General Wayfarer AMA Discussion

[NianticTintino]

Thanks for asking. Not sure the staff echo chamber is preventable. Currently whomever on our staff made the mistake isn’t part of the internal reviewers who addressed the Appeal or mistake shared on social. We have different team members who review those to ensure we get a second and third opinion.

Bad decisions shared on the forum should be raised through the appeal process as that’s the best way for us to track it in our data, include in our audits, help assess when we have the capacity to increase appeal limits, and much more data to make informed decisions.

[RGTGO]

@NianticTintino

Currently, our team processes an average of 100,000 contributions (nominations, edits, appeals, reports, etc) on a monthly basis

From a potential pool of 10s of millions of users, this seems low. But regardless, what percentage of that 100,000 contributions translates into a pokestop?

[Gendgi]

@NianticTintino

Bad decisions shared on the forum should be raised through the appeal process as that’s the best way for us to track it in our data, include in our audits, help assess when we have the capacity to increase appeal limits, and much more data to make informed decisions.

But I’m discussing bad staff decisions. There is no way to appeal appeal decisions and increased appeal limits doesn’t do anything to correct or overturn when we believe staff gets it wrong. And many times they are unwilling or unable to weigh in for that additional support.

[8h20m]

Thanks Tintino.

RE: Wayfarer Map and Web Submissions (first question).

• View all Wayspots on our global map

Is this Wayspots at only the live state? Or do you mean ‘all Wayspots’ in the sense of those in submission (yet to be reviewed) and removed (toggle the map). Thinking about how this will help not only nominators in saving their time duplicating unnecessarily efforts but also reduce the impact on the review - and the report - queue to others. A real time activity map.

• View the Title, Description, Photos, Location

So if a live Wayspot has multiple photos attached we can now see all of them? IIRC there was one Wayspot in the past that had about 16 attached photos will we be able to see that one in all its glory? Like we had with the beta Wayfarer developer app.

Or do you mean one Wayspot, one photo? Like we have with the Geospatial Browser (for reference).

And View the Wayfinder name is not standard feature? Obviously picking up on their privacy settings. Sidenote I had a dream once that you could click on a Wayfinder’s name and it listed all their different contributions. Even toggle the map. Now that dataset would be interesting. But getting ahead of ourselves.

• Filtering capabilities, including filtering for Wayspots that are active on the Pokémon GO map

Read the bit about MHN and PB part but with the Pokémon GO map itself is the sponsored content held on that team’s database? Or are you saying it’s held on the Wayfarer Master Map now and we can even toggle to sponsored POIs?

Likewise will the filtering also include the third-party imports?

• Etc.

You tease. Wait… is this the Wayfinder contribution feature I just mentioned? Oh my.

• Save as drafts

Think we asked for this on PoGO (and Ingress back then) so if the web submission now has it, are you saying for consistency PoGO will get it as well? Or are you planning on removing the submission feature from PoGO altogether? Less pain of the change request and going through another team I would imagine.

For the first version of the map

So for the first version of the map it is read only? Remote edits anywhere in the world is coming?

Is there a beta release we can sign up for and feedback?

And for future releases are you allowing API access?

Be interesting to see the timeline of future map version and web submission release notes. What is reasonable to expect? Significant release every year? Minor release every quarter?

Thanks.

[NianticTintino]

Not sure where you’re getting millions of Wayfinders but I wish we were close to that, that would be awesome!

[RGTGO]

The millions I am getting is from the millions of active Pokémon go users, once they reach the eligibility level they are technically potential wayfarer users. There should be millions of them to draw from.

[cyndiepooh]

Regarding this piece:

@NianticTintino

How relevant are “Wayforum Criteria?

The criteria shared on the Wayfarer Forum are incredibly relevant. While there’s been bits and pieces added over the time, our most recent Wayfarer Criteria Clarification is what should be held as the most up-to-date. Any previous clarifications that conflict with our most recent clarification should no longer be held as a source of truth or relevant when it comes to nominations and reviewing. Regarding the reach of our Wayfarer Forum, I think we can do better to expose recent changes, new additions, etc. We will collaborate with our Wayfarer Ambassadors to thinktank through some of the solutions and share those when we’ve identified some viable options to spread more awareness of our changes and channels of information.

I read this as “if it hasn’t been contradicted, old forum guidance still applies.” Is that a correct interpretation? Following are two old forum clarifications that are controversial any time they come up here. Would be great to get specific guidance on these.

