You can’t control how others view you. We shouldn’t change the purpose of our existence just to make others happy.
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Neither would an Ambassador, Niantic employees to point to the correct direction of the person in the community asking a question . Before just shutting it down. I understand you do this on your free time. But if you just closed the p community/player/person question or statement. Then I guess you not as invested to be Ambassador because it should be fun or give you some sort of joyfulness by helping the community/people. Just saying if you like the powertrain of being able to edit, close or anything on this forum then. Give someone else rather a chance to become an Ambassador which will find joy in helping the people. It is that simple give the player some info at least. Not just being a powertrain because you feel like it or it does not suit your cup of tea
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Please consider that closing off topic threads is partly done to protect the 99% percent of the community that doesn’t want to see these off topic questions pop up and proliferate. This is not about power. This is about maintaining the purpose of this community.
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I understand your point, @26thDoctor, and using your analogy, we are already redirecting users to where they need to go for help with product X before closing the thread (hang up the phone).
The information we’re providing already seems helpful enough. What other information are you suggesting that we provide on this topic before closing the thread?
I could have replied on the routes thread. From my images above it’s obvious I’ve done a few and could have helped the user a bit more. The thread could have been left to fall away or have someone else input a bit more information before sinking to the bottom.
With all due respect I’ve found the best way to get answers is not from Niantic help but from the people using the product 
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That I understand that to maintain and avoid “spam” etc. But what for you off topic is not necessarily for the other person off topic. By maintaining and keeping the purpose of the community. Then the right thing to do is then at least explain why you closing something - that called mainting. Then give guidance and advice - purpose.
This is not a “for you is off-topic but for the other person no”. Objectively PoGo routes or Campfire is not related in any way with Wayfarer, so is really off topic. In this case the explanation and guidance was given.
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I would disagree with you there.
I’ve learnt things about Wayfarer and Go from people discussing Ingress, Pikmin etc
@26thDoctor thank you for your contribution to the Pokémon GO community. We recognize that you have experience with this topic, but that does not mean it can be discussed on a forum dedicated to a different process. We closely monitor and manage the information shared here to ensure accuracy and truthfulness. Discussing unrelated topics can lead to inaccuracies and detract from the forum’s primary purpose.
@Orgelux1558 if a topic is not Wayfarer-related, then it is considered off-topic. We do explain why we close certain threads and provide guidance on where users can find the appropriate assistance. This helps maintain the community’s focus and ensures users get accurate information from the right sources.
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I will say this, if you want an answer to a question about any Niantic product I have found the people here to be a lot more helpful than any other product. Mainly a lot of us play a lot of Niantic games. I have had an issue with routes in Pokémon Go and I can’t get the attention of the right people on the PoGo team to help get it fixed or to figure out if it’s something I did wrong. Might be nice if I found someone like @26thDoctor who has done as many as they have and maybe they have encountered the issue as well and know how to fix it or Know what I am doing wrong.
I understand that this isn’t a PoGo forum, but that does not exist with people who might actually be able to fix an issue on Niantics end.
This is the only place where end users, experts (Wayfarer Ambassadors) and Niantic employees actually converse. When issues come up about Wayfarer a lot of them get solved here, where in other Niantic products they can be left to the void and no one ever knows. There is no centralized place for that conversation.
The ammount of knolegable people on this forum is high. It is a good place to get pointed in the right direction. While the OP might not get the answers they seek completely here, letting a few other users answer might get them pointed in the right direction. Closing the topic so quickly eliminates that possibility, and leaves a new user frustrated.
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To be honest it only involved walking so it was pretty easy but thank you for thanking me.
The route thread on the old forum was one of the most viewed and posted on threads. I think it was mostly just Wayfarer users sharing information and talking to each other which can only be a good thing.
Have you considered an off topic section where Ambassadors could easily move a thread too if it’s not directly Wayfarer related instead of closing it down?
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We did consider having an off topic category. We discussed it during a niantic lead conversation that included the ambassadors. We discussed the pros and cons of how it would help and how it might harm the community. After listening to all sides of the conversation niantic decided not to include an off topic category.
It can certainly be revisited at this time. However, I see one of the drawbacks for adding an off-topic.Category the way that discourse presents topics for people to read. The initial assumption when we were discussing it, was that people could easily ignore an off topic category if they didnt want to see it. But Discourse makes it difficult to ignore a category. Unless we can come up with a good solution for that, I think sticking to the original Set of categories is Best. But I am not the final arbiter.
I find it odd that more discussion and different people with different sets of knowledge talking to each other could cause harm or that people don’t have the capacity to just ignore a thread.
Maybe I haven’t been taking seriously enough adding postboxes, statues, coffee shops and memorial benches to a map that nobody outside of the Niantic bubble actually cares about.
There are people on these forums who are familiar with Niantic’s products, services, rules and procedures.
I believe the Doctor is merely requesting that you not be so quick and abrupt. The terse response followed by locking of the thread comes across as gatekeeping or worse.
You could greet the new person with a few kind words, cut and paste some info about this forum, but then give the newcomer and the community a chance for a brief dialogue.
We all need to find a balance so this place doesn’t come across as toxic or elitist.
There’s a tricky bit of philosophy to this. We must not feel obliged to be tolerant of intolerance.
As an aside: I am concerned that it may seem like I am picking fights with some Ambassadors and staff members. I am trying to be effective, and you all seem to be in positions where it could actually lead to change.
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Rather than a broad “Off Topic” category, I’d rather see categories “Unofficial PokemonGo Discussion”, “Unofficial Ingress Discussion”, etc. Then we don’t include the whole universe of possibilities. And it would make it clear that it’s not official Niantic answers, just gamers helping gamers.
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Thank you for the suggestion and we would definitely bring it up to the team for consideration. As of now, this forum is dedicated for Wayfarer and @Ambassadors have just been following the moderations guidelines.
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Thanks for expressing your concerns about this. You and I seem to disagree on some topics. That’s perfectly OK. Please never feel like you can’t express yourself because you will end up disagreeing with me (or any ambo). The main consideration always is for all of us to remain respectful while we disagree.
@PkmnTrainerJ and I disagree on a lot, but we get along really well because we respect each other as each doing our best.
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A two day ban was worth it just to know that you all had a conversation and seriously discussed the pros and cons of having an off topic section in a forum.
That’s kind of nuts
You were banned?
I was deliberately being a d1ck