Russia Challenge Feedback

Sunlitgarden-INGSunlitgarden-ING Posts: 204 ✭✭✭
edited June 2021 in Russia Wayfarer Challenge

This is the first of the challenges I have participated in. It seems to have been a great success, so far more than doubling the initial goal. I had fun with it personally and am pleased with the upcoming rewards.


These things helped a lot with getting people excited about reviewing:


  1. Letting people know the actual rewards from the start,
  2. Being clear that yes, you can change your location back at the end of the event
  3. Being more responsive/helpful on the forum


Some suggestions I have for making future events even better:

  1. Logic prioritizing challenge areas - the ideal situation IMO would have a toggle or checkbox that when set to on, only feeds submissions from that area. I frequently had long stretches of no Russian reviews even when I was in the mood to do them.
  2. Allowing multiple hometown/bonus resets during the course of the event. I and others noticed a steep drop off of Russian reviews after the initial batch in the hometown I chose (so much so that I moved my Bonus to Moscow to keep helping out, even though it may be stuck there for up to a year). Some people chose remote areas and got no Russian reviews at all. It would be good to be able to move around to help out different areas.
  3. If not the above, then either let us review country-wide for the target country, or at the least a list of target cities/locations with large backlogs that need extra help.


Thanks for reading!

Comments

  • Tyler14141-PGOTyler14141-PGO Posts: 11 ✭✭

    I totally agree with the idea of being able to set multiple locations for the event or possibly even a separate option to filter to any submission within Russia (or whatever future event location) would have been nice. For me and I’m sure others, it doesn’t matter where in the country the submission is from as I am unlikely to visit that specific spot.

  • Queenofgeek-PGOQueenofgeek-PGO Posts: 10 ✭✭

    I changed my home town to Russia but have only received one review from there. I still only get reviews from my original home town.

  • jokeinsurance-PGOjokeinsurance-PGO Posts: 330 ✭✭✭

    Is it still possible to change my home location to somewhere in Russia?

  • BagpiperKevin-PGOBagpiperKevin-PGO Posts: 7 ✭✭

    The ratio of nearby and foreign reviews needs to change. I’ve done 70 reviews since I signed up last night and only gotten 1 Russian location. I put my hometown in the middle of the city of Kazan.

  • Blaumut-INGBlaumut-ING Posts: 380 ✭✭✭✭

    I agree 200%. During the challenge i only want to review candidates from the featured country without the need to choose a specific location.

  • SeaprincessHNB-PGOSeaprincessHNB-PGO Posts: 1,607 Ambassador

    I completely agree with #2. I think there is a better way to maximize the effort.

    But once the goal was met, I was not as concerned with #1. I liked the variety of reviewing non-upgraded local things, upgraded things from my normal pool, and Russian things. I felt like I was being helpful both at home and in Russia, which is a good balance, IMO. Perhaps we need a higher percentage of Russian things to review before the goal is met, though.

  • jokeinsurance-PGOjokeinsurance-PGO Posts: 330 ✭✭✭

    I got it to work, thanks. How many submissions in Russia do I need to review in order for the perks to apply to me?

  • Roli112-PGORoli112-PGO Posts: 2,236 Ambassador
  • GearGlider-INGGearGlider-ING Posts: 1,335 ✭✭✭✭✭

    This was a great event over-all. Changing your home location for and after the event made it very easy and appealing to participate. The rewards were excellent and made me excited to tell my friends about the event! It even got a few friends who had fallen off the reviewing train hop back on again.

    There isn't much criticism that I can think of for it. The only big thing I can think of would be that a lot of people were confused about changing their hometown location for the event because they didn't know they would be able to change it back afterwards, or changed their bonus location in the confusion. Maybe for future events have an opt-in that nets you reviews from the area without having to change home/bonus location? Though that might require some back-end changes that the wayfarer team cannot perform at this time.

  • BarkBarkBoBo-PGOBarkBarkBoBo-PGO Posts: 6 ✭✭

    I really liked someone’s suggestion of having a third “event” location so the hometown confusion doesn’t happen again. Or maybe they could also have a “turnoff hometown location during event toggle” or “override hometown location during event” toggle, so you don’t even have to worry about moving hometowns.

    If you have the toggle on, niantic can select the area they want you to review during events.

  • Belahzur-INGBelahzur-ING Posts: 632 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I enjoyed the event from my perspective, Russia was fairly easy to review, and I think it proves a need for Wayfarer to have an adaptive setting for home/bonus locations, surely it would be easy and make sense for Niantic to just post once every so often and say "Russia (replace country name with whatever) has a huge backlog and needs help", then we can all swarm Russia, the backlog would be gone within a month or two right?

