Wayfarer Anniversary Event - What do you want to see?
PkmnTrainerJ-ING
Posts: 3,951 Ambassador
Recently there has been the two year anniversary of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite (https://community.harrypotterwizardsunite.com/en/discussion/14719/second-year-anniversary-event#latest) and they had an event to celebrate.
Pokémon GO has their anniversary coming too (https://pokemongolive.com/en/events/fest/2021/) and Ingress has theirs in November (https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/12625/ingress-year-eight-resonance#latest).
Looking around, OPR (pre-Wayfarer) became public in September 2017, and became Wayfarer in October 2019.
If there was to be a Wayfarer Anniversary event this year, when would you want it to be (September for OPR, or October for Wayfarer) and what would you want to happen in it? Double review points? Extra submissions for the week of the anniversary? HPWU submissions rolled out?
Thought it would be worth seeing what folks want/think.
Comments
Honestly, I just want the overhaul of the review system that has been promised.
A functioning review system that is accountable.
In actuality, I would honestly love a livestream of Wayfarer employees (not just Casey, Giffard, Gray, etc) of them reviewing in different areas and seeing our struggle for real.
Please no extra submissions, the backlogs are already big enough as-is, we need the backlog to shrink, not expand. Double review points would be nice for easier upgrades, it encourages reviewing, but that depends whether it encourages good reviewing or bad reviewing.
I want to see the submission system reworked so that most of the coal gets filtered out before it gets submitted. I want to see on-screen guidance for players during the submission process so that people know what is and isn't eligible, and I want them to have much better information about supporting text and photos and how to create good ones. I want similar on-screen guidance for reviewers.
I want 100% of Niantic's criteria centralized in one place for easy reference, and that central location aggressively maintained with any new updates.
I want to see at least 51% of reviews for every candidate come from non-local reviewers. This would cut down on abuse by ensuring that local cabals and multi-accounters can't make their own rules.
(And I want them to go back to using submit rather than nominate, but that's just my pet peeve.)
And have them getting a cooldown would be the high part.
More submisions.
Appeal for False rejections.
Niantic change the system to reduce false rejection (especially on Trail Markers)
Allowing Natural features as POI.
I think it would be cool if they could swap priority for the event? For example, places where the natural turn around time is more than a year can be pushed towards the front for a week. Or maybe widen our review area without upgrade for a week. This shouldn’t affect rural areas too much if it is only for a small amount of time and then reverts back.
I think they should definitely do an Anniversary AMA.
I would say October if that is when Wayfarer was released.
I want to see at least 51% of reviews for every candidate come from non-local reviewers. This would cut down on abuse by ensuring that local cabals and multi-accounters can't make their own rules.
Please no, not this. In Australia, we have a very weird problem regarding states and nominations on the opposite sides of the country. If someone upgraded a gazebo in Western Australia, all the eastern states that don't care will cause it to be overall rejected, and vice-versa. Someone in Sydney trying to submit a mural will probably get it rejected by even Victorians and pretty much everyone else (even the ACT at times) when upgraded. Which is why often upgrades are the bane of existence to Australian reviewers. Not generalising all interstate reviewers, but that is the case.
But in regards to the Wayfarer anniversary, I would like to see:
I can live with this. This please. Thanks.
I want a hat that I can wear
Id Like wayfarer to be shut Off and replaced by a new system that isnt broken as feature
@rodensteiner-ING What would the new system look like for you?
besides the obvious things (having easy but strict rules, training for new submitters and reviewers, less things to submit, earn submission rights by reviewing):
I'd like a free bonus and/or home location move.
"False rejections" is hard to claim on Trail Markers, since people do not agree on what a valid Trail Marker is. Some people think a flimsy arrow without any information is enough - for me it needs the trail's name, evidence of the location and not be a node point.
"Natural feature" oh lord no, we already get enough flowers, trees, bushes, ... to review
Why don't you like all those 'Historical and unique' community trees? Don't you know that all trees are 100 years old... (ok: they are very tiny and their tree trunk is only a couple of centimeters wide and their location is in a front yard of a place where alot of trainers play with many accounts and the other stops are at least 50m away)
Just saw one pass by that was "Old tree", both title and Supporting info. 😶
Oh! I almost forgot.
I want Niantic to rework the system that it uses for sending rejection email so that the results are actually useful to the submitter. I'm pretty sure there's not currently a rejection that boils down to "your candidate just didn't get enough stars to pass", but instead Wayfarer goes hunting around for some field where the candidate got a low star rating and includes that in the rejection email. (I'm also pretty sure this is why people incorrectly believe that a 1/2* rating in any category is a rejection of the whole submission.)
Telling submitters something like, "Reviewers did not rate this highly enough for it to be accepted" would be far more useful. And only include the top 1* rejection reason rather than the one that only one person selected... that would remove most of the "wrong rejection reason!" drama.
I'm also pretty sure this is why people incorrectly believe that a 1/2* rating in any category is a rejection of the whole submission.
@NianticCasey-ING @NianticGiffard Can you please dispel this horrible lie that @Hosette-ING continues to spread?
