so how do you measure response? Likely how many people spinned those pokestops? How many new accounts are created in these areas? how many $ are spent on the app in those areas?
They would all be metrics that would be good to know for a company such as Niantic, I am sure they already have a massive amount of data.
Or people that are stuck in there ways of “If it can be nominated it should be accepted”. Works both ways…
Anything can be nominated. That doesn’t mean everything should be accepted, but when something meets both eligibility and acceptance criteria, it’s saddening to see people advocate for rejecting it anyways.
In case anyone reading this exchange does not know this, here is the rejection criteria:
Please note:
The object is mass-produced, generic, or not visually unique or interesting.
yes, i can only tell by the density of the available pokestops/gyms AND how long people sit in the gyms what kind of area it is.
One knows not to enter a gym that has been sat in 453 days.
This is why playgrounds should be rejected.
(Unlike my other messages, the one above is not serious. Of course playgrounds should be accepted - they meet the eligibility criteria, even though they’re mass produced and look similar to each other. They are visually distinct and typically meant to be seen. Likewise, street signs meet the eligibility criteria and are visually distinct and meant to be seen.)
Most playgrounds may use the same type of equipment but usually will be a different selection, organised different and painted in different colours making them unique. They also meet all 3 of the main criteria.
Bus Stops are too common and will flood the map, they are usually a set design in each area and has only the “can be used to help explore” as a possible link to criteria.
I think there’s tons of variance as you note. I’ve passed by loads of playgrounds as my kid has grown up, and I’ve only seen a structure that’s in my local playground in 5 other playgrounds, and only in the same colours once (which was probably about 250 miles away from my local one).
but unlike street signs, they are inherently designed to be a great place to exercise and be social
i won’t respond anymore, but do not want anyone coming across this topic to be mislead
My city recently asked citezens about remodeling 3 of our large park playgrounds, and all of the choices we had were for the 3 had different equipment, different colors, and different designs. One is at a former farm, so it has some barn-like designs to it.
There are also playgrounds that are for younger kids, such as those 5 and under, and those for older kids. There are also handicapped accessible playgrounds (my hometown as a really great ADA accessible playground).
So, there are quite a bit of diffrerences with playgrounds, and they are not all generic.
Most street signs (in an area) will be of the same style using the same materials, fonts and colours. Just because one states “Niantic Road” and another says “Wayfarer Street” does not make the distinct.
Should “Bob’s Generic Business” and “Fred’s Generic Business” be accepted as they have a different names on the sign?
I would like to input my amateur advice as a long term PoGo player, amateur ish nominator who lives in a small country, with lots of villages (recently came to love adding wayspots even in areas I don’t visit). I would agree with bus terminals, since most of the villages/settlement have 1 per village. Big cities do have more since they have local buses, which sadly in my country only 3-4 have actual local busses and not intercity buses. In my area bus terminals would be a nice addition for rural players, since as said 90% of country only have 1 bus terminal per settlement(with some having none at all). Now street corners is where it gets tricky. I advocate to add them into so called ‘wayspot deserts’ but would limit it to 6 wayspots and they start dissapearing as you add others. They should have a wayfarer or special photo so you can identify them as imported. But they should absolutely not be added into areas with alredy lot of wayspots, since that ruins the plan of helping rural players. 
I posted a message previously on this subject on another tropic
How can this situation be considered as an “area with low Wayspot density” ?
If the level 17 s2 cells aren’t filled yet, then density is low enough to add more spinners.
Again, this is just your opinion and many hold the opposite that too many stops dilutes the game.
IMO: There should be a limit to the amount of occupied L17 cells in the L14 cell. The “20 Waypoint” / “3 Gyms” seem like a good point but if this idea was decided by the PoGo team it would be down to them to decide on the numbers.
I would also like that waypoint number 21 + would be able to displace previous waypoints that have the most “occupied neighbours” so it would spread out the play locations.
The only areas that I would prefer not to have a limit (or at least a larger limit) would be areas recognised as places that people go for Raid Days / Community Days etc such as Town Parks.
Just to confirm, this is just my opinion and I am not suggesting it to Niantic. Just if Niantic did implement something along these lines I would not be annoyed.
The Rural “we don’t have as many wayspots as Urban” argument could be fixed from both extremes.
Many may hold that opinion (here), but I highly doubt that would be a majority opinion among all eligible wayfarer accounts.
Unfortunately Niantic does not take the majority opinion into consideration, otherwise they would already let every player have a personal pokestop. Instead, the experiment will be measured against their goals, which we can guess when we see the results I think.
A: A Waypoint in every L17 cell.
B: No Waypoint in a L14 cell.
C: A fair amount of waypoints spread out across the L14 cell but not every L17 cell that allows players to interact with the game but still encourage people to get out and explore.
I highly doubt your statement would hold water whether you ask the opinion of “This Forum”, “The Wider Wayfarer Community” or the “Entire Pokemon Go Population”.
Why somewhere in the middle and not at home, where players need it the most?
I mean, if they fill every level 14 cell to the top with 64 pokestops who will spin all that, bots? Just let everyone have a home stop for autocatcher.