Eligibility Level Changes in Pokémon GO - Discussion

General Discussion
41

I know my own experience may not impact much on how people feel about the level change, but i will tell it anyway:

So, after seeing how helpful the community is, I decided to make some helpful guide about Wayfarer in my own country facebook group about Pokemon Go. I thought to myself: “oh it is Wayfarer i don’t think many people care much about posting pokestop in general”, so I didn’t except big number reaction and just niche.

My first post is “How to sign in wayfarer and post pokestop” with the basic information, what to post and what to not post. I thought the post would get 10-12 likes and that’s it but no, the post get 72 likes and 20 shares, one of the top most post of the month. Mind you it was level 37 post, not 35, I was surprised, and some people asking me for advice, or what to post, or finding a place to post. Safe to say it was out of scope for me.

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Then the next day, I posted a more advanced understanding of how pokestops and gym spawn, and how to do basic reviewing. I thought my previous post is lucky by algorithm but no… still got 50 reactions and 28 shares?? It was the moment I know there were a huge amount of people in Vietnam who doesnt know how to post Pokestop and I can shred the light of knowledge to them.

Then the level 35 change hit, and I announce it on Facebook group, it get a lot of reaction and more people seek up to me to help writing description, help how to take photo for pokestop. I know one person, got 2 gym and some pokestops approved and all of them is Community center house, temple from zero. It is a great feeling to directly help and assist the person who is gonna grow the local community.

After the level 35 change, I decided to make some Wayfarer support post, and they get quite positive reaction, I personally some of people who know how to post Wayspot and show some of the coolest location i have ever seen. I even see one submitting in an island and now they got 11 wayspots approved! It was amazing to see some of location even exist in my country and was desiring to visit them one day.

Yesterday tho, I made a Wayfarer support post again, but this time it is the top post of the month, with 140 likes and 33 shares, and some of older people get motivated to post wayspot again(i know this is unrelated but i like to point out this part), and some of newer is finding some cool location to post and showcase people.

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Sure, my reaction have some bad apple, like some want a wayspot at home, but a lot of reaction is people discover location, discover new place and grow local community. And the level change make Wayfarer in here so much more active, and a lot of people can not wait to get 35 to grow the local community.

Thank you if you reading this far, I just want to share my own experience <3

11 Likes
42

Oh wow thanks for sharing that :purple_heart:
You’ve really a deep impact on your community and help to grow - love it

4 Likes
43

Thanks for sharing this and for doing it all with your local community.

Really lovely to read about this positive response from your community.

4 Likes
44

I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t something that gets discussed often, since it’s something we ask for often.

Keep in mind that there were changes made to the landing page for the Wayfarer website, which now provides links to the help pages, which was a big improvement and much welcomed by the community.

Right now, it’s up to us that have been submitting and reviewing to help educate the new users, whether that be here in the forums, on social media, in Campfire, in-person, etc.

1 Like
45

I am afraid that you are right, and this is so wrong.

3 Likes
46

I don’t see it as wrong, but more of a mixed bag.

Could Wayfarer do a better job with education? Yes.

Do seasoned Wayfinders already do a good deal of educating that is a help to Wayfarer? Yes.

Do some mind educating their communities? I don’t mind.

We’re never going to have what we consider our perfect onboarding system, our perfect educational system, so some of that is always going to be up to us to provide help with.

47

If they want to provide learning opportunities for new wayfinders, it would be a good idea to bring back the Wayfarer reviewer test.

48

What learning opportunities did the Wayfarer test provide? I don’t remember reviewing being any better then.

1 Like
49

I think this is because ‘the level of tests imposed by Wayfarer was too low’ and ‘learning opportunities were missed because mistakes were not highlighted’.
The change to the current review system has also contributed to the overall decline in quality.

If you are not told what you got wrong, you will miss out on ‘learning opportunities’.
Even if you pass, you cannot correct your misunderstandings.

Furthermore, in a review system where you are only asked to provide a reason when you select ‘NO’ in a yes/no multiple-choice question, it encourages you to select ‘YES’ when you are unsure.

50

This is not true

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selecting I dont know under accuracy for example gives you options including a box at the bottom for some free text.

It is not a binary choice throughout there is the I dont know option.

1 Like
51

As you pointed out, even if you answer “I don’t know,” you may be asked for the reason.
I will correct that point.
The important point here is that the current system does not ask for the reason for choosing “ YES.”

If the reason for all choices is asked, the fairness of the choice will be maintained, but now there is a strong force behind the choice of “ YES.”
This is because when people are asked why they made a choice, they are more likely to think that their choice may be wrong.

52

There are systems in place to catch people who review incorrectly

2 Likes
53

I think the only problem I have with review system is “Distinct” and “Permanent” is in one voting choice. I personally think they should be separated because both quality I mentioned above is completely different thing to be judged, and it is hard for people who get rejection reason can identify what is wrong specifically.

3 Likes
54

“Permanent and Distinct” is often misunderstood since people assume it means whatever their own personal understanding of “Permanent” and “Distinct” is. And, when they see “and” between those two words people think it is two different metrics. But, that is not the case, we should consider “Permanent and Distinct” as a whole phrase and just one metric, and its definition be the one that Niantic has provided:

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As you can see, ‘Permanent and Distinct’ is specifically quoted together so they should be considered together. And the conditions a wayspot needs to meet in order to validate their ‘Permanent and Distinct’-ness are:

  1. Being identifiable within its vicinity (Distinct)

  2. Being repeatedly accessible or (Permanent)

That’s it. The problem that usually arises is that reviewers tend to separate them and the discrepancy between the reviewer’s idea of ‘Distinct’ and Niantic’s. Reviewers tend to use their own definition of ‘Distinct’ which can entail any combination of artistic, cool, unique, special, not boring, etc. when in reality, to Niantic, it just means something that is visible and identifiable (to prevent people from nominating things that are hidden)

So when you look at it the way Niantic see’s it: ‘Permanent and Distinct’ is just a check for reviewers to acknowledge if a submission can be seen and returned to.

55

The text actually said “visually distinct enough”. Simply being visually identifiable is not sufficient.

Again, this is not what the text says. Not meeting this is a reason to reject, but that is not the only component of “permanent and distinct”.

56

It doesn’t matter that it states “and”. If either is not met then it is a reject.

It could be Distinct but not Permanent.
It could be Permanent but not Distinct.
It could not meet either.

All the above mean that it is not “Permanent and Distinct”.

1 Like
57

The text actually said “visually distinct enough to identify”

Simply being visually identifiable in the immediate area is sufficient. The point is that people should be able to easily spot it.

This is what the text says:

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And this what it says when you click on the “i” bubble:

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What does the text say? Where are these other components?

58

Yes “and” means nothing, “Permanent” and “Distinct” should be considered together. Exactly what I wrote, you are in agreement with me.

59

I still don’t see your point against splitting them, as there is 3 different reasons to reject these could be better used to notify the submitter why.

Maybe using the same idea as “Accuracy” with a pop up asking whether the rejection is due to “Permanent”, “Distinct” or “Both”. At least then Niantic can give a better reply to the reason it was Rejected.

1 Like
60

I’ll just drop it that Niantic/Scopely have told people, in this forum, that when a wayspot submission just doesn’t cut it, but does superficially tick every box (it exists, it is publicly accessible, it is permanent, it can be identified), you have to explicitly reject it and that rejection for “permanent and distinct” is the way to go.

Saying something does not meet criteria for exercise, exploration or socialisation does not equal rejection.

For example, a standard boring generic street name sign. What is the basis for rejecting it?