Legacy cover photographs

General Discussion
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I having gotten bored of playing pogo. As an example how many times do Niantic think they can try and get me to cast 999 excellent throws and keep the game a bit challenging? 99 excellent throws in a row. Now that would be a challenge

So I thought I would have a go at improving some of the really old cover photographs on my playing field or neighbourhood

For those of you who do not know how the system works. I will try and explain it to the best of my ability

Step 1 you find a girl to luv

Step 2 she falls in luv with u

Sorry the music playing on my Joe 90 sunglasses :glasses: led me astray

First you have to take a photograph of the artefact or object that is the subject of the wayspot in question. I find that it is best to do this on a sunny day with blue skies and prefably with puffs of white clouds. Of course you have also to bear in mind the rules and regulations that the games creators have dreamt up. Niantic guidelines on photography. Which camera you use is irrelevant, it is how you compose the photograph that is important. I am currently experimenting a bit with my Joe 90 sun glasses to see what results I can get with them

Secondly you need to upload the photograph to a wayspot. Now there maybe more than one way to do this, I do not know. The way I do it is through the PoGo application. Open the pokestop or gym that is relevant (you need to be in relatively close proximity to the wayspot (pokestop or gym) to do this)

  • Press the button in the top right corner
  • On the next screen press the button in the top right corner
  • On the next screen press the option for add photograph
  • On the next screen press the button for existing photograph
  • In the next screen select the image that you created in the previous step
  • Then press submit or upload later

Now you have to wait for the image to be approved. This may happen very quickly, or even take days or weeks

When the image has been approved open the pokestop or gym (wayspot) press the button in the top right corner then press the square button in the bottom right corner which has the text “n Photos” where n is the number of photographs pinned to the node (wayspot which is also either a pokestop or gym). Then you should like the image you have just uploaded by pressing the thumb up in the bottom right corner of your image in the gallery

Now check the first image in the gallery which will be the cover photograph. In the bottom right hand corner of that image you should see a thumb up icon with a number beside it. That number is the number of people who have liked the image. Hopefully it is a very low number

If the cover photograph has for example 10 likes it is quite an easy job to canvas 10 players to like your photograph so that it takes first place and become the new cover photograph

All seems quite easy. Ha ha ha. No nothing is easy in the world of the developers. In these days of dwindling pokemon go players wandering the streets it is sometimes impossible to canvas enough players to take the top spot in the gallery

Bear in mind that some cover photographs have been in the database for 10+ years. I will now use an example of a wayspot (pokestop) that i have used in another thread. It is a building that has been used for different purposes through the decades. A cobblers workshop, a distillery, a warehouse, and for the last three decades a pub. Now pubs change hands and get renamed. This wayspot was called Havnelagret “Sea storage” the pub has recently changed hands and is now called Waterfront. I have so far managed to get the description partially changed to include the name “Waterfront” in it, subsequent attempts to provide a far more eloquent description have been a failure. However I have at long last got the name updated from Havnelagret to Waterfront

However getting enough likes to get the cover photograph updated from one of the building with a Havnelagret sign on it to one with a photograph of the building with a Waterfront sign on it is proving a lot more of a challenge

At this point I would like to stress a few points. I am in no way affiliated to the new owners. It also seems to me like quite a simple job to get enough likes on my photograph to get it updated to the top spot. However I am not going to explain how here because I do not want to cheat and I do not want to give any hob goblins who maybe reading this any naughty ideas

I don’t think adding a thumbs down icon would work in this instance. I can just imagine the circus of chaos the hob goblins would have with it. Has anybody any good ideas?

As an after thought i would like to point out that some wayspots (pokestops or gyms) seem to be jinxed. It does not matter how many likes or up votes you get they will take months or even years to update the cover photograph. If you are lucky it will update the next day. This problem is a so called “known issue” which I suspect has become a “forgotten issue”

Revision history

Rev, date, description

0, 14.06.2026, Original post

1, 14.06.2026, added a paragraph about “known issue”

2, 15.06.2026, added a link to photograph guidlines

2

This is considered abuse for “repurposing” by Niantic. If it is not the same business that was originally approved, then it should be reported for removal and submitted as a new Wayspot, if the new business is eligible.

3

There is another factor in getting old photos to update. Before “Lightship”, the database for Wayspots was the game Ingress. When Niantic shifted to Lightship, some of the votes on Ingress photos became trapped. The trapped vote count may or may not match the votes seen in Ingress. (Ingress is no longer part of Wayfarer, except for the trapped votes.) So it may take more thumbs than you would think in order to change the disc photo to a new one.

If the photo you are trying to replace is bad enough, you can ask help chat to remove it. They will make their own decision about whether the photo, or even the Wayspot, should be removed.

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That was a light hearted account.
A couple of things
If one of the current photos is really bad quality, has a licence plate or a face you can use the help chat to request removal.

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IMG_43702224×1367 282 KB

A very non obvious place to go.

I see Cyndie has now.covered other points :joy:

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I know @elijustrying I am playing devils advocate. In my opinion a pub should not be a wayspot, it is of course a place people go to socialise. But in my experience it is also a place where people go to get falling down drunk

I remember when søsken was a gym until it got removed for a new property development. There was a hob goblin who sat in a pub called Dragen all day drinking and having no doubt loads of fun knocking players out of the gym, ghosting the gym. Etc. etc. It was the devils job to get the gym removed from the game. Even after the artefact had been physically removed

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Thankyou @cyndiepooh i have no intention of reporting it, there are too few pokestops and gyms in downtown Fredrikstad. I have not forced the sale or renaming of the pub. I am not the new owner of the new pub or affiliated with them in any way. Please do not get upset with me. I just want the game i play to reflect the real world. A hundred years ago the building was a warehouse now it is a pub. Maybe it is about time Niantic reviewed and updated their guidelines

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I am not upset with you. It completely makes sense from a Pokemon Go perspective to want the Wayspots to reflect what it actually there. But from a Wayfarer standpoint, it is NOT the same point of interest, and should be vetted again. Here is an example.

I don’t want you to get a punishment for trying to do a good thing for the game. And I don’t want anyone else to see your post and think editing the current wayspot to the new point of interest is the proper thing to do.

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Literally the easiest way to get a properly titled PoI here with a new photo is to report for removal and submit the current pub. Would bypass all the issues you listed much more easily as well as being the way that staff want us to tackle this situation.

You can submit the new place before reporting for removal so there’s no loss of PoI for the area, if that’s a concern (although your edits to the existing PoI will now make it likely to get voted duplicate)

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