The missionaries go to one location for 1.5-2 years, so they wouldn’t be bouncing from church to church. Additionally, they don’t do video games and such during missions, so these edits wouldn’t come from missionaries. It is really strange though, and pretty annoying for my queue.
I just accept the edits though. They seem accurate, and uniformity is…sometimes good. But I sure wish I could review more actual submissions.
I have noticed this locally as well. From talking to people on religion forums, it appears that it is part of the concerted efforts of the church, with someone pointing out that under the leadership of Russel M Nelson, they are trying to remove every time that Mormon or LDS appears on Google Maps and even changing the logo to the cross.
Given that apparent purpose, I’m increasingly concerned that this is part of a concerted proselytizing if not propaganda effort by somewhat senior leadership in a religious organization.
I’ve gotten a bunch of those that are trying to change the name of the stop away from the correct name. Now that I’ve seen it 7,549 times at least it’s a quick review…
My advice would be to flag an edit if it seems abusive, and (assuming the request from the old forums to do so still stands) share any you come across here so that Niantic are aware this is still an ongoing concern. With the challenge coming up in just a few hours I’m nearly 100% positive this will come up again and that reviewers who aren’t tuned in to the forums will stumble across these identical edits and be confused. At least we can say we’ve noted it’s been happening for at least two months across the USA and that Niantic have been made aware of this unusual situation, and maybe reviewers who are only now seeing these edits won’t question their sanity when they get the same edit for a different church for the 18th time.
these edit nominations are gonna cause alot of problems for reviewers during the global challenge.
It’s starting to. Really, all we can do it use our best judgment.
So far, every one I’ve had (less than a dozen so far), I’ve accepted the name change but I haven’t approved their canned description. Is that what most of y’all are doing, at least if the existing description is good? I mean, so far I’ve mostly seen descriptions with community names, which I figure is good additional info. But the last one’s description was “God bless you” and I thought that was rather nice. 
It’d be really nice if the person doing these edits actually included what we call the buildings; a lot of them are central locations for parishes called stake centers, and that’s a cool location thing to put in the title. Even as a member I’m tired of seeing these, and just to be clear, from what I know as a practicing member, the style guide refers to the church as an organization, not the individual buildings. Very annoying!!
Thank you for your perspective. I feel like the title edits are not necessary but I don’t mind all the descriptions being similar. And from what I’ve been told by an active member, the description is NOT third party text.
How are all the writers coming up with identical text that matches the Church’s website?
Can you link the text on the church’s website?
One person used phrases taken from the Church website. Those phrases have since appeared identically on a bunch of websites including this one.
Everyone else is just copying, verbatim, the originator’s text.
So, no, you can’t find proof that this is 3rd party text.
These are not a church directive, it would be even weirder and more humorous if it was, but an individual or a group of individuals have taken it upon themselves to be the church marketing team?
Can they not just buy a sponsorship like other big companies have to when they want their product represented in a certain way?
Personally I could care less how the church is represented on Niantic’s map 
If whoever is doing it wanted to say ’ Hey, we are doing this because x,y,z…’ I’d be happy to choose whatever they like. Until then I’m going to use my best judgement 
I’d like some more of these edits… they’re nice and quick 
And if everyone else hates them, send them my way 
I can’t prove if it was Francis Bacon who penned ‘To be, or not to be’, but I can attribute it to a Bard in Stratford-upon-Avon. Later uses are third-party.
I don’t know who first wrote “Finger Lickin’ Good” but if people put it in their Wayfarer descriptions, it is third-party text.
We are each supposed to write our own text for our submissions, are we not? To do otherwise is a third-party use, unless we quote a sign or plaque directly from the location - as a citation.
It would not bother me if the editors wrote variations on a theme: “Church… …-saints on Beehive Street” “Where BYU-ers and the community at large gather to…”
But they are all copying identically.
All work and no play at the LDS.
I’ll stick to this philosophy and choose the ones I like*
No. These would be common enough phrases that they would be public domain. Third party text would be a literal copy and paste from an online source. This does not appear to be.
I will not argue favorably (or unfavorably, to be honest) the text otherwise, but this would not be 3rd party per Niantic standard.
@Gendgi was awake earlier than me to make the point. These descriptions are not third party text. You, nor anyone, has been able to point to the source to show how someone copied it word for word from online or any other place.
I understand the “incorrectness” of capitalizing “of” and “and” (and prepositions in general) in titles, but, unless you intend to devote your life to a grammar crusade across the whole of Lightship, it is probably best to just accept the small wins and let sleeping dogs lie. Just sayin’…
