In Finland there is at least one person who is abusing his power and removing locations at his own will.
There is proof as he has confessed to removing hundreds, maybe thousands of locations destroying GamePlay experience in PokemonGo of an entire community in the capital of Finland.
Is there any way to report this abuse?
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You can use help chat to report player abuse. Go to help section of the Wayfarer site Niantic Wayfarer and a speech bubble will pop up.
If the removals are correct, it isn’t abuse to report them.
Does not help as it there is no way to report abuse in Wayfarer community
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There is also the “Reporting Abuse” link at the top here if you don’t want to use help chat for some reason.
That has been done.
I have no idea if there will be any actual response or action as Niantic does not seem to clean up other game abuse, like spoofing.
But Wayfarer abuse is a category that needs to be controlled.
Few rotten people spoil the important work that thousands do and spoil the game experience of millions with their view on how the game is to be played.
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Rest assured that Niantic takes removals very seriously and will not remove Wayspots without evidence. If you have filled out an abuse report, they will investigate. If something has been removed that you believe did not meet removal criteria, you can appeal the removal in Wayspot Appeals
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There are hundreds, maybe up to the thousands of removals of locations by a active member of the Wayfarer Finland Community in the Helsinki city area (Capitol).
The whole Pokemon Go community here is devastated by the power of one member who has confessed of doing this single handedly.
Destroying the game play experience of thousands of people.
There does not seem to by any way control the whim of a member in the Wayfarer community.
We here do understand there are Niantics guidelines to where a POI in its games should locate but there are also borderline cases and this member is abusing his power here.
It needs to stop!
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Hello @Stenutin
I cannot say for sure, but it seems incredibly unlikely that this one (or even a few) player could have this many improper removals. As already stated Niantic does look at all removal requests closely.
I suspect that this is an official cleanup of abusive pokestop/gym placements. See the link below for something similar being reported in Poland.
It has also been acknowledged in other locations.
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Ok, let’s clarify some things up for this community also.
(As a side note, I really would’ve had better things to do than this…)
@Stenutin is referring to me as “one person who is abusing his power and removing locations at his own will. There is proof as he has confessed to removing hundreds, maybe thousands of locations destroying GamePlay experience in PokemonGo of an entire community in the capital of Finland.”
What has ACTUALLY happened is that in Helsinki there was a large case of abuse where cluster of wayspots were fraudulently accepted and moved back and forth to create a cluster of pokestops and gyms. At that time when a pokestop was moved to an occupied s17 cell, it remained there. Nowadays this has been fixed. However Niantic could not retroactively fix these clusters and asked for the wayfarers to reports such clusters when they accounter them.
I admit that I have reported this cluster to Niantic as per requested by them at the previous community forums. But I have no idea whether Niantic acted based on my report, based on someone else’s report or on their own. And neither does @Stenutin . Now these excessive pokestops and Ingress portals are apparently gone and she/he has decided its my fault.
We are not talking about hundreds or thousands pokestops but maybe 10-20 that were removed from this cluster. I have no idea how many s17 cells were over-occupied.
Pokemon GO trainer @Stenutin found a social media post of mine where I commented having reported these to Niantic. And now she/he tries to blame me (on several forums) of “destroying the gameplay”.
I am not abusing any powers as I have the exact same powers as anyone else. I have contacted Niantic with a support form and provided them information I had about this cluster as they asked Wayfarers to do. No powers abused there, just doing my duty as a Wayfarer.
It appears to me that @Stenutin is nothing but upset that this cluster of pokestops that should never have been there in the first place is now gone. Now she/he found a scapegoat and has taken thisattitude to attack and abuse me on different social media platforms and make false abuse reports about my actions. I found this myself a borderline case of harrassment.
So here’s the actual story behind this rant. This discussion has been going on at the public “Wayfarer Suomi” Telegram channel that is meant for all the Wayfarers in Finland to help discuss Wayfarer issues in Finnish.
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check my first comment here. i assumed it was someone reporting things that ought to be removed. most of us will applaud you for this!
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Could it also be that Pokémon Go has done there what they’ve done in a few other places recently and basically reset the game board by forcing all way spots to comply with their inclusion rules? Just a question, I don’t have any knowledge of this.
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oh it absolutely could be that, and i liked your comment. i also have no insider knowledge of this, and i also find it hard to believe that
would be the result of one person reporting all of them. i have done removal reports and it is a time-consuming process.
This is the area I reported. Most of those wayspots were POIs in both Pokemon and Ingress. I can’t do the math but you’ll get the idea.
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@Stenutin welcome.
If it is an area where clusters of pokestops and gyms that broke the 1 per level 17 cell rule then Niantic have and continue to be taking steps to put things right. Manipulation of wayfarer to affect the gameboard is seen as a serious issue as it damages the database.
Typically what we have seen reported is
Shock from the Pokémon Go community as an area is cleared of poke things. It is shocking to see so much one.
It then takes a few days as the data is checked in background before a fresh sync happens and the pokestops/gyms that are meeting the density rules appear.
So it won’t be like it was but it will meet the rules and therefore be correct.
If that is what has happened just wait a few days.
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This is not that fresh issue. The area was cleared many months ago I think and has long been “as it should” aka meeting the density rules.
It is just that now some Pokemon trainers found out that I have (in the past) reported this cluster to Niantic and Stenutin decided that I am a “rotten person” who has “destroyed the gaming experience” of the whole continent at least.
And she/he has been explained this situation on our local forums already, but she/he decided to bring up this “abuse” of mine in here nevertheless.
I am an advocate for keeping the map up to date for many reasons. So I appreciate that you spoke up to have the area reviewed and cleaned up by Niantic (so that the game boards match the inclusion rule guidelines).
I do understand that for people that are just focused on playing specific game(s), it could come as quite a surprise to have spots removed and/or moved.
But I don’t appreciate the backlash that you are getting for this. I’m sorry that you are having to deal with this on several fronts. I wish that Niantic would be more transparent about the Lightship Database and the various game dependent inclusion rules. Though I suppose some people would still just be mad about it.
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None of the reactions I could make seem right for this post. I am sorry you are the recipient of abuse for doing the right thing.
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Mod note: removed part of the post
Thank you for explaining the broken system and bad coding we players experience daily. Im still banned for prizes in the broken AR subs in Pokemon GO.
Two things from a Wayspot subber:
There needs to be a way to identify the appraiser as there are personal frictions in the game. A number for the appraiser or something so that the bullying in Game Experience can be minimized.
Secondly, some sort of explanation in the rejected subs of what could be done better for the Sub to go appear in the game.
Sometimes a clear Wayspot is reject in a free cell and there is no way to know why, as there is only a reference to guidelines to start looking for any reason.
I do want to thank the Wayfarers for making the games.
Without your free work, the game play experience would be different, and most likely poor.
I would like to see Niantic somehow compensate your community because what they will do is sell your data and work for profit.
@forzacomo there is no need to reply, please.
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Hi, just a note that I have edited your post to remove a part and to another to say to the two individuals involved that I would like to see this interaction stop.
And another to point out to anyone reading that I don’t know the details of this case, but at the very least acceptance criteria do not involve “being alone in a cell”.
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