I wanted to bring up an issue that affects a lot of us living in remote areas.
Basically, we’re stuck in a loop:
There are no Wayspots nearby, so no one plays Niantic games.
And because no one plays, no one reviews, and no new Wayspots are getting added.
In my case, the closest Wayspot is 30 minutes away, and the nearest Gym is over an hour. We’ve submitted legit nominations—like churches, cultural spots, tourist areas etc—but they just sit in voting for a year or more with no movement.
It’s super discouraging, especially for people who want to help grow the game in new regions. But without some kind of support or prioritization from Niantic, it’s just not possible to get started.
Is there any hope for breaking this cycle? Maybe a way for remote submissions to get more visibility or temporary Niantic review support?
Would love to hear if anyone else is in the same boat or has found a way around this.
Hi @appouna
Welcome to the forum
We all have the opportunity to set a bonus location to review in.
If you don’t mind to share your general area maybe some users are willing to help out with your lack of reviewers
Thanks for raising this here. It is really important that your voice is heard.
It is difficult to break this cycle.
As a start we can try to help get your nominations resolved.
All wayfinders have a bonus location they can change several times a year. If you would like to gave the name and GPS co ordinates of your town so they have an idea where to set their location there will some people here happy to “visit” the area to review.
Are you sure that your nominations would be easy for a person unfamiliar with the area to review. Quite often we don’t put all the detail that someone from another country or continent would need. You could post a few of the nominations so we could advise.
Hopefully this will improve the situation, it doesn’t solve the deeper issues you mention but perhaps this can be a start.
I really appreciate your willingness to help—means a lot.
I’ve made sure all my submissions are detailed and easy to understand, even for reviewers who are completely unfamiliar with the area. I always include supporting info, good photos, and clear maps.
Here’s my location for anyone willing to set their bonus location to help out (Batroun, Lebanon):
Latitude: 34.219622 / N 34° 13’ 10.641’’ Longitude: 35.743334 / E 35° 44’ 36.003’’
Thanks again to everyone who’s taking the time to review—it gives us a bit of hope out here!
What I saw from the IITC map (Do note that this map is getting old and outdated now since the split of Ingress) there really is nothing indeed, but you have potential, I saw a lot of churches near the coordinates you provided, if you had a good description with supporting info then they should have no trouble getting accepted. You defenitely are not completely lost in this area, there is much potential.
Sadly the church and Phoenician site were not visible on the map when I submitted them, even though they are visible on google maps and they are very popular in the area.
Thanks so much for the helpful suggestions! I’ll definitely keep an eye out for those types of locations—there’s definitely no shortage of things in my area that could be Wayspots. Churches, parks, public spaces, and even historical sites like the Phoenician ruins could all be great candidates. The issue, though, isn’t finding good locations—it’s the lack of reviewers.
Unfortunately, a lot of my submissions have been stuck in the queue for over a month now, and they haven’t even entered voting yet. I understand there’s a lot to process, but it’s disheartening to see no movement despite having quality nominations. It really feels like the bigger problem is getting enough reviewers involved, especially in more remote areas where there’s not much activity.
Thanks again for the support and the advice. Hopefully, we can get some more eyes on these submissions soon!
Thanks for the insight! I totally get that reviews can take time—I’ve seen how long it used to take in the past, so I’m not too surprised by the delay.
As for upgrades, most of my submissions are already upgraded because I consistently make sure to do all the reviews available for my location and any extra locations I can contribute to. I try to stay active in the review process, but even with the upgraded status, I’m still seeing a bit of a bottleneck in getting submissions into the voting queue.
I’m definitely trying to get more people involved and have been sharing my location (Batroun, Lebanon) to encourage others to review as well. Hopefully, that will help speed things up a bit!
Thanks for the suggestion! I didn’t include any direct links in the supporting text, as I wasn’t sure if that’s allowed, but I’ve made sure to explain everything in as much detail as possible. I always try to include clear descriptions, historical context, and photos to make my nominations as easy to review as possible, even for someone unfamiliar with the area.
If including links to external resources would help, I’ll definitely keep that in mind for future submissions!
The description is where you are writing text that would interest someone visiting.
The supplementary text is where you are helping the reviewer understand why this should be accepted. So links that someone can use to quickly check are really helpful. It’s where you make it easy for the reviewer.
I just changed my bonus location to the given coordinates provided by you. Im seeing alot of submissions for churches, but not close to the provided coordinates. Also saw one hospital submission which clearly blocked emergency services.
What submissions am I looking for?
(This is not to immediately accept them, I review every submission by the wayfarer criteria, but to know which ones are from you)
It’s great that you are one of those volunteering to review
I know your intentions are good, however it would be best not to know precisely which are theirs.
It sounds good that there are others also submitting.
Perhaps @appouna could update if some of theirs starts to move into voting or if they get resolved.
Thanks for that. Wasn’t really sure how to ask it precisely without saying that I have preferences. I am just gonna review further seeing what I can find and then we will maybe hear some updates from the OP.
(I was kinda sick of only seeing trail markers in my area along with bicycle routes. Variation would be nice )
.
Near which greater town? Or region?
Latitude: 34.219622 / N 34° 13’ 10.641’’
let’s hope this helps.
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