Graffiti

HankWolfman-PGOHankWolfman-PGO Posts: 4,853 ✭✭✭✭✭

There's been a couple of posts about how many playgrounds are coming up when reviewing Russian submissions, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned the amount of graffiti submissions (some of which actually look pretty awesome I must say). Is there just a surplus of graffiti in my chosen corner of Russia, or are other people getting lots of graffiti to review in their chosen areas as well?

Comments

  • SiIverLyra-PGOSiIverLyra-PGO Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think I'm actually more surprised by how different Wayfarer must be for the rest of you, because so far my experience with Russian nominations (playgrounds, graffiti/vandalism, etc.) is incredibly similar to my experience with nominations in my own country.

  • TheDougie3-PGOTheDougie3-PGO Posts: 12 ✭✭

    Lots of graffiti in Perm and Chelyabinsk too. And for some reason the submissions are more dense in areas where government censors force Google to blur the satellite view?

  • HallDaCounselor-PGOHallDaCounselor-PGO Posts: 8 ✭✭

    US Wayfarer here. I set my location on Volgograd.

    I have had a lot of items where Google Translate uses the word graffiti for things that, in the US, I would classify as murals. I have only had one that I would truly classify as "graffiti."

    I think this may be a language barrier issue, more than anything else.

  • SiIverLyra-PGOSiIverLyra-PGO Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭✭

    That's also something that's extremely common in my own non-Russian country. I definitely think it has to do with language barrier, as well as submitters' laziness (to a degree).

    Another similar example is gazebos - it's a very uncommon word in my country's language (although it does exist). In the Wayfarer context, submitters use it for quite literally every outside structure with a roof (pergolas, roofed benches, etc.) - it became a magic word for "something that Niantic have officially approved of".

    It's very much the same with graffiti. As an artist, it almost pains me to see people call beautiful murals and street art just "graffiti", but people aren't interested in learning. They just want guaranteed Pokestop approvals.

  • merethlot-INGmerethlot-ING Posts: 9 ✭✭

    In Russia we have a problem with old graffiti marked as wayspots but these graffiti no longer exist. Therefore, I try to approve only murals and reject graffiti and vandalism.

  • HankWolfman-PGOHankWolfman-PGO Posts: 4,853 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Thank you for your insight :)

    Graffiti can still be art. What Banksy does is graffiti, but his work is highly valued (in most cases - you do occasionally get the odd person who paints over his work).

    Some of what I'm reviewing is graffiti tags, which aren't eligible themselves, but other things are beautifully painted pieces of art, which whilst still technically being classed as graffiti, definitely add to the surroundings and have been present for a long time. I'm just surprised at how much of it there is.

  • SiIverLyra-PGOSiIverLyra-PGO Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yes, I know. Although I'd argue that there's a difference between graffiti (which tags and vandalism would fall under), street art (which I'd say Banksy's art would fall under), and murals (a more obvious distinction, since those mainly aren't done with spray cans). And partially it's just semantics, yes, but...

    When the language barrier/moar stops mindset leads to "all stuff drawn on the street is graffiti and all graffiti is eligible per Niantic", you get... well, in the less annoying cases you just get mural nominations called "graffiti". In the more annoying cases, graffiti tags - even the most ugly, low effort, banal ones - get accepted everywhere. Some people are genuinely convinced they're eligible. And of course, people start drawing pokemon everywhere to create more pokestops.

    It's what I see in my country and I'm pretty sure it's what's happening in Russia too.

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