I quit Wayfarer in 2023 due to negative experiences. Now I’m wondering if I should give it a second chance. Has the system improved in the last 2 1/2 years?
I began using Wayfarer in 2019 and by late 2023 had 60 successful wayspot nominations under my belt, mostly in my local neighborhood in Hamburg and in rural areas of Southern Poland which I visited regularly. At least four contributions resulted in new gyms.
Improving the game board has been a frustrating long game:
Extreme turnaround time for submissions in Germany (8-12 months)
Upgrades frequently resulted in quick rejections
Absurd and obviously wrong rejection reasons
The need to submit multiple times to get “slam dunks” approved
Some rejected nominations appeared later in almost identical form submitted by others
Inconsistent appeal results
Toxic ambassadors offering condescending/patronizing advice (a few bad eggs, not everyone of course!)
The general “guilty until proven innocent” attitude whenever anyone questioned a warning or ban
I quit late 2023 after receiving a vague warning which said in effect “You did something wrong but we won’t tell you what. Read the guidelines and if you ever do it again you will be suspended or banned, losing your account forever.” The response to my appeal was nearly the same. For all I know, I was flagged by an AI false positive. I used a broken system in good faith and this kind of warning was unacceptable.
Honestly though, I did miss contributing to Wayfarer, felt sad anytime I saw something I knew I could get approved, but decided to pass on it. In my community other trainers sometimes came to me and asked me to submit stops around where they live. I never said no before, but now had to politely decline, that I was not willing to risk violating some unknown black box rule. I still advise friends who want to start with Wayfarer that there is a slight risk involved.
One good thing I found out, a friend told me about the monthly “You helped shape the world” mails. I hadn’t been getting them because I had notifications turned off. So I enabled them and now see that my impact to the Wayfarer map was not just my imagination.
If I return to Wayfarer, what assurances do I have that I will not lose my account? Do I still have the one strike? How has the Wayfarer experience improved since I left? Thanks in advance for your responses!
I will try to help with some of your queries.
First do read the policy around warnings and suspensions.
You will see that there is a redemption period of 1 year, so you should be starting with a clean slate.
This new community forum is supportive and if you want to check on anything prior to submission you are welcome to do. I hope that all of us in the community are welcoming.
The turnround times for submissions are much quicker. I used to have well over 2 years wait time and had to apply upgrades all the time (U.K.) now I rarely need to apply an upgrade.
Do read the criteria clarifications around what can be eligible /acceptable Criteria Clarification Collection - Niantic Wayfarer Community
Since reviews and appeals still involve judgement calls and potential differences of opinion then there can still be variability.
There is a great map available on the wayfarer website which if you search for the community created wayfarer tools you can find some helpful plug ins.
There is a new rating system so you may find that the level that you are at that you now have access to more submissions and a greater refresh rate. See the notices / news area.
So there are a number of positive changes.
Things have improved significantly over the past few years. We had (before the split) a few Localised and Global challenges which had improved the approval rates / flow, so you should not have to wait months if not years (unless your nominations are on hold) for things to get approved / rejected.
If you have a something you want to submit and want to get some advice, come to this forum and seek advice.
Regarding toxicity, they exist in every community. I won’t give you a measurement of success or failures of the toxic culture here or anywhere else. You will need to make your own observations on that.
There are some published guidelines and discussions that have taken place on what should be eligible and what should be avoided where people need to run a few hundred miles away from, but I won’t list them… as I am sure there are too many to list.
I can’t post the links here, but I would suggest looking up on your favourite search engine things like “Wayfarer Tools”, and go to the link. It is the site that points to the Discord Forum. Install the plugins and make use of the maps that Niantic / Scopley have provided to help you find the nominations you can submit. Be mindful of what has been submitted and imported as well as what are Powerspots.
Always question whether something is eligible and always feel free to ask questions here.
There’s no risk to using wayfarer if you follow the rules and make good contributions. The people who get into trouble are those who are either ignoring the rules or wilfully committing abuse - for example creating fake PoIs using AI or pictures found online.
You can always post your ideas here for some reassurance before submitting if you want a sense check. And always make sure the location you’re submitting things at is accurate.
Thanks for the friendly response. I read the ladder thing - I thought before it was a 3 strike system, but seems less a risk as 4 strikes. Good that I can start over with a clean slate. Back then I was encouraged to ask in this forum but had such a negative experience with some of the “community leaders” in twitter, I decided I’d had enough.
Just to ensure you’re aware, its not really a strike system. If someone participates in serious abuse, they could get an immediate permanent ban. Its not like people would always get a warning, them a short suspension the 2nd time, and always step up the ladder like that. But if there’s a minor issue, or just poor quality nominations, then there’s a warning for that.
