I was just doom scrolling on Facebook and found a pokemon go post with several comments from people either admitting they have managed to get stops added on their private property, or advising people on how to create fake “art” to nominate and get added.
Oh sorry - I never thought! Will do that now!
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Don’t believe everything you see on social media. If there are people doing this, they will eventually get caught.
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So you don’t think people advising others on things to do to try to fake nominations is a problem? Because I do, even if they haven’t actually done it themselves.
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It’s not something the team has control over. People can say whatever they want on social media, as long as that site allows what is being said. There’s a lot of mis/disinformation on social media that just can’t be trusted.
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Niantic can’t control what happens outside their channels. If theres direct examples of abuse to be dealt with, those can be reported.
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I didn’t say they could? I was more shocked that people would be so brazen about admitting it! And I thought by sharing examples of things they were suggesting people do, it will help us to know to be wary if you come across a nomination with anything like that on it!
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Not shocking to me. People do it all the time on social media. Social media these days kind of invites people to act like this somewhat, due to the algorithms and what not.
Besides, there are ways to check if a nomination is on SFPRP while reviewing, and reviewers can reject for that. I just had a statue nomination this weekend that didn’t show it was on SFPRP, but from satellite/Street View, it was, so I rejected as being so.
I mean… all of us should be wary about a pile of rocks at any time, this context doesnt change that.
Omg, people are really brazen aren’t they!!! Wow.
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That’s true. But I figured this could potentially increase people trying it on. I’ve never seen anyone posting ideas before for fake nominations - at least in the past people suggest genuine things to look for to nominate.
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I guess we are too used to the forum and good advice 
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It does take your breath away the way some can be so casual about it. Although there is nothing that can be done, it is a problem as it normalises the behaviour and so we then get people who fall foul because they had been emerged in this behaviour.
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I see you don’t frequent reddit 
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Really, all that we can do is refute whatever is being said, if we are comfortable with responding back. However, that’s not always going to work, as you could just be attacked for trying to correct the info.
And yeah, Reddit and Twitter/X can be full of pretty brazen posts.
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I don’t think want to stumble down that rabbit hole!
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I did reply to one to tell them that is considered abuse and could get them a ban. It’s all well and good taking the risk yourself - but advising others to do it where they might naively do it without realising (yes they should read the rules, but if you read 5 people telling you to do x you might think that’s allowed) just geeks worse.
I am pretty lucky though as I have 4 genuine stops and a gym I can reach from my house, and 2 more from my garden/driveway. I can imagine it’s frustrating in very rural areas not having anything.
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Reddit is a sespool.
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“To be fair,” most of the complaints we see about “rural areas” end up being suburbs. And many people make the choice to move to rural areas to get away from high property tax, city infrastructure, and the busy-ness that generally lends to what makes eligible POI.
That’s in no way inclusive, of course, and I do think a new approach for handling these should happen. I do empathize with rural (and even suburban) areas. I also don’t think it’s an excuse for abuse.
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