I followed the damn rules, I took my own photos. I was brief with the descriptions and didn’t mention pokestop once.
I’m trying to build up my local Pokémon Go community and I can’t get the people in here to allow me to have enough stops to complete a Field Research challenge in less than 5 days.
I sincerely hope that Scopley drops this method of adding Pokestops, because it’s broken.
My local gas station has a dirt parking lot, the tanks are above ground and you pay in a trailer. Most of our local businesses have dirt parking lots. It’s an extreme rural community and most of what I nominated is the only option within 40-50km.
I officially give up…you guys told me to try again and take better pictures. You told me not to use pokestop in the description and I didn’t
I nominated the only 2 places to work with 50km, the only resturant, the only grocery store, the only gas station, the only mechanic shop, the only bank etc…all rejected.
I’m not sure how much help I can offer. But I will say there are some strategies that people have discussed for wayspots in rural areas. See the thread below:
I do hope this helps you identify some other places. I would also suggest you share the restaurant nomination with us here. Folks are great about spotting things that could be improved.
Hello,
Sorry to hear that your frustrations with wayfarer and Pokemon Go continue.
It can be very difficult when there is not much at your village to submit.
If I recall correctly we offered to help if you wanted to post your possible nominations and to have a virtual look around the area. However I dont think you gave us those to look at.
That offer is still very much available.
At the moment you sound as though you are trying to do this worthy task very much on your own.
We can try to help. We cant work miracles and sometimes there is nothing there but if you want us to try we are willing to have a look.
It is up to you if you would like to take up that offer.
Hey there @SaskatchewanDad will you drop your location? Don’t Doxx yourself. I’ll take a look and see if I see anything that may help you out. disclaimer - the map has not been updated since May 23, 2025.
I can’t pull up a previous post from you where we gave you advice on what to submit to see what you had been told earlier.
The only one of these I think the community here may have recommended would be the town’s only restaurant. This would almost certainly meet criteria as a great place to be social in this setting. Have you tried to appeal this rejection? Would you like to share screenshots of it for advice?
The other places you mentioned all sound like generic businesses, which is a rejection reason. To read up on criteria, you can see these pages: Wayspot Criteria — Wayfarer Help Center
But the core criteria is that something must be a great place to exercise, explore, or be social, and those other places don’t sound like anything that would qualify.
As much as I appreciate the offers for help, I give up. I just can’t complete these XP Celebration research tasks without travelling over 100km and visiting 3-4 different small…but larger towns.
It’s totally ruined my experience and I’m the guy driving the local community. My stops are legit and they are all we have to offer in this small community of 65 people.
My hopes are that the new owner of Pokemon Go will use somebody else to regulate the stops in game, they have 4 Billion dollars to make back and they won’t be getting any of my money if I don’t play.
It will serve me better to file a complaint with scopley as I believe this is gatekeeping by an elitist group of people who have no power in life outside of this single action on this site.
Most of you are cool and I thank you for your sympathy. I come from southern Ontario and had none of these problems prior to moving here. There is a for sale sign in front of my house and maybe when I move to a larger area, I might open up the game again.
But know that my love for Pokemon Go and playing the game with my wife and 3 of my 5 kids was extinguished by the actions of those here who voted against my stops.
I don’t think filing a complaint will be the best way to go about this. I think sharing the general location of where you are here will be more helpful, as we can take a look around to see if there is anything that may be eligible. You should not provide your exact address, but a general location can be helpful.
If you are unwilling to provide this, there is little that can be done to help from us, and it’s very unlikely that the criteria and guideliens will be changed anything soon.
Hi,
It sounds as though you have reached a point where playing has ceased to be fun. And that is stressful.
Wayfarer does not provide the solution that you want. It has a different function. I can fully understand why you thought it would be a solution, but it was never designed to operate in the way you thought it would.
I hope your situation improves.
Any submission has to meet the criteria, that can be difficult if you can’t find good things to submit but it does prevent the map becoming clogged up with what some people call “coal”.
IMO small communities often have things that places like suburbs do not. Noticeboards, play areas, war memorials, any kind of church or chapel, any community hall are all good things to nominate. Walking trails can be good.
Some of these buildings you mention might have their own interesting past, historic buildings are a good category. They need not be very old buildings either, as long as you can explain their significance.
From your description I would probably start with the restaurant and stress how important it is to socialise in the community. Spend some time writing a good description.
Finally, remember that any wayspot has to fall into one of the three criteria of promoting exploration, socialising or exercise. Frame your submissions with those in mind.
The only restaurant in your area should absolutely qualify as a good place to socialise (the only place, sounds like!!)
Can you post the rejected nomination so we can see? Restaurants arent always easy to get accepted but they DO meet criteria, and this would at least double your stops
I see a lot of small towns in your situation, and I don’t doubt that it is frustrating. Imagine if every single nomination was accepted in larger cities though- the map would be absolutely crowded by POIs that miss the “I” part. I understand it’s frustrating for you though, and I do sympathize. Have you looked around for local art installations, historic locations, unusual oddities that maybe you’ve taken for granted but others might find interesting? I know you said your village is SUPER small, but I’m willing to bet there was an eccentric artist living there at some point (we’re everywhere) Maybe there’s still hope! Keep looking!
