Currently it is unreasonably difficult to do any sort of maintenance, editing, and curating of existing Wayspots (some of which will be celebrating their 13th birthday in a month). More specifically:
- Only Pokemon GO players have any way to edit Wayspots
- You have to be standing at the PokeStop’s location in order to make edits/reports
- Normal location edits are limited to 25 meters
- Wayspot edits don’t allow any supporting text, even though context is often crucial for edits
- It’s not clear when a Wayspot should be “repurposed” versus removed
- Old outdated photos are often stuck as the main photo on a PokeStop, due to a bug that’s been present for 4+ years
- Even simple edits can take months to be reviewed
- Wayspot edits and reports are frequently rejected for no reason
- In many cases it is impossible to get Wayspots removed that don’t exist anymore because of how difficult it is to prove they don’t exist anymore (like small indoor objects)
- Submitters have no incentives or rewards for submitting edits and reports
And many more issues and inconveniences. How will Niantic streamline the process for improving the database moving forward, especially with the new roadmap?