I’ve been updating photos of wayspots in my local neighborhood because many of them are very bad or just old, for example a structure deserves a new picture after it has been cleaned from ugly graffitti. I’ve done this because some are just so bad I’m too embarassed to send as a gift in Pokemon.
Problem is that it takes forever to accumulate even one thumbs up vote because no one seems to vote for images. Because no one votes, the old picture stays there.
In a tie, newer should be used instead of older, it would help to improve content. Many images have just one or two but its hard to surpass even that.
If a picture is against the photo criteria, you can ask help chat to delete them, so sometimes you don’t need to outvote them
Add Wayfarer people to your friend list. We are always willing to add a thumb to a photo, which can be done through gifting in PGO.
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I don’t agree that a new photo should automatically become the cover. The original might be one that people love.
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Ah yes, i forgot to say this. In OP’s examples it sounds like a reasonable request. But others might use this to make bad photos show on the game spot (portal/pokestop/gym/flower). The process should require some human intervention, in my opinion.
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This isn’t a valid removal reason, just to note. Just because you think a photo looks bad when sending a gift to friends in PoGo doesn’t mean it can be removed. Only photos that go against the Photo Guidelines can be removed from a Wayspots, so if the photo doesn’t meet any rejection criteria, they cannot be removed.
I certainly get where you are coming from, as I see photos I don’t like as the main ones for stops/gyms/portals all the time. But that’s just my opinion of them, as none meet criteria to be removed. Encouraging friends to upvote your photos in each game may help with getting it as the main photo, so that may be the best route to try.
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Some of the waypoints around here have very old images and theyre taken with old phone cameras that they just look dreadful
Things can be 10 years old at this point!
I can completely understand wanting to update those. The issue is that with Go, you can only see Go upvotes, but there are also hidden upvotes from Ingress I believe. So you might think you need 3 upvotes to change an image when in reality its 10 or 20 which lets face it is very unlikely to happen
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Since we recently had the edit challenge, maybe we need a photo update challenge!
Upvotes for recent images, adding images where we haven’t already and sharing some lovely photos or “before and afters” here for inspiration might be quite fun!
This correct for votes that got trapped when Niantic switched from Ingress being the database for all game locations to Lightship. Can be a factor on those old ones, for sure, and those are most likely to be bad.
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I don’t in practice request removal of photos but better process to update the disk photo. Since it requires votes that almost no one gives, the system is broken.
I only know one player who is high level enough to gives thumbs up votes so that doesn’t always help.
I put effort to improve these, I wait for good weather and go out in times of day when there is no people to appear in photos and then they get stuck in limbo, waiting for that third or fourth thumbs up forever.
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You may want to see if there are any local PoGo groups online or on Campfire that could help out, asking those eligible to give upvotes.
And not everyone is active in all game functions, and upvoting photos tends to be one of those. I’m lucky to find a Wayspot with a photo that has 10 or more upvotes in my area, and I’ve asked for them in my local Campfire group.
You can add friends from all over the world and ask them to upvote photos when you send them the gift from that stop.
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adding that the friends have to be level 38 or higher to be able to vote the photos up.
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Yeah indeed, many of the newer waypoints have absolutely fine images, but some of the old ones are shocking!
We have a really lovely local spot on the river which has a waypoint for the lock. For several years, this was actually an almost pitch black photo of an old sign, and didnt show the lock at all (or even much of the sign)! I think it finally went away but it was an excellent example of how things improved over time.
It does make me a bit sad to get a terrible postcard and click through to see some lovely newer options but it wont change due to the volume of upvotes needed
I could see an argument where votes age out over time (not unlike resonator energy level in Ingress).
Something like, once/year remove the oldest vote on every primary image in the system. And let the system resort. (Insert hand-wavy details here.)
Maybe even do it every month for the first year to catch up on the old Ingress history of votes.
I wouldn’t be in favour of a system that drops off the oldest pictures continuously. It could mean that a really good picture is lost just because it is old. New pictures are not automatically better.
Speaking up for us oldies out there 
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And sometimes, those old pictures are the only historical evidence of a spot changes over time.
These two are probably 10 years apart.
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I do like the history aspect that shows through photos sometimes. I see it as a positive having a photo history of a location.
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I also enjoy those older pictures. We have some photos here that, while of lesser quality than those produced by modern cameras, are beloved by local trainers or agents. Some of those original photographers/players have since passed on, and their photos help us remember our late friends. A machine algorithm can never measure human sentiment - let the people decide! Just my opinion, of course.
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