Generic businesses never meet criteria, unfortunately. If they did, maps would be absolutely cluttered with uninteresting spots.
When topics about rural areas comes up, we often talk about how in small rural areas the local gas station or grocery store can be the local hub for the community.
Does this gas station bring people together? Is there an outdoor seating area you might sit and talk for a while with your community members? A coffee stand?
What are some things you can do to both improve the community and create eligible points of interest? Can you ask the city about establishing a park or greenspace with signage? Can the gas station or other businesses install a public notice board, Little Free Library, or public art works? This can add value to the community at whole while giving yourself, locals, and passerby a place to be able to get a few spins in.
A small town I was staying in over the weekend has 48 people, 1 gas station, 1 post office, 1 playground. Each of these was a pokestop, and the gas station specifically was an inside photo of the little booths people can eat and socialize at.
I see you also saying “we” voted against you. It pulls from local players voting first and foremost, IMO within a certain kilometer radius. Do you and your community utilize campfire? You can all discuss on campfire what photos or specifics to nominate together before submitting? Is there a park in your town with a playground? Is there a historical building like an old log cabin? Does your town have an entrance sign or any kind of community information spot?
I’d hate to see you give up on this when the reality might be the AI rejecting these before people get eyes on it.
Page 43 of 50 of the current XP Celebration requires completing 86 Field Research tasks. How would you suggest that I complete this task and the 7 behind it before the October 14th deadline?
If I’m lucky enough to get all 3 AR scan tasks, I can get 10 in my village.
Then I have to drive 28 minutes to the next small village for 10-12 more research, leaving me still short by approximately 65.
Then I drive another 20 minutes to a town of around 1000 and get between 25-30 more. Leaving me needing 35-40 more.
At this point I’ve probably wasted 3-4 hours of my day.
Then I’m faced with the decision to drive another 45 minutes to get another 15-20 tasks.
Then I’m forced to drive anotber 20 minutes to get another 20 ish in the only other town within an hour of my front door.
This leaves me 20-25 minutes from home.
Total time invested 6-8 hours and an $80 tank of premium gas, just for 1 page of research.
All of my submissions are places I frequent in our village, which will be soon downgraded to a Hamlet.
You’re making it impossible for me to play the game.
I empathise with your frustration. But the source of that is the game not wayfarer.
One of the good things about Pokémon Go is that you choose what parts you want to do.
You don’t have to do everything they put in front of you.
If doing this is not suitable or fun don’t do it.
If you want to get the XP then there are other much simpler ways of getting more XP.
I’m sorry to say it but, It is not the role of wayfarer to provide every player in the world with multiple wayspots in order to do a task.
Your frustration is not with wayfarer it is with Pokémon Go.
If you want help with the submission of wayspots we will help.
But please consider that this community is not the place to take out your frustration with Pokémon Go.
While I understand your frustration, these issues are limitations of living in a rural area. We may be able to help you find a few more eligible candidates if you post the name of the town you’re in. That probably won’t be enough to help you get those tasks done. If it’s too frustrating to try to get those tasks done, perhaps you should just focus on playing normally, and at the same time we can try to help you expand play in your area.
From the descriptions, the restaurant is the wayspot most likely to pass with a good description. If you want help finding others, the article that LetsRollGirl linked above has suggestions for other things that do meet criteria.
Personally, I’d love to see a portable, balloon, pokestop that would let people play at least a little no matter how rural they are. There was a similar mechanic in the Catan game. Suggestions like that to Pokemon Go, might help alleviate the issues when there simply aren’t things that meet the wayfarer criteria in certain areas.
I was curious. Even though we don’t know where this village is located exactly, I wanted to understand what these words “village” and “hamlet” mean. In Saskatchewan, they have a definition (assuming that SaskatchewanDad lives in Saskatchewan).
Hamlet - must have at least 10 lots, 5 of them with occupied homes.
Organized Hamlet - size is the same, but there needs to be a 3 person board who meets at least annually
Village - this one is a little fuzzy, but I think you need at least a population of 100
Town - unless you can get a special designation, you need at least 500 people living there
So if SaskatchewanDad lives in a “village” that means there are between 100 and 500 people living there. But since he says it’s about to be downgraded to a “hamlet,” the population may be teetering just above that 100 person mark and about to drop below it.
I don’t have any data on Wayspot to population density averages, but I’m personally not surprised that a place that is losing population and probably community support doesn’t have many real world locations to nominate. We shouldn’t lose sight that Wayfarer and the games that build their maps on this system were designed to represent the real world. As the real world grows or declines, Wayfarer will reflect that.
Maybe there’s still hope! Keep looking!