Any public space, large or small, green or grey is for the public to use as they please within the local laws/by-laws. And these can vary from town to town, city to city. Saying old folks aren’t allowed on the lawn at their care facility, although cruel, is not an issue since those care facilities are typically private institutions and they have their own policies (maybe their green space is on uneven land and can be a hazard for the residents with mobility issues, who knows) you can’t use that as a supporting argument against the use of green spaces.
If it is public and can comfortably accommodate a gathering of ~5 people then it is good in the eyes of Niantic
I think that is overusing the idea of Socialize as a key criteria.
To be valid as a wayspot for the reasons of socialising, a POI has to be great for socialising. Otherwise pretty much everywhere would count. Spaces that incidentally allow socialising are not good enough for that point.
(I didn’t say old people aren’t allowed on the green spaces, but that the green spaces are not designed for use, but for looking at.)
A bit of green space does not meet criteria and I believe is the reason that people are trying to call them Pocket Parks to try and make them sound eligible. Nobody has posted any evidence to state that small area “Green” is anything but some grass.
This makes no sense at all, there are many places that are public that 5 people could gather, that doesn’t make then a good place to socialise.
5 people could meet at McDonalds but the majority are refused.
5 people could stand in front of graffiti but criteria states it should be rejected.
5 people could meet anywhere on any pavement (side-walk) but it doesn’t meet criteria.
And it turns out Niantic is extremely loose on what they view as a great place to socialize. A place where you (~5 people) can gather and watch life happen? Yes, al most every public place is viable to be submitted so long as you can prove the above conditions. That’s it. You think there are more rules, but there aren’t, except for the secondary criteria of permanent, distinct, temporary.
Yes 5 people at McDonalds can make it a great place to socialize. So long as it can fit the above criteria.
Yes 5 people standing in front of a place with graffiti is viable. It is not the graffiti that they congregating around, it’s the place where the graffiti is. A pavilion with graffiti doesn’t disqualify the pavilion. You would submit the pavilion not the graffiti.
And no, side walk would not be viable despite being public, because, you know, Niantic specifically prohibited them.
The ~5 people minimum has to work with Niantic’s main criteria.
All McDs would meet the criteria of sharing a drink or meal and watching public life but they are often nominated, rejected, appealed and rejected by Niantic.
Where did that pavilion come from, my graffiti was just on a generic wall stating “SlimboyFat71 Waz Ere!”, the graffiti is crap but many a time there is 5 people stood there discussing how bad it is.
I have missed a specific criteria of “No Side-walks”, I just took it as sensible that this was the case but as long as 5 of us have met there, share our bottle of wine (in paper bag) and watch all the people that walk past looking disgusted at us” should be eligible
There is no requirement for a wayspot to be a space suitable for a specific number of people. The screen shot of the socialise assessment regarding how many people is optional.
I never fill it in as I feel it is not an assessment I can make at a location I dont know.
To leap from that to a requirement of all wayspots being suitable for a minimumof 5 people is not correct.
It talks about people gathering, what you can do with other people.
If you think about it, it should be obvious.
You can exercise on your own, you can explore on your own, but you can’t socialize on your own. How can you socialize with others in a place that can only accommodate 0-1 people? People would be nominating pay phones and regular mail boxes at that point.
A generic reminder - Please share your opinions as your own interpretations, not as “this is what Niantic means by this”. Please leave this to staff. That may me misleading to new folks.
Please tell me a place that is: “A favorite gathering place for friends or strangers alike, where you can share a drink or meal, be entertained, or watch public life happen. Or something that draws us together to share an experience in a locally and culturally relevant way.”
By definition a place to socialize will accommodate multiple people, the optional question asking how many people is irrelevant to this. Just because a place can accommodate multiple people does not automatically make it a great place to socialize.
Also keep in mind that a post office, internet cafe of similar are great places to socialize but that doesn’t necessarily mean the socializing is done with people present there. The question asks how many people can gather there, not how many people can you socialize with.
People gathering to share an experience (internet cafe, post office) doesn’t mean they are directly interacting with the other people there.
We are in complete agreement, a great place to socialize must accommodate multiple people and they don’t necessarily have to be “socializing” with each other.
This is another example of bad UI design. The review system asks reviewers how many people if they say yes to the great place to socialise question. But this value appears to have no relevance at all to the review process. At a guess I’d assume it’s been put in to attach some metadata to gathering spots in the database for potential future use. For example maybe with an eye towards future uses of the database where they would want in-game POIs to only be large social gathering spots.
However, this is just poor design. If the information is important for the database then it should be collected up front in the submission by the person nominating it. And it should be cleaned out of the review process to focus on relevant questions/information.
Nope we are not in agreement at all, niantics minimum is not ~5 for socialization, that is a seperate irrelevant question asking hiw many people can confortably gather, after you have determined the waypoint meets the socializing criteria. A post office in a small town cannbeba greatvplace to socialize, and only be able to accommodate 1 person at a time confortably.
