You don’t know that. Could be Niantic staff. They’ve been removing street signs in Portugal, survey markers in Australia, fake trail signs in Germany, fake mosaics in Poland. (If I recall the European countries correctly.) Every time, people want to blame malicious players. And it isn’t.
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Are they removing state survey marks? Do we know this… How exciting…
They only have a bazillion to go…They need EMiLy to have work her magic.
Re Poo Sticks (Stink Pipes) I assume more common in some areas and not others. Are they more city based or everywhere…When I say common - every 100m, 200m… I guess my question is what do the numbers look like. I am just intrigued.
In my whole area I know of 2. Ie an hour’s walk might yield 1, or 0.
So not post box common, but there would be a couple in places with victorian history.
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They are 19th century generally, so the area would have to exist more than 100 years ago. Many were removed after that because essentially they are obsolete. My large village has two, one at either end - of the surrounding villages it’s either zero or one. There are a few in the two nearby towns, but I doubt even scraping into double figures.
A few are registered as historic structures, for example: Victorian 'Stink' Pipe Listed | Historic England
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Someone has admitted to doing exactly that on these forums, but by now this is a cross-faction Ingress delete fest. It will very likely spread as people realise how easy it is to delete them and upset other players.
They are very patchy, and mostly in London. You can have huge areas with none, and then get a few on the same street. They used to be all over London, but it’s been nearly 200 years since they were built. It’s mostly down to luck if they have survived this long - in areas where people care enough to complain if the council tries to remove them. Two have been removed near me that I know of just in the last couple of years. One because it was hit by an ambulance, and another just disappeared.
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That sounds like a Poo idea.
(puns intended)
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I don’t understand why it would be easy to get an existing Wayspot deleted.
Niantic’s removal requirements have always seemed to be quite strict, requiring rather strong proof that the POI wasn’t anywhere near the marked location, was in a dangerous place or blocked emergency services, was on single-family PRP, was on school-grounds, etc.
Since stink-pipes seldom match any of the above cases, they would need to be targeted by someone who could make a convincing case that they were responsible for the property or were a Niantic employee with write-access to the Lightship database.
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…or maybe Niantic is removing them without gamer help…
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Unless someone is reporting them
I don’t understand the process for reporting and what happens. But maybe that is what is happening…
If that is the case I wonder what the criteria would be.
And same again if Niantic is removing.
We may never know 
For those interested in such things. Sydney has 12,500 odd poo sticks (vent shafts). In metro areas they can be every 400m. And do a search for the Sydney Hyde Park Obelisk. I take your poo stick and raise it. Yes this is a waypoint in the DB.
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I wonder if anyone from Niantic would be able to give us some reason behind the removal. If the Stinkpipes are no longer eligible, I would like to know so that I don’t submit them and end up getting a telling off for submitting them.
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I’ve tried appealing, and they have just responded “it’s invalid” but they have never explained why.
Pretty decent example, looks like it has the original Victorian pipe as well as the base. I’d have no problem voting to accept something like that.
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Looks a bit more modern and shorter than most, it would be interesting to see if it has a name on it. I was doing some research, and here’s one from 1999, the name on the casting gives it away…
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Yes I do think a more modern one, it was just one of things when you suddenly see something that is being talked about.
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So, is this someone maliciously reporting these wayspots, are they limited to quite small areas? Interested to know what method they are using, as it’s impossible to get genuinely ineligible things removed. Is there an official position on these, assuming the team understand what they even are?
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Don’t have them near me, and I have seen a few that just look like old headless lampposts, or parts of them in someone’s front garden (Cambridge!). But I have noticed you cannot edit the titles because “pipe” is an invalid word (look-up its meaning in urban dictionary!), is this just a “Scunthorpe” problem? Is there an alternative name for these sewer vent conduits?
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“Stinkpipe” or “stenchpipe” seems to work, and yes it’s a Scunthorpe filter basically.
My bet is you probably do have them, but since they’re usually a century or more old you’ll find them in more established areas. They will also have had to survive removal. They often seem to be on street corners or along the major thoroughfares that have the sewers underneath. Typically they are much taller than the lamp posts in the area too.
I’ve seen the name “W.E. Farrer” on local ones, that company still exists today as a part of MWH Treatment - Our History and 200 Year Legacy | MWH Treatment
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