Hence why it’s important to submit good quality nominations truthfully and using your own pictures. Definitely ask as many questions as you need here, and we will help
This is where I get nervous, because “good” is subjective and I like a challenge. Not every street corner here has a church to submit. We have street signs that include an additional historical plaque, usually explaining who the street was named after. But it’s very difficult to get them approved. Sometimes it took up to three nominations with appeals to get them through (>1 year of effort!). Is that really the kind of thing that could get me in trouble? I’ll attach an example here - a local friend tried to submit it and failed, I tried and failed as well, but finally approved in a subsequent attempt. Could something like this risk my account?
Thanks, you’re right - at least I also saw the same in some other posts here. I’m actually not worried about jumping the ladder, not using apis or AI images or submitting fakes. My worst crime is probably poor judgement re the quality.
I saw the map that was added in Wayfarer - that is really cool, especially the “not in game” indicator. When I was submitting I used pogomap a lot to plan what was worth spending time on. Occasionally I “visit” places I know to see what’s there.
Regarding turnaround times: In rural Poland it was always great - usually took 3-4 days to get the decision - I guess some areas were prioritized.
This forum, whenever I did post here in the past was very welcoming and constructive (now too). I promise to start using it more in the future, to get a sanity check on some of my more difficult nominations. E.g. there’s an open air stage here that I’m told should be eligible but I just can’t get it approved, even on appeal. Even before I quit I gave up on it.
Open air stage should be eligible… but needs to not be on K12 grounds, as an example. Getting ones head around criteria can be hard to figure out, but it will make sense eventually.
There are examples of queries around those information plaques that are attached to street signs, in this forum…..it may take time to find them.
There is advice on the best way to present them, with the focus on the part that contains information and describing the significance.
An open-air stage sounds good. This is the sort thing that as long as it photographs well there should be links to it in use.
Forgot to mention it before but submitting via the web allows up to 5 supporting images. So you can present photos to help prove location if not on streetview, either a series walking through from where there is a distinct feature, or using something like GPSmapcamera to include a photo with the geo location on it, and sometimes a screenshot of a poster to show more info ( I also include the weblink but visually the screenshot is in front of the reviewer showing the relevant part)
They have updated the warnings they send. They are still far from perfect, and it is difficult to tell a warning from an educational email, but they do send an email with a concrete example of the offending behavior now. And staff on this forum will open up a DM to have a private conversation if you need more detail.
Hi, ich erinnere mich an deinen Fall. Damals wurden dir schlechte Einreichungen und Bilder vorgeworfen, aber nicht gesagt, um welche Wayspots es sich überhaupt handelt. Das hat sich auch gebessert, wenn man eine Warnung oder Strafe bekommt, dann wird die E-Mail ein Beispiel enthalten.
Inzwischen gibt es auch Klarstellungen auf dem Forum, ich würde dir raten, die zu lesen, weil du z.B. Mal Graffiti Tags eingereicht hattest, die aber nicht erlaubt sind:
Und eine kleine Klarstellung: die Abuse ladder ist kein vierstufiges System wie in PoGO mit den 3 Strikes. Das geht nach Schwere des Falls, wenn man etwas macht, das sehr schlimm ist, gibt es zum Beispiel keine Warnung vorher, sondern direkt die Strafe.
Was so ein Beispiel angeht, du kannst versuchen Ablehnungen hier zu vermeiden, indem man das Foto sehr konzentriert ausschließlich auf die Tafel, also dass man den Straßennamen gar nicht sieht im Hauptfoto. Muss ich manchmal machen weil Leute warum auch immer denke dass ich ein random Straßenschild einreiche, was aber nicht das Objekt ist, über das ich den Text schreiben:
Ich würde aber eher Tafeln einreichen über Dinge oder Personen sind, die einen lokalen Bezug haben, als theoretisches Beispiel, Tafeln über Konrad Adenauer gibt’s überall, da ist das dann nicht so überzeugend.
Danke, guter Tipp! Ich versuchte immer das Gegenteil, volles Strassenschild mit Anhangsschild, und so dass der Hintergrund einigermassen interessant aussieht, Gebäuden, Gebüsch, Blumen.
Ich hatte in der Tat ein oder zweimal Graffiti-nahe Sachen eingereicht, aber etwas künstlerischer, dachte ich. In Hamburg sieht man viele solche Stopps, manche sogar Neuerscheinungen. Meine “Graffitis” lagen damals aber weiter zurück" so dass es mir unklar war, ob es das war. Ich hatte einige andere Ideen, um welche Einreichungen es handeln könnte, aber es gab keinen Weg, Gewissheit zu schaffen.
But to be fair, I don’t see anything on the current “rejection criteria” page that specifically forbids graffiti, maybe indirectly “object is temporary, or highly unlikely to be permanent” but there is also such a thing as sanctioned graffiti, so wouldn’t it be on a case by case basis? Maybe that triggered the warning but since I got no official information I’ll always be guessing. I’m also guilty of submitting a bus stop in a small Polish village that had nothing else that could possibly be considered. That was always my favorite for what got me in trouble.
