With a history dating back to the 8th century, Bromley Palace was originally built in around 1100 AD, with the current Palace being rebuilt in 1774.
It is arguably the most historic building in the city. The Bromley borough is a densely populated area of South East London (300,000+ people). And it has been deleted across all Niantic games, most likely by an Ingress player abusing the wayfarer reporting system to get a âwinâ.
I am submitting an abuse report over this, and I say this only because Niantic need to be aware of the circumstances here because otherwise we risk losing other important wayspots in the Bromley Palace Park area.
Bromley Palace Park is currently in transition. It is in the local news that the Council has sold its offices there and is moving to another location. The Palace is still completely accessible. Thatâs because the council have not included the park in the sale of the complex. In fact the picture above was taken this afternoon. It is identical to the photograph used by the original wayspot. Friends of Bromley Town Parks & Gardens also have plans to improve the park, make its accessibility more obvious and create a signposted walking trail through it, so it is 100% accessible to the public.
So the place is still publicly accessible, but thereâs a risk that people will use news of the closure of the Bromley Civic Centre as a way of getting âwinsâ over other players in Ingress. This will be damaging not just for Ingress, but every Niantic game. I recommend that not only is the wayspot restored, but that a temporary ban on deletions of wayspots in this area is put in place until we can be sure of what is and is not accessible after the transition.
FYI this is what is currently accessible based on the above link and my own exploration:
In the above image the green area is accessible to the public. The red area is behind temporary fencing due to removals and renovation work. But it is not permanently closed off to the public. The green area is a public park and will remain open. The yellow cross is the approximate location of the wayspot before it was deleted.
Some of this red area will definitely open up again soon, because it is part of the path through the park. The central area will likely remain private. But we do not yet know.
This whole area should have a temporary deletion ban until the transition period is over to avoid abuse.
What? If an area is closed for renovation - its wayspots should be removed, and replaced when it reopens?
Many places always have something blocked off, and construction going on - universities, zoos, botanical gardens, downtowns. The pedestrian barricades are temporary. I donât think we should remove Wayspots when that happens. Wait until the construction / reconstruction is done, and if anything is gone, remove it then.
If there is construction, the waypoints are not pedestrian accessible and potentially very dangerous. Specially for long term construction. Yes they can be removed and reinstated, this has been done for many waypoints already throughout the years.
Thatâs a lot of Wayfarer work that I donât think will happen.
Also it would ruin thousands of Ingress banners. Theyâre a big part of Ingress for many. For example, when we went to the Denver Zoo, we did its banner of a tiger. One section was closed, and we had do do a different square to hold the place in the mosaic. Our tiger looks a little off, but thatâs part of our story. I would never want to remove those portals and ruin the tiger for everyone who came after me.
You are under no obligation to put the work forward that you think is too much or think breaks the game.
Itâs important to respect and show support for those who are using the correct methods. Niantic can make the determination if a temporary construction closure is enough to remove or how to handle that, but generally they have favored removing during such unsafe conditions.
Itâs up to the games to have a maturity at this point to handle what happens when Wayspots are removed - temporarily or permanently - with how it affects gameplay. If you see this as a potential issue, it should be brought up to the appropriate teams.
We would appreciate it if you could nuance or attribute your statements.
Did you consult with the team?
Did they supply a definitive answer? Was this meant only for Bromley Palace, or for a particular class of property in the U.K.?
Itâs fine for you to have and offer your opinion, but it would help if you used language that clarifies whose opinion, of what, and where it derives from.
In the past, Niantic has seemed to take a wait-and-see approach to renovation, even following natural disasters, unless or until it became clear that an area was going to be treated as a clean slate.
Niantic doesnât normally remove and restore Wayspots of fixed elements during reconstruction, and expects people to exercise normal caution even at places/events such as the Fukushima nuclear reactor.
In this case the wayspot is not currently behind temporary fencing.
But I would agree with MargariteDVille that deleting portals because of temporary fencing will be hugely damaging to the game. It would take months to get those portals back, even if anyone bothered to replace them.
It could be personal familiarity, but I donât see his comments as particularly controversial, here. It aligns with personal experiences (pre Ambassador, even pre Wayfarer branding existed) as well as some (not all) handling of appeals we see here.
We would appreciate it if you could nuance or attribute your statements.
Did you consult with the team?
Itâs fine for you to have and offer your opinion, but it would help if you used language that clarifies whose opinion, of what, and where it derives from.
This directly goes opposite personal experience I had when a local area was wiped out due to construction. I was able to use the online form to restore Wayspots that were still accessible and was able to later reach out when the construction ended.
It should only take a day or two with proper evidence to request reinstatement, when construction is ended.
If nobody bothers, it makes me wonder how valuable they really are
So Iâm looking at this place on the Intel map, and it seems like this is the only Wayspot in the area that was removed. I know we are all talking about construction now, but I would like to know why it was brought up in the first place. Do you have evidence that this was removed because of the construction, or were you just mentioning the construction as a potential reason for removal?
Thatâs a good question. Iâm assuming it was deleted by a Resistance player because it was an Enlightened anchor. Both factions in this area have a history of malicious deleting, and this has all the hallmarks. The fact that none of the other wayspots were deleted is evidence that it was targeted for other reasons. But Iâll leave that for Niantic to decide in the abuse report.
Why do you think it was removed? Itâs possibly the most historic building in a town of 300,000+ people. It had 7-8 photographs with many votes. Itâs a beautiful building.
About 200 meters away from the Palace thereâs a wayspot that is a blue bike lane sign. Nobody is deleting that. What kind of game do we want to play?
I have no idea why it was removed (which is why Iâm trying to keep us all from speculating too much). I think appealing the removal is the right thing to do and could provide you with some clarity about how/why it happened. I just donât like to speculate about malicious removals or potential reasons because in my experience, it usually doesnât end up being correct.
I agree. But in this case thereâs a risk that other wayspots will get deleted unless Niantic take action to block edits. Thatâs why I brought it up. If this was a malicious deletion, then itâs likely that the other anchor I put down today will also get deleted, and then another and another until they are all gone, even though all are accessible.
We are losing lots of good wayspots in the area because of a growing delete war that both factions are engaging in because itâs becoming revenge driven.
This is all from personal experience and from experiences of others who have shared their experiences both on the new and old forums as well as in other communities.
No I have not, but they have been involved in public conversations in specific cases.
Sorry, yes I could have been more clear, but as always, Im available to answer any follow up questions there may be.
I think these cases are more difficult as its hard to gauge what is exactly impacted vs not.
Maybe not civilian accessible but they are accessible to someone. Thatâs the rule we use for military bases, yes?
AFAIK, itâs also the rule we use for restricted residences, gated communities, secure workplace locations, etc. Why would it be different for construction?
Delete-and-replace does not work with Ingress missions. When the last portal of a mission is deleted, the mission goes away and does not come back. So a mosaic with 6, 12, 24, 36, of even 72 missions is ruined because itâs missing, say mission #5. Often whoever created the mosaic is no longer playing, so wonât be building a new mission with the new portals.
(Deleting a portal here-and-there shouldnât delete a mission, but mass deleting would. Missions have a minimum of 6 portals to start with, probably averaging 8. As long as 1 portal remains, the mission remains.)
EDIT: Missions completed show on your profile in rows of 6. For years you can scroll thru these pictures to remember your adventures.
