This isn’t just a single wayspot removal, it’s up to about 40 portals now and seems to be increasing. It’s a long story so I will try to shorten it down and summarise.
I asked Niantic to look at potential malicious wayspots removals which always happened a few days after certain Enlightened players visited my area.
Since then another 35+ portals have gone in my town.
The only feedback I have gotten is for a portal in a communal garden area, which Niantic wrongly claimed was at the request of the landowner. The stop was never in any games anyway, or only for a a single day.
51.332568, -0.266180 Temple
This portal like about 35 other stops are still in wayfarer but don’t show in Pogo or Ingress.
4 or 5 portals relating to a church next door dissapeared but also from wayfarer.
The church portals went missing first. A few days after the portals in the flats communal area stopped showing in the games. Both obviously have different land owners.
Then a few days later a shopping centre the other side of the road loses all it’s portals. Also a theatre, pub, street furniture and our town centres clock tower. About another 5 different landowners and 20 portals gone that night. A friend of mine at the council is responsible for the towns buildings and outside areas and tells me the council has not asked for stops to removed in these public council owned places.
Again a few days after that we lose a gym, a post office, street maps and other things on a different nearby road. Again different land owners.
Something is seriously broken and it is not at landowners request. This has all happened over a 2 week or so period
@NianticAaron it makes zero sense for a few reasons I don’t want to say publicly but the fact that portal was never in any game because of distance rules, a nearby portal could be reached from the streets and no one was ever near the portal because it’s a secure area.
If the church requested removal (church related portals are gone from wayfarer) why would that affect nearby flats and their gardens, which are still in wayfarer. Or all the others , some a good 0.2 miles away?
But you have missed the point concentrating on that single portal. 40 OTHER nearby portals, with 10 different landowners/property owners have also gone missing since. Some pubs, a church, council owned statues and street furniture on public land , a theatre , a post office. All these landowner have not requested removal.
The local council has a GIS system here. Although it doesn’t show exactly who owns which plot, it does show which areas are owned by the council itself.
Not sure exactly where your missing portals are, but The Assembly Rooms (for example) is not owned by the council and is an obvious Wayspot with nothing nearby that I can see.
That’s as close as I can get to showing that multiple landowners are concerned, so I can’t believe that a single complainant would be able to have multiple wayspots removed.
Is it possible that the Council have asked for them to be taken down? It may be down to Niantic to decide whether they should honour the request or not?
Not at all. This council is one of the smallest and the person responsible there for their buildings and outside areas is a good friend of mine, who happens to play Pogo too. He hasn’t requested this and no one else there would. Any such request would have to go through him.
The map above clearly shows this has happened on council and non council areas too.
There is something else wrong.
Notably, I still have ingress keys for all the missing stops
No word on all these portals that have gone and have all different landowners…
Epsom Playhouse
51.331360, -0.270267
It’s a theatre on the ring road. Next to it a statue on the pavement has gone. It’s details:
Spectre de la Rose
51.331438, -0.269964
It has been there at least 10 years
Nearby shopping mall stops that have gone
Ashley Centre
51.331806, -0.268659
Welcome to Epsom
51.331905, -0.269304
Epsom Mall Clock
51.332245, -0.269125
The Ashley Centre
51.333163, -0.267645
Then we have some council buildings and furniture, which are actually a friend of mines at the councils responsibility (outside buildings and areas)
Epsom Clock Tower
51.333113, -0.268598
Epsom War Memorial Bench
51.332988, -0.268979
Evocation of Speed
51.332880, -0.270063
Happy to chat
51.332915, -0.269955
Epsom Charles II And Nell Gwynne Plaque
51.332806, -0.269365
We have a common weatherspoons chain pub…
Assembly Rooms
51.332739, -0.270059
There’s plenty more but I’ll move to the other end of the road now
UCA Display
51.332686, -0.266933
That’s part of the shopping centre building that the UCA use. Next door to that is Ashley house , a listed building split in to flats, all privately owned
Ashley House 1769
51.332530, -0.267137
2 doors down in a seperate building is a foot care place, with a plaque on…
Sgt. Thomas Green
51.331954, -0.267023
Across the road is the church and scouts area, which i think the church owns the whole plot. The portals here went missing from wayfarer as well as the games. I resubmitted some but they didn’t appear but are in wayfarer. They are:
Climbing Wall
51.331866, -0.266039
Epsom Church
51.332280, -0.266599
Then 1 road away we have a gym and a hotel chain and a night club
The Rig Gym
51.332984, -0.266723
Comrades Club
51.332917, -0.266128
Inspiration wall
51.332960, -0.265826
Fever & Boutique
51.333179, -0.266246
On an old shop…
Eagle Statue
51.333202, -0.266814
Epsom Post Office Redux
51.333545, -0.266055
That’s a post office on the main road , this is a street map on the pavement near it
All these missing wayspots are within a small radius and I’m hoping that once I can prove you are mistaken on one, you will look at the rest, as they are also mistakes.
