8 Gyms suddenly demoted to Pokestops?

Wayspot Appeals
1
  • Wayspot Title #1: In Loving Memory of Ben Hails
  • Location #1: 43.110712, -79.089238
  • Wayspot Title #2: Bernadette Claydon
  • Location #2: 43.111157, -79.088074
  • Wayspot Title #3: The Park In The City
  • Location #3: 43.111571, -79.086372
  • Wayspot Title #4: Tissue Donor Memorial
  • Location #4: 43.107996, -79.089023
  • Wayspot Title #5: Tranquility
  • Location #5: 43.107421, -79.086715
  • Wayspot Title #6: Buckley Monument Fairview Cemetery
  • Location #6: 43.108525, -79.086087
  • Wayspot Title #7: Dedicated Bench Plaque to Troy Good
  • Location #7: 43.106307, -79.090426
  • Wayspot Title #8: In loving Memory of Mr. & Mrs. Perry
  • Location #8: 43.105813, -79.088789
  • City: Niagara Falls
  • Country: Canada
  • Additional Information:

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I’ve never heard of or seen anything like this happening before, I would appreciate any insight. This area has 70 or so community made Pokestops, 8 of which were gyms until today. They are now appearing as normal Pokestops with the rings around them as if they were newly spawned Pokestops. I work for the city (the Pokestops and Gyms were on city property,) and have spoken to the owners of the land and they insist they don’t even have a clue what I’m referring to when I mentioned Pokemon Go related inquiries. While I have reason to believe this was a neighbouring community member’s doing out of spite towards players in this area, I have no proof of it. I know that Niantic has the ability to completely remove POI’s that were not within eligibility criteria, but that is not the case with any of the affected Gyms. Why would all of the Gyms in one area be demoted to Pokestops? With less than a week until GoFest, this is a very upsetting revelation for the community here. There is not a more walkable, pedestrian friendly area in the entire city that we are able to play at for extended periods. A lot of people worked very hard to make this accessible area a community friendly place to play. Any insight would be appreciated, thank you

2

Can you please recheck and also look at the Wayfarer map at Niantic Wayfarer to match what is showing there with Pokemon Go. A lot of these are showing up as Gyms.

It’s possible the map is out-of-date and will get updated soon. If they have been demoted, this being a cemetery (with a huge number of ineligible wayspots) may be why the gyms were demoted as it is a sensitive area.

3

The gyms are not live in game as of today, although maps on Wayfarer and Campfire still show them as gyms. I can only assume the maps will sync tomorrow or the day after.

4

Just an FYI, Campfire may take longer than that to update. We had a gym deleted in my neighborhood, and it was still showing on Campfire for around three weeks. (But never with an active raid on it.)

5

Since the location appears to be on a cemetery, that could be an indication as to why. Maybe someone from the city administration asked Niantic to demote them because they don’t want large amounts of groups gathering there for raids. Having PokéStops on a cemetery doesn’t create the amount of community gatherings than gyms, so that’s probably why. On the other hand, if the threshold for gym creation is still met, other gyms should’ve gotten created automatically.

6

Hey @thighhighs ,

Welcome to the Wayfarer Community Forum.

We have removed the Gyms from this location at the request of the property owner.

Best,