Now that the Wayfarer Challenge has finished and the results are starting to roll in, (I received my Upgrades Sunday evening).
I’m wondering what everyone’s idea is for the next Wayfarer Challenge? The introductions of edits was a game changer. It opened up possibilities that a lot of us had not considered.
If you were designing the next challenge,
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What would it look like?
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What countries would you add?
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Would it be country specific?
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What would be your overall theme or message?
Let’s see who are the super creative Explorers out there!
I’d love to see a few regions that seem to be (from what I’ve seen on various social media) underserved in terms of too few reviewers. In recent months I’ve seen folks from Madagascar, Morocco, Egypt, Jamaica (and other Caribbean island nations) asking for people to select them as their secondary location.
I think it would be fantastic to do a world tour of really underserved regions, places where the number of active reviewers is so low that some nominations just languish for ages. Maybe something like start in the Caribbean, then cross the Atlantic to Africa, a day or two in the Middle East and western Asian, a day in someplace in Southeast Asia, then round off in Central America. Maybe the theme could be the Tropics (since all of the places I’ve suggested are located within the Tropics).
I know lots of people are dealing with black holes where nominations without upgrades are not progressing at all (myself included) but I think it would help the community as a whole to help out the regions that don’t have such a large presence or regular reviewers pushing nominations toward resolutions.
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I’d also love to see a global low-density-area push: maybe all of the African continent, for a start. I enjoy helping rural areas where there are few portals/pokestops/mining outcrops/mushrooms in place to help multiple people level up to a point where they can take the reins and keep adding content. Kick-starting some of these stalled areas might help the map immensely!
Also - Canada. Why not? It’s the second-largest country, with lots of big cities, a substantial and diverse population, and hectare upon hectare of wilderness.
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Totally agree that Canada needs to be included in an upcoming challenge. My bonus location is near the US/Canada border, and I get a lot of photo reviews from Canada. Sometimes, I start my day with 5-10 photo reviews from Canada before getting anything else! Guess they really like taking photos up there!
I think my first challenge was centered around western European countries, so it would be nice to focus more on countries in certain areas. Canada and the Caribbean could be included in a North America specific challenge, for instance. There could be a Mediterranean Sea specific challenge that could include northern African countries, for another example.
Oh, and edits need to continue to be a part of challenges, as I was able to get over 500 for the first time. And less bugs…
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I liked the edits, but then I realised that I didnt get agreements for a lot of the work I did, so maybe they werent good, I dont know.
I really enjoy the text based edits, title and description ones, and pictures are good too.
I would be happy to help with areas that need more reviewers too, but I would like to have some answers of all the issues from this last challenge before committing too much to another.
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I’d like to change my answers to the UK as some of my nominations have been in voting for 12 days.
We need another challenge.
Possibly even a city challenge?
At the first sign of a bouncing balloon by any reviewer @NianticAaron presses a big red button and we high tail it out of there and onto somewhere else.
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Hi @BlameJamal
It’s never to early 
I have the following ideas:
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Clean up the map (motto: do you fit to our current criterias?)
Maybe with a first bundle of all cemeteries, memorial benches and graffities.
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Hot summer
Maybe as a parted challenge. What kind of typ you’re (moutains or sea?). Including all countries with hills upon x meters, or countries with min. one coastside.
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Reviewers desert
Including all areas (note: not country!) with low review participation.
Not to bring in too much game discussion but;
The next Ingress Anomaly Season (starting in July) is called Shared Memories. The next Pokémon GO Season (starting in June) is called Shared Skies.
Next Wayfarer Challenge - Shared Challenge (someone come up with a better “Shared” name).
This challenge goes back over a few previous Ingress Anomaly and Pokémon GO Fest locations from 2023/2024.
I’m thinking of it lasting a week, and focus on one country a day besides the last day.
So this would be:
- Japan
- Spain
- USA
- UK
- Malaysia
- Hungary
- Global
We have Global Ops in Ingress and a Global GO Fest in Pokémon GO, so the last day would be a Global review day to help out other areas and really cement the “shared” aspect.
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Since the introduction of Emily (ML, or machine learning), things are moving a lot faster in general. Between that and people saying they don’t know what to do with all the upgrades they have, I think it would be fun if instead of a review challenge, we did a community-wide nomination challenge!
It would be so fun to send explorers out looking for specifically themed items all across the globe. It would totally align with Niantic’s mission to get everyone off their couches too. A nerd can dream! 
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GMTA - I’ve long suggested something like:
Sunday: Global email explaining why decorative fountains are good wayspots, with some pictures of different kinds. Kick off fountain week. Niantic collects fountains submitted that week, and makes a slide show that includes wayspot name, city/state, and picture.
Next Sunday: repeat with murals, or sports fields, or event spaces / clubhouses, or nature signs, or picnic places…
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We’ve talked about nomination challenges many times before. We always run into the same roadblock. Too many people would nominate things they know to be ineligible just to “compete” in the challenge.
People who live in POI dense areas may not have things they can nominate, so this skews pretty heavily towards rural or otherwise POI-lite areas. That means not everyone has the same opportunity to participate. Many people in urban areas (especially outside of the US) don’t have easy access to travel to rural areas to submit.
I would absolutely love Niantic to sponsor/foster some kind of rural submission expedition, but I don’t think it’s right to tie it to a challenge with rewards. The rewards should be getting things added to the map for rural/less dense communities. I might post my thoughts on this in another topic.
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Fair points all around! A rural submission expedition would be so much fun, and so helpful for rural communities.