When I know the church isn’t the same landowner as the shopping centre (the church owns all it’s own land), its not possible for me to find every land owner and convince them to contact you.
The fact I can get one one, shows there is a mistake or foul play at work and I would request once one has proven you incorrect , you look at the others off your own back.
I know I am 100% correct in all these different landowners did not request all these removals. The first step is underway to prove this…some actual Niantic INVESTIGATION once proven would be appreciated
Unfortunately, this is not how it works. We have followed our procedure and verified the reporters. We need to do that for restoration requests as well.
We never claimed that all these requests came from the same reporter.
The request you will receive will show this is not the case and that there is a flaw somewhere. All I’m asking is once this has been shown, you look further.
I’m not getting anywhere here so I’ll return once the first part is done and you have to admit either a mistake was made or abuse and your verification system is not up to scratch.
Instead of claiming different landowners, @NianticAaron is now saying a single person speaks for every business in town.
Even if the request was genuine, they wouldn’t be able to speak for the street furniture, clock tower, the church, the theatre the listed building which is flats one side of the road, the flats with a monument the other side of the road, the gym and the hotel.
The only people that might be able to speak for some of businesses is the management of the shopping centre which only covers about 3 or 4 of the missing 20+ stops.
Either Niantic have made a mistake removing too much or the request, fake or not, covered areas that are not business related and should not have been removed
Hi @NianticAaron. We are now at the stage where it has been proven I was correct that this was a faked request.
You had people from the council contact you via their official .gov domains. Others with authority over businesses also contacted you. As a result, most of the way spots are-appeared today.
Moving on, info can be provided for punishing those who commited this fraud. Its up to you if you take legal action against those trying to damage your game & local businesses.
Mod edit: removed game- and faction-based accusations.
While 20+ portals returned, a couple got replaced by proximity rules but some also got missed. They disappeared at the same time as the others that returned.
They are:
Epsom Methodist Church
11 Ashley Rd, Epsom KT18 5AQ, UK
51.3323571, -0.2666133
Old courthouse monument & climbing wall etc which are within 30 or so metres of the Church
If you could resolve these last few for a start that would be great.
Maybe after we can move on to the individual portals the fraudsters removed wrongly, which multiple ambassadors brought to Niantics attention before this small group of players moved on to fraudulent activity
Wayfarer has no influence on game inclusion rules, that is determined by the respective game teams. So unfortunately your request on those wayspots cannot be handled by the wayfarer team. I would advice to reach out to the respective game teams instead.
I do see that there are 2 wayspots for the Epsom Methodist Church. Did these return at the same time as the others? In other words, was there sufficient time for these to sync over to the games?
I am aware ones missing because of proximity issues can not be fixed. I mentioned those ones so, ironically, they wouldnt be confused with other missing portals.
The church has not appeared in any game yet despites all the other 20+ portals reappearing in Pogo & Ingress, hence my post. Neither of them or the surrounding portals
This was not a fake report. We had removed the Wayspots on the request of the property owner(s) then and have restored these at the request of property owner(s) now.
I cannot discuss the contents of our conversation with any third party.
If you are in touch with the property owners of the said location, please have them reach out to us directly.
I understand you are being careful because of legal reasons @NianticAaron Aaron but I already know the real property owners did not request it. Its why they went through the process to reverse and fix it.
As well as what was sent to Niantic by them, I also saw the content of email YOU sent the council on the 2nd of October. So you don’t need to tell me anything.
These few portals are in the same square the fake removal caused the problems in, they should have been restored at the same time as the others.