  • kgoirs-PGOkgoirs-PGO Posts: 10 ✭✭

    Ok but why can't I change my bonus location back to my region?

    it says I'll be able to do it in a year.

  • Rodensteiner-PGORodensteiner-PGO Posts: 1,705 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The homeloc can be Changed now, the russzia Event already Ended half a Day ago (See Posting in News)

  • TheDougie3-PGOTheDougie3-PGO Posts: 12 ✭✭

    I loved the event -- it was great to help out others!

    My main comment is about the reasons for the challenge for itself. We were led to believe that the reason Niantic chose these countries was that waypoints were scarce and the nomination queue was seriously backlogged. From the forums, it appears that different parts of Russia fall into polar opposite categories:

    1. No need for additional reviewers. In some areas, there are few waypoints. And also few nominations. Reviewers didn't get nominations to review because the queues were empty there. Adding reviewers didn't help. They needed submissions in this area instead. In this case, I would hope that Niantic has a way to broaden the search area.
    2. No need for additional waypoints because maximum density has already been reached. The area I chose appears to be in one of the areas with a huge backlog. Frankly, the area wasn't backlogged because there were a ton of great 5* candidates sitting around. Out of 300+ reviews, I think I only gave a 5* rating to three or four of them. It was backlogged because the new waypoint criteria has encouraged people to nominate too many things. And lots of them are legitimate POI under the new rules. The problem is that there were so many 3* and 2* submissions in certain small areas that are already flooded with waypoints. I estimate that about 60% of the ones I approved will not make it to PokemonGO because of the L17 cell rule, And of those about 25% will not make it into Ingress either because of the 20m rule.

    One area I was reviewing was row upon row of high-rise public housing projects in the city of Perm. Between each building was a tiny and neglected playground (3* being generous) and a well-worn basketball court or small soccer pitch (3* or 4*). On the ends of the buildings were plenty of tags and other graffiti (varies, mostly 1* or 2*). Many, many duplicates, sometimes they appeared to be intentional too. This area already had at least one waypoint in every L17 cell, often two, sometimes three or four. Literally hundreds in every L14 cell -- thicker than New York City. And they were still submitting more. No wonder the queues were backlogged in that area.


    I think Niantic should take a look at the challenge areas and determine whether the problem is lack of reviewers, lack of submissions in certain areas, or whether too many things have been submitted. The nationwide scale that appeared to show a lack of reviewers was too broad. They should have examined their data more granularly.

    To this extent, I think that the suggestion of the other poster is correct -- please let us check a box saying we would like to participate but have no preference where. And then put us where there is a need and where it will be useful.

    I'd also like to suggest that Niantic use a flexible, intelligent approval criteria (if they don't already do so). Above a minimum rating, be more lenient in areas with few waypoints. Be stricter in crowded areas. Create a mechanism whereby a poor but acceptable waypoint can be replaced by a much better one.

  • Lellolicious-PGOLellolicious-PGO Posts: 7 ✭✭

    Ditto this. Even regular reviewers I mentioned this to either had no idea until the day before, or they found out the same time I did through word of mouth from someone else. A banner on the Wayfarer home page would be a big help. So could an opt-in email for those interested in learning about future challenges (potentially also new enhancements, etc.).

  • Pikalauru-PGOPikalauru-PGO Posts: 3 ✭✭
    edited June 2021

    Ya it would be great if there was just a way to opt in to the challenge instead of relying on location change. I did like 200 reviews and go 0 russian locations due to the rural nature of where I ended up (accidently the setting location isn't a great map on the phone now I know I better use my computer to do it next time if I even bother) and no way to adjust once you realized you won't be getting any to review. This is the first time I tried to participate in a challenge and my experience makes me think I may not try again as there was so little guidance or ability to get help and so many was to mess it up. It's disappointing for sure.


    Edit: Well up to about 500 reviews with my home location still in Russia as I haven't changed it and still haven't had any Russian places to review. Maybe I'll just leave it there are see how long it takes to get 1.

    Post edited by Pikalauru-PGO on
  • EddWards3108-PGOEddWards3108-PGO Posts: 2 ✭✭

    @NianticCasey-ING My bonus location is stuck after the challenge and it won't let me change it back to my country. Please reset that location

  • Sunlitgarden-INGSunlitgarden-ING Posts: 204 ✭✭✭

    I don't have any nominations in the pipeline right now, but am hearing positive feedback about the upgrades applying slowly so there's more control over that process (instead of randomly all at once). Thanks!

  • pokestophope-INGpokestophope-ING Posts: 72 ✭✭✭

    That's interesting because I got a lot to start with (I chose Kazan because I have been there) but only occasional Russian submissions by the end. Maybe that indicates we did clear backlog for Kazan?

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