I read Casey’s comment as “A chain coffee place CAN be accepted as a Wayspot if it provides a unique environment, and IF you can convince the reviewers. Good luck, haha!” However, when such a place is already accepted, I see it as a fact that someone managed to convince the reviewers (or the interns who look at appeals). So, that place might be great (or good enough) and worth keeping.
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Well, nothing’s impossible.
If only an Arab oil tycoon would franchise a place to live in the middle of nowhere and drink “Starbucks” coffee every morning because he wanted to, even if it meant a huge deficit.
But that just doesn’t exist as a reality.
Let’s not play with nonsense, let’s look at reality.
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How would the staff working at this McDonald’s feel if they saw this Wayspot title? I am sure they would feel bewildered that the name of the restaurant they work at is not such a strange and long name.
Even if it is not appropriate for Wayspot, we should not do this.
I like funky titles
If I’m reviewing a cafe type place and theres nothing or very little on the “check for duplicates” map, I’m minded to accept, since that will by default be the place to socialise in that area.
If its in the middle of a town then I’m more picky
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I am raising a serious issue: most of the objects proposed as Wayspot are man-made, installed, maintained, managed, and preserved because they are necessary. I believe that we should stop calling them “coal objects” in a casual way. Even if they are not suitable as Wayspot, they are carefully maintained because someone needs them. The only things that should really be called coal are discarded objects and graffiti that defaces buildings without permission. McDonald’s is a chain restaurant, something that Wayspot cannot do, but it is a place where the staff working there work hard to satisfy the hunger of their customers with delicious burgers and fries. This should stop being shown on the game in this way.
Some of their food is okay. I find their coffee horribly bitter personally though, like they’ve burnt the beans to ash.
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Casey’s long-cited comment was not a joke. It was an earnest plea to remind reviewers that “what might be common or mundane in some places may be locations of significance for a local community,” a mantra that has since been repeated. There is a group that continues to misunderstand and mock Casey’s comment. These are literallists who have their heads up their asses and can’t see the forest through the trees who want everything spoonfed. It was never a “you must accept rural Starbucks” nor was it intended as a debate about if Starbucks can exist rurally. I’ll repeat, was a plea to remember that even “generic” places can be accepted.
I have had just as many social meetings with friends or social organizations at a Starbucks as I have at small “locally owned” cafes. I have had birthday parties in McDonald’s “lobbies” because my town had no meeting halls (birthday in the Midwest winter means parks are unavailable).
Does that mean I think every Starbucks or McDonald’s is eligible? Of course not. And I’m fully capable of judging whether or not a café, bistro, or even a fast food restaurant may or may not meet acceptance while recognizing that a department store, petro station, or pharmacy does not meet social criteria.
Don’t mistake the intent of this thread. The OP clearly stated in the first post it was “for a friend” and not their personal takedown request. It also is not an attack on fast food chains. It is a plea to consider eligibility & acceptable with existing Wayspots that do not appear to be acceptable.
I have struggled to get the image to upload. But the main photo was clearly taken from a car with part of the car frame visible. The title is long winded and irrelevant to this location. The description is uninteresting.
I know the Midwest, USA reviewing community, this would not be accepted by the community reviewers, at least not without a very suspicious (possibility abusive) methodology. It is Niantic or Niantic’s ML accepting something.
I would never request or stand up for a McDonald’s to be removed that had a halfway decent in-database presence.
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Well does a C*&£a Coffee shop thats entirely powered and run on solar power count as a good wayspot Vs an International Brand that opens up just about everywhere.
I always liked the idea of that as a Wayspot.
I tried a 1 bean coffee the once with my boss and omg it was strong and tiny that I just needed a full size one straight after.
Never Again !!!
I once worked at a McD’s. We’d care less while working, as we had more important things to do while on the clock. After work or during breaks, it would depend if we even played any Niantic games, and if we even cared.
Not all who play Niantic games care about updating Lightship and being a Wayfarer. I could have started Wayfaring a lot sooner than I did (was level 39 in PoGo when I did), but I never really found anything interesting to submit, or issues with invalid Wayspots. Now that’s changed, and I’m adding Wayspots, submitting edits, and removing invalid Wayspots.
@PkmnTrainerJ Could not agree with you more on their coffee!
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You two are being very liberal with the English language calling it coffee.
When you say not all who play Niantic games do you mean about 90%.
In a group of 200+ I can count on one hand the amount of Wayfarer users. Most locals experience of Wayfarer is
I did some reviews and it was mostly benches and businesses. After 20 I received a cooldown.
My submission was rejected even though I’ve seen 20 similar things in game and had a similar thing accepted within 24 hours.
My submission was accepted but it hasn’t appeared…
McDonald’s is my favourite coffee shop so I submitted it…
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I worked in a McDonald’s once it’s horrible.
But honestly I’ve kinda forgot what we where talking about 
But personally I’d rather use anything that a mega chain restaurant
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Now I have looked at the location again on a map, I can see this one nearby.
sigh
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Yeah, I can only know about a handful of players that also do Wayfarer locally. On Campfire, the local PoGo group has about 600 members, but only about 10 active members. 5 or 6 of those 10, including myself, are Wayfarers as well. So, it’s a very, very low percentage.
And I think calling Starbucks good coffee is being liberal!
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I just had a submission in review for one yesterday! Made sure to reject. Pretty much every Target have several of them.
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They have the nicest syrups
…because they have bad coffee that needs the taste disguised 
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What even is that?
That’s a “red Target sphere” - a popular design for bollards at the supermarket Target to obstruct vehicles from the parking lot to the store.
Ingress lore and lack of “criteria” allowed almost anything to be accepted and there was a somewhat significant amount of these that were approved by Niantic early on. It was infamous enough that the first published Wayfarer guides had a picture of them under “ineligible - mass produced.” Because “ineligible” does not meet removal criteria, these remain in the system and some people try and nominate them because they’ve seen them in game.
Which is actually a great circle back to the idea and request of this thread to remove something ineligible that was (likely) approved by Niantic.
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Ahh it’s a bollard, yeah there’s a lot of them in the network