Appeal against removed Pokestops and gyms at 3 Universities and the historic cemetery (Lublin, Poland)

Wayspot Appeals
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Dear Niantic Team,

Many players from my city have been protesting for several days due to the removal of a significant number of pokestops in two locations in the center of Lublin, the capital of the Lublin Voivodeship, Poland.

The first location (51.245517,22.541628 - the most common meeting place for players) is the so-called Miasteczko Uniwersyteckiego, so called because there are three universities located there. This is an extremely popular game location for many players, where there are Pokestops such as memorial sites, commemorative plaques, sculptures, monuments to people associated with science and figures important to the local community. Among the removed university areas is the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, the largest in the eastern part of Poland. As you know, the name comes from a famous scientist associated with Lublin, who was the only person in history to receive two Nobel Prizes in two different disciplines.

The second of the removed universities is the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin. It is called so because Pope John Paul II taught there, just before his election as pope.

The second location (51.243736,22.549438 - center of the area) is the area of the historical necropolis in Lublin. POIs such as places of worship of Three Different Religions have been removed in the cemetery! Because Lublin has always been a place of peaceful coexistence of followers of different religions. In addition, in the removed area there were memorial sites for those who died in the national uprising in 1863, those who died in World War I and those who died in World War II. Several objects were the graves of people historically important to the city and the local community. At the same time, the Philharmonic and the Center for the Meeting of Cultures were removed.

Due to the fact that the removal of these pokestops and gyms ruined the game for trainers from a large city, I am asking on behalf of the local community and myself to restore the two locations described above to the game.

Here are the names and coordinates of several of the almost hundred deleted pokestops:
Statua Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej - 51.245517,22.541628

ACK UMCS Chatka Żaka - 51.245259,22.537882

Pomnik Jana Pawła II KUL - 51.247467,22.544729

Monument Uniwersytetu Przyrodniczego w Lublinie - 51.243804,22.541169

Wydział Filozofii i Socjologii - 51.24505,22.540895

Kaplica Cmentarna na Lipowej - 51.243941,22.545506

Filharmonia im. Henryka Wieniawskiego w Lublinie - 51.24613,22.548332

Cerkiewka na Cmentarzu - 51.243736,22.549438

Krzyz Poleglym Zolnierzom - 51.244139,22.547772

PĹ‚yta pamiÄ…tkowa cmentarza ĹĽydowskiego - 51.244643,22.552065

and many more.

Kind regards.

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Removal of these PokéStops/Gyms is a temporary measure and a part of our anti-abuse drive. The locations you have mentioned were abused to create clusters. The Wayspots eligible to appear in Pokémon GO will be back soon on the gameboard. Thanks,

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I’m just wondering why you are oppressing the city of Lublin at a time when in many other locations around the world there are more pokestops concentrated in one place. This looks like a lack of equal treatment from Niantic and unclear criteria for selecting the places where you apply your so-called anti-abuse program.

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That’s a serious allegation. I can assure you that our policies do not discriminate at all. We take necessary action on all the reports we receive irrespective of the location. If you know a place where Wayspots/clusters have been created abusively, please report them to us and we will take necessary action.

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So you confirm that you are using reports from people whose motivation is to take revenge on the Pokemon Go community for removing them from the community as a result of violations such as using fly-gps or insulting other players? Do you know that in this way you help cheaters and toxic people destroy the meeting places of Pokemon GO players and discourage people from playing your game?

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We take every report very seriously and review it on its merits. If you think any player is violating T&S please report them to the concerned game and they will take necessary actions.

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You write that you check all reports for their content, but from our point of view, it is the avenging player who reports objects for removal from a distance of several hundred kilometers, without being on site and without evidence. And when we get there, we see that dozens of pokestops that meet the criteria and all the requirements are disappearing.
Many players have reported its violations, but your ineffective actions have only encouraged him to continue taking revenge on communities.
Taking these two aspects, we can conclude that you don’t care about Pokemon GO communities.

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Anyone is free to report wayfarer abuse. You seem to not be understanding what has happened here.

Some time ago, there was a flaw in the wayfarer system which allowed for people to deliberately misplace wayspots to get them to appear in Pokémon Go when they shouldn’t have been able to, and then move them into the correct locations using location edits in order to create clusters of Pokéstops and Gyms that exceed the normal density rules for Pokémon Go.

This might’ve happened accidentally in a few places, but if a large area has many instances of Level 17 S2 Cells with multiple Pokéstops, and/or Level 14 S2 Cells with more than 3 Gyms, that is definitely not accidental and is a sign that local wayfarers abused this flaw in the system whilst it existed.

Niantic fixed the flaw a couple of years back and are now working on cleaning up the abuse that was committed whilst it existed. Any of the Pokéstops and Gyms that have disappeared during this clean up should never have been able to exist in the first place. They only existed as the direct result of abusive actions. In other words, your community was benefitting from the actions of people cheating the system, even if you didn’t cheat it yourself.

I can appreciate it might be a bit disheartening to lose several Pokéstops and Gyms, but they shouldn’t have existed, and you do still have access to all of those Pokéstops and Gyms that do correctly follow the density rules used in Pokémon Go. It’s not like Niantic have completely removed everything here.

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As someone who has observed many dates on pokethings in violation of the density rules in a variety of cities in Poland, I can confidently say that the majority of the abuse was of a more recent flaw.

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The situation repeated itself on October 10. To date, none of the objects have returned.

Apparently, Niantic has joined the harassment of players in Lublin and approves of endlessly reporting the same areas, which are often parks and family estates. In most of these areas, it is no longer possible to play peacefully because gyms, pokestops, etc. are disappearing.

I think it’s time to write something to the Pokemon Company about the company holding the rights to their product.

5 Likes