I live in a relatively large metro area (~1 million pop) and one of the best raid areas near us has a gym that has never spawned raids. For context, for major events, we have easily 150-200 people drive from all over to gather in this area to play Pokemon. The central area we play at is a public library, which is closed early on Saturday and all day Sunday, and we have spoken with them and they have no issue with us gathering there.
The gym is located at 36.054490, -95.794423 and is titled Ownby-Rutledge House Historical marker. It has never spawned raids or functioned as a gym, as far as we have been told it was because someone who lived nearby reported it due to people gathering there, which is understandable. Before we knew why it wasn’t working, we attempted to report this gym dozens of times. I have some friends who live nearby, so I had them sign in to wayfarer and submit a report asking for the waypoint to removed entirely, since people still gather in front of it anyways to take down the gym. They were told that because the POI is on a public sidewalk they cannot remove it or downgrade it. So one person years ago was able to complain and have all features removed, but now someone who also lives nearby can’t have it removed all together. The S2 Cell has more than enough stops so if this gym was removed or demoted, another nearby stop would become a gym that we can actually use.
How do we get this gym taken down? Do we need to contact the city officials and have them submit an official request to wayfarer? If the person who originally requested it to be demoted no longer lives there, can we get raids back? Why at one time was it demoted, but now when it’s reported it’s “on public land and nothing can be done”
Willing to contact and coordinate whoever it takes to get our gym back
It would take a Staff member to confirm but there have been a few posts recently where the Gym has had the option to Raid removed by a property owner request.
What each Wayspot is used at in game is down to the Pokemon Go team and not Wayfarer. I have not seen any instances when they have agreed to remove the Gym for this reason.
A property owner can request a gym be downgraded, which Niantic will honour if the request is valid. Your belief that a request was made is almost certainly correct and probably doesn’t need confirming.
The gym will not be removed. This would open up a significant route for abuse by individual players who want to get the gym relocated to a different wayspot.
I strongly recommend not submitting repeated wayspot removal reports for a wayspot which Scopely Explore have repeatedly said is not eligible to be removed. You know it will not be removed that way and continuing to spam the reporting system has the potential to be flagged as abuse/.
It might be possible, if the person that reported the gym has moved, to get raids to return. However, Scopely Explore will not tell you who made the report, so it would be difficult to know that this has happened.
You’re right. We have removed Raids from this Gym based on a legitimate request.
I would caution against it. Attempting to get Wayspots removed on false pretenses or doctored information is considered abuse and may lead to permanent termination of all the accounts involved.
We have very well-defined policies on who can or cannot request removal, and we abide by them.
This Gym doesn’t meet our criteria for removal at this time.