There is a reason that people get rejections for "not visually unique" and "not culturally significant", and people who dont understand how the system works, constantly spread misinformation, and then claim they have "secret contacts" with Niantic due to their leadership position on Facebook damages how the entire wayfarer system functions.
The sanctioned misinformation needs to end.
@AisforAndis-ING That's exactly what I asked for in my last comment. (-: Niantic is providing misinformation by sending rejection reasons that aren't actually why the candidate got rejected, which leads to misunderstanding like the notion that a candidate that scores 5* 5* 5* 1* 5* 5* will be rejected.
Amen.
It is a demonstrated fact that nominations have been rejected with only a single criterion:
Not culturally or historically significant.
We have seen libraries, ballfields, churches and playgrounds rejected from time to time. These only make sense if there is a disjoin between the reviewers’ internal narrative and the functionality of the Wayfarer system.
Reviewers need to acknowledge that when they vote one or two stars in ANY category, they are voting to REJECT the nomination. Please, Niantic-folk. Step up to the plate and address this.
Skillful reviewers can change bonus location freely during the event.
That should be fun.
Niantic clairly said that we don't need trail name to validate a trail marker. According to Niantic, every Trail Marker should be eligible.
For natural feature, the "permanent" criteria is threre to not allow flowers. But i think absurd to not allow natural features. Many places in natural area could be great points of Interest. But the system is nosign = rejection (and sometimes even with a sign it's a rejection). It's just absurd.
Niantic games should not be reserved to cities.
Similar to the Nominations list, I would like to see:
• A list of our edits to waypoints (name, description, location, photo) similar to the waypoint submission list.
When submitting a waypoint, I would like to see:
• A spelling, grammar, and punctuation interface when submitting waypoints.
When voting via a mobile device, I would like to see:
• The timer
• The notification if another waypoint is less than 20m away
• Cells imposed on the map
When voting via a laptop/computer, I would like to see:
• Cells imposed on the map
When submitting a Pokestop via PoGo, I would like to see:
• Cells imposed on the map
And for waypoint criteria, I would like to see these even though they might be unpopular:
• Neighborhood signs as acceptable POI
• Directional trail signs as acceptable POI. Example: https://i.imgur.com/FjwT432.jpg
Do you believe every large tree or rock should become a Wayspot? Because that's what people are nominating at the moment.
Having a named trail allows you to confirm this is actually a trail, not a random path. Named trails are referenced on tourism websites etc. Nowadays, people can just create a simple wooden arrow, state it's a trail and expect people to approve it.
If you cannot provide a name or prove it is an official trail, and not just the alley behind your house, I'll reject it.
Id love to see Niantic giving stage to the community. What I always thought of was a "Meet the community/wayfarers" where every interested Wayfarer (especially those who run the system with their daily input) get a few seconds to tell a story or jus simply their positive experiences with Wayfarer. Also, an idea for this would be a "whats your favourite nomination you made?", simply talking about the discovery and showing some cool POIs all over the world. Ssonerhing like this might show hiw great Wayfarer can be.
Ingress had a "post your favorite Portal" a year or so ago. Something like "share your favorite nomination" would be really fun.
This is why I'd like Trusted Reviewers. I currently leave a bunch of swears and ragey comments on the stuff where I know the submitter should be banned because *nobody actually sees them*. If I knew the submitter was gonna read it, I would put a lot more effort into giving constructive feedback and directions. Rather than me raging and spamming fire emojis.
Also being able to give good submitters a thumbs up and tell them they did a great job.
Honestly more than anything, shut the current system down for subs (allow for *global* reviews everywhere) and work on a new system. Clear the old system and get a select minority (i.e. your Trusted Reviewers/Submitters) to submit to the new one to test it. Submit trash, 5*, etc, you name it. Try to break the new system. See how it works.
Sure it's not gonna be cheap, but niantic also have to market their own database as well. You have to invest in order to get something out of it. I think so many are so demotivated with the old system and niantics unwillingness to change that we've just stopped trying to do anything because we actually can't.
Niantic promised to look at limbo. Meh.
Niantic promised to change review ratings. Meh.
Niantic probably promised to do a submitter test? Meh.
Honestly I'm not sure what they've actually done that we've acclaimed their brilliance about. Even the wayfarer challenge is their way of trying to palm the system's failings onto us.
My idea:
A video with multiple wayfarers from all over the world standing in front of their favorite nomination telling what the nomination is and how they found it. Also, maybe some interesting facts about it.
My "draft" to show how my idea looks like:
"I found this cool exhibit while driving towards my anchor of an HCF 6 I planned. It was more coincident because, on the first passing, I haven't seen it. Even better that I found it on the second passing. When I saw it the first time, I already saw it as a POI ingame. I made a lot of photos and started to do some research about the car. I found out, that the car was from "Mayberry", which is a fictional city known from TV. With a bit of help from the community, I quickly had my maximum of characters for a description reached. The fact that this object is located on a totally different continent made it even more interesting. I even blurred out the license plate in order to increase the quality of the nomination even more. Sadly, the location is not close to my normal play area, but I am even happier to see it every time I am driving past the POI.