What was the warning for then? Have I committed other content violations?
And that automatically means I’ve done that for every single one of these markers in my city?
Yes, they’re bought and put up. By the tourism board/organization. They don’t make them themselves, they have to get them from somewhere.
So… you want me to get a list from them of every single sticker they’ve ever put up? Just from the ones mentioned in this topic? In my city? In the whole province? Can you be more specific?
I think you can safely assume they don’t want a list from the whole province, a list that contains the ones you would like restored is probably good enough…
Since I am big fan of trail marker wayspots myself I have done some research myself.
Maybe this is enough to restore these wayspots: @NianticAaron ?
For North Brabant, the green stickers with yellow arrows are official trail markers used as part of the province-wide hiking infrastructure.
Official source:
The website for the Wandelnetwerk Noord-Brabant explicitly states (Dutch):
“Onderweg wijzen de groen-gele markeringen de weg van wandelknooppunt naar wandelknooppunt.”
Translation:
“Along the way, the green-yellow markings guide walkers from one walking junction to the next.”
This confirms that the green/yellow arrow markers are standardized signage used throughout an official, organized hiking network, managed by regional route and tourism organizations.
They are therefore not privately bought or decorative stickers, but part of an officially installed and maintained trail system.
The problem is not the trails itself, but the actual location of those markers. A sticker like that is quickly fabricated so it has to be shown to be 100% genuine for individual markers.
Pointing out that Aaron has stated that evidence has been submitted to them bringing into question “the legitimacy of these stickers.” So the evidence needs to be strong that these specific stickers have been officially placed. Not just that these are the kind of stickers used here. That fact has been established.
I am not sure this sort of documentation exists ie the location of every marker on a trail.
I was trying to see if I could find it for a trail I often submit sections of and I can only see route maps. So I guess National Cycle Network routes are off the table
Extremely well maintained routes and good documentation online but I can’t find anything to say they log where each marker is.
Ah! So the current situation is that Niantic believes (some of the) markers/stickers, even though they are along the official lines supplied by the tourism board, are put up by persons nominating these Wayspots, as Niantic has been supplied with evidence that these stickers “are bought and put up”.
Weird case, weird situation.
Is it implied here that the problem is that the markers are put up by an individual in an unofficial capacity, and therefore removed, but that they will be restored if a list of trail markers from an official source is supplied?
On the one hand I understand that position, but on the other, I think there is a case to be made that they are legitimate.
Should it not be sufficient to then provide evidence that these markers represent a specific official walking route? If the trail is the interesting feature, and that there is sufficient evidence that the trail is a specific official walking route, does it matter if the markers themselves are official or not - as long as they serve a function on the trail that is unique to that location?
I don’t necessarily agree, and I don’t think opening the door on self-made easy-printed stickers as Wayspots is a good idea, I just wanted to point out it out. If the case is that the trail markers have to be official, it might be good to define what “official” means in this case, as that can certainly be hard to prove with some of the trail markers I see nominated and approved.
@GeneralSecura, I suppose you could use the contact formula on the meldpunkt website you linked to contact them and ask if they have any data on where the markers are, or on any they have replaced/put up in the past year(s). They probably don’t have a full database, but they might have some sort of log that could prove that they have put up some of these at least (if you don’t agree that they’re self-bought and put up by someone not affiliated with the tourism board, of course).
It will not be sufficient that the markers exist on an official trail, because then anyone could put up a sticker anywhere along that trail in order to get another wayspot. The stickers themselves are easy to replicate, so since Niantic have been provided with evidence that this happened, this possibility has to be considered by Niantic.
It’s not an ideal situation, but hopefully it is now a clearly defined one.
Stickers that have been there for 10+ years are fairly easy to consider as genuine and it is good that this has been used to restore some wayspots.
Newer trail markers are a problem, because it is unlikely that they will be specifically listed anywhere.
You have to fill in your name, the name of your business, the VAT number of your business, address, postcode, city, country, phone number and an explanation why you want to purchase these stickers from them.
So it doesn’t seem like they just sell these to everyone willy-nilly. Getting a VAT number requires registering your business with the Chamber of Commerce. I don’t think anyone would go through all of that just so they can create a few extra Pokestops.
Someone who already has a business and a VAT number might. To be honest, it doesn’t look like there’s a whole lot that’s special about those stickers. You could probably find a company to recreate them fairly inexpensively without a registered business.
You can order public footpaths discs online too. They look “off” somehow in review - usually oversized, or not properly attached, and can usually be spotted. I am not seeing PROW PoIs deleted (yet) just because it is possible to buy similar markers online. The routes can be verified
The majority of the review examples I’ve seen have not been people positioning them within the official route - they are usually simply outside what I assume is their house and therefore pretty easy to tell its fake
