The outside of the drive-up starbucks has a beautiful mural of pacific northwest wildlife wrapped all the way around the building, and has been a favorite POI, but within the last couple days it has been randomly removed.
The Starbucks itself IS a sponsored stop, but that causes no conflict- these POI have existed on the POGO map in tandem for a long time.
It’s not a duplicate or generic business, as the POI is for the mural itself, which no other Starbucks location has. It’s not gone, as the mural is still there. It’s just as accessible as it was before… So I believe the POI as wrongfully deleted, and I’d really like Niantic to take a look at this
Hi @heterodont
I’ve moved your topic over to the appeal section because you want it reinstated, correct?
Is the sponsorship with this Starbucks location new?
Thanks for the move, yes that is the intention, I’m sorry I misplaced the thread
The sponsored POI has been there for as long as I can remember. If I recall correctly from looking at the photos, the mural POI has also been there for several years.
No problem, you saved my “job” as a moderator
Like Elli suggested it will be probablly good to do geo tagged photos to proof that the mural still exist.
In general Niantic/Scopely will come back to you in an undefined amount of time and tell their decision.
Good luck
Hello again! I’m not sure how to geotag photos, But I do happen to have some that I took within the last week. Frustratingly by coincidence, I was actually trying to get more photos added to it before I found it gone… I even have them in voting that closeup one in the gallery is actually mine too, it was auto accepted right away
Just got the screenshots. It does appear to still be in the database! Which makes this extra puzzling as it doesn’t seem to have changed in a way to warrent removal from pogo. It’s not because they’re in the same cell, because sponsored stops and non sponsored stops can exist in the same cell with no issue
In order to emphasize PokéStops based on partnership agreements, adjustments have been made to hide PokéStops based on the wayspot.
I checked it against the Ingress IntelMap, but it looks like the Wayspot for that mural hasn’t moved. Perhaps the recent update brought Starbucks PokéStops closer to Mural PokéStops. It seems that partner PokéStops are designated by contract companies, but perhaps Starbucks, the contract company, changed the designated location. Since the mural Wayspot is already in the correct location, editing its location would be a violation. All we can do is ask Starbucks to move the partnership PokéStop a little further away.
Sometimes (and I will stress that this is very inconsistent), sponsored Pokéstops or Gyms will temporarily hide regular Pokéstops or Gyms within a specific radius around them. I’m not sure of the exact radius, but I have seen in the past that sponsored locations have caused some Pokéstops to disappear whilst they’ve been active.
These Pokéstops will occasionally come back and then disappear again, and sometimes they don’t disappear at all, which is why I say it’s inconsistent. I can’t really hazard a guess as to what the intended behaviour would be in this situation, as I’ve seen several different behaviours, but I’m guessing that in this case, the sponsored location has suddenly started imposing the radius when it wasn’t previously doing so, and that might be why the mural has become hidden.
This Wayspot continues to exist in our database. We’re constantly making improvements to Pokémon GO and occasionally, you may notice changes to the PokéStops or Gyms in your community. While we are not able to fulfill your request to add back these locations at this time, we recognize the disappointment this may have caused and hope you continue to seek out adventures at other PokéStops and Gyms in your surrounding communities.
that closeup one in the gallery is actually mine too, it was auto accepted right away
