has been figured out, I really just want to express how wrong it is that these Wayspots are only in PoGo. I hate to say it, but PoGo players seem to care far less about the quality of Wayspots and tend to care more about "need more stops". If these areas are dead zones, Pogo players shouldn't be the only people who are able to enjoy these new Wayspots. Ingress players and Wizards players should get to enjoy them too, and hopefully some of those players would care more about the integrity of the database.
I am totally down for enabling more people to play games they love, but restricting that ability to Pogo players exclusively doesn't seem fair or even logical.
There is already a huge problem with PoGo players seeing ineligible things such as aerator fountains, neighborhood signs, memorial benches, etc, in game and thinking these are eligible candidates. This only adds to that problem.
If Niantic would like to fly me out to their dry areas and put me up in a decent hotel near a restaurant with vegetarian options, I'll happily look around and submit some stuff. It would probably be cheaper than the database cleanup currently underway, would yield some great nominations, and would get me out of the house for some exercise and socialization. A few bonus upgrades would probably not go amiss, as well. I'm vaccinated and ready to travel! :)
Count me in 😂
That's what Pogo players have been saying since the start, since Ingress/WU gets to enjoy more "lax" cell rules. The general response is "different games, different rules, deal with it".
Apply the same here.
This one shows again the high quality control standards within Niantic.
Why some people care so much "that's not a high quality wayspot" when it has been clear all along that Niantic doesn't follow those guidelines?
such hypocritical comment.
defends that reviewing is essential for the great quality wayspots.
but would like the same new wayspots to be available in the other games.
I'm not entirely sure why I should keep reviewing and following criteria and guidelines, which have never been communicated effectively, now.
Niantic have made players of both games jump through hoops to get things accepted. I'm sure everyone has more than one submission which has incorrectly been rejected, the fact Niantic are not willing/able to even follow their own guidelines is a joke.
Niantic did mention the other day they were taking on more staff - perhaps this is the result, somebody new got a little overenthusiastic.
Then again, if it were new staff pressing the "accept" button, it could mean that some of the new hires were unsure of how the criteria should be applied in various situation or perhaps did not fully understand exactly what is meant in some instances. In that case, welcome to the club people.
So, are Niantic going to roll-back all these new PoGo stops or what. Considering how difficult it is to get Waypoints removed, even if they go through when they should not have been accepted by Wayfarers, it seems the most sensible suggestion.