Trying to force a specific Pokestop to become a gym is abuse:
https://web.archive.org/web/20230514155712/https://community.wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/discussion/comment/68124#Comment_68124

NianticAaron
It has never been an intention to be able to manipulate the in-app map to ensure a certain Wayspot becomes a Gym. Any attempt to do so is actually considered to be Wayfarer abuse and could result in your Wayfarer account termination.

We treat all in-game locations equally and they all need to meet our criteria. Our density and inclusion criteria determine which Wayspot should be included in our games and it should remain that way. Thanks,

Instagram tags (handles, signatures that start with @) are not allowed in titles or descriptions:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240329075505/https://community.wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/discussion/comment/140344#Comment_140344

NianticGiffard
Just to make you really, really sure:

Artwork painted by Mr Spraypaint. = acceptable

Artwork painted by @MrSpraypaint" = not acceptable

[Gendgi]

@NianticTintino

Any previous clarifications that conflict with our most recent clarification should no longer be held as a source of truth or relevant when it comes to nominations and reviewing.

@NianticTintino I read it exactly opposite as Cyndie does - perhaps this is why I included these as examples of how these misunderstandings have become so important. Can you offer clarification here, please?

[cyndiepooh]

I read “conflict with our most recent clarification” to mean there has been an opposite ruling since these were made. On the examples I gave, there has been no opposite ruling.

[8h20m]

Regarding this one…

Can we split rejection reason “The submission is likely not permanent or distinct”?

The Ambassadors and the Wayfarer Team sought to clarify this after the new reviewing system was implemented.

It’s good that there is change coming from this question but.

But isn’t there a clear opportunity here for the Ambassadors to be involved / consulted at the design or testing stage? Working in collaboration early on. I could be wrong but it reads as though the Cohorts are an after thought here.

I find it odd no user groups were involved that found these issues. What happens next time the system changes?

[8h20m]

@cyndiepooh

I read this as “if it hasn’t been contradicted, old forum guidance still applies.” Is that a correct interpretation?

I read it as that too.

To muddy the waters further I had expectations that the criteria clarifications will be refreshed / updated from the experience and knowledge of Cohorts 4. Still waiting for footbridges and other stuff of old to appear.

[Gendgi]

@NianticTintino

@NianticTintino

What even is “generic business” and why did it come back?

I see the second half of my question was unanswered.

As I detailed, it had been removed and announced to a relatively excited community by NianticCasey.

Why was the decision made to bring back such a controversial, misused and misunderstood rejection reason?

[PokeOnlyDeath]

I am surprised that you think this answer answers the question from Wayfinder.
You might want to write a little more clearly.

[Gendgi]

I’d also reiterate how frustrating statement is.

@NianticTintino

Any previous clarifications that conflict with our most recent clarification should no longer be held as a source of truth or relevant when it comes to nominations and reviewing.

This implies that if it isn’t contradicted it holds true. There’s so much historical tidbits that simply aren’t available anymore. Just two that were brought up recently are needing the be able to stand next to and physically “touch” the Wayspot (please if I’m missing where that’s spelled out, help me) and the “vertical distance” where we say height doesn’t matter.

Without these published or even currently posted and quoteable we lose out on ability to share that knowledge and creates unnecessary community dissent.

[AliceWonder1511]

@Gendgi

“vertical distance” where we say height doesn’t matter.

Are you looking for that:

@cyndiepooh

Niantic Wayfarer

• Place the pin at the base of overhead objects

[Gendgi]

Thanks! I still could see value in a more direct statement like we previously had, but this does help.

[smantz0rZ]

The answers to the questions about the map make me absolutely giddy. I hope that it won’t be too complicated to implement, and that we’ll see the map as soon as possible. Sounds fantastic!

[DTrain2002]

So, some of the questions I asked didn’t get enough votes, even though they are topics that are heavily discussed in the forums, such as the eligibility of signs, especially neighborhood/subdivision signs, some feeling the forums are bad, etc. Any chance that some of these unanswered questions may get answered in the future?

I do feel that the voting aspect of the AMA may not have been the best way to go about things, as we had to wait several days to do so, and some may have skipped over some questions. May I suggest that likes to a question also be looked at and considered as votes, if that’s the route that the AMA takes in the future?

[DTrain2002]

Also, another thing to note about this thread: if there is a new post, it doesn’t show up in the latest topics. If I want to see the latest posts, I have to go into the AMA sub-category. Don’t know if anyone else is having this issue; there’s a good deal I’ve had to catch up on because of this. I know it’s pinned in the AMA sub-category, but even unpinning it for me doesn’t do anything.

[AMG7070]

Same for me