Hello All - It occurred to me that there are areas that as a community we would like to improve in our day to day interactions with Wayfarer. So I have a growing list of topics that I’d like to get feedback on.
Tell me what you like ; Tell me what you don’t like ; Ideas to improve!
Nomination Experience
Nomination language:
I wish the Niantitic games that allow nominations would use clear language that you are nominating a wayspot for an independent database and not a Pokething or Portal
-??
Nomination Map Experience
Each game with nomination ability should allow players to see local map items (that may not be in the game they are nominating from)a map of the database
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Directions for Description and Supporting Materials
I wish they would tell you that they still want to see the Nomination in the supporting photo
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Level/Access
Is the level to nominate good for each game?
Should there be a test or is onboarding enough?
— Should be a test to start nominating
— Should be a test to start reviewing
— Should be a refresher for when Criteria changes (for both nominating and reviewing?)
??
Nomination Edits
Be able to upload a supporting photo for edits in locations with no Street View / bad satellite
Add an optional supporting info box for title/description edits to add extra context
More photo review rejection options
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Overall Takeaways:
Improve Communications!
Niantic should have a team who are responsible for consistency/continuity of messaging
Consolidating information from comments: Thank you freelafgb, 26thDoctor, DTrain2002, eneeoh
Those jumped out for me. But I’d like to add to this list or create a summary of other ideas. So please feel free to jot down other things about Nominations that could be better.
I don’t see why the test was stopped. I think there should be some sort of test to both submit and review, even if very basic, to show you have read the criteria. Also a refresher for when the criteria change. Many people seem to submit/review based on some outdated ideas.
Definitely agree the language should not be game specific. Its misleading for players to be told they are nominating a pokestop which is accepted and then never becomes a pokestop. Thats a really bad customer experience.
Once I got to the level that I could submit and review I started looking for any information I could get. Spent a long time reading on the Wayfarer subreddit before I even took the test. Then did review for awhile before I really got in to nominating. But I think I’m rather unique and most folks are very happy to jump straight into nominating.
Refreshers either from time to time, or when criteria does change, that I agree with.
I know a lot of people have said it would be nice to upload a supporting photo for location edits in places with no Street View, or just bad satellite. Whenever I get a location edit for something along a trail, I usually have to choose unable to locate.
I’ve also heard people say it would be nice to have a supporting info box for title/description edits, if extra context is needed. It can be optional, but it could help reviewers and ML to make a quicker decision, instead of searching all over to confirm.
I’d love to see more photo review rejection options. Right now, say a photo is blurry or third party, you can only choose Other in photo reviews, whereas if the photo contains offensive/explicit materials or anything that can identify someone, you have those options available to you.
I’d love to see the optional comments come back when reviewing new Wayspot submissions. I’ve heard of people thinking that, if they want to provide a comment, they have to thumbs down on Accuracy (even if accurate) and leave a comment. I feel this would be helpful if you choose IDK to explain why.
And, of course…COMMUNICATIONS! I don’t think I have to go fully into this, but Niantic needs to improve communicating with the community. I even heard people say they had no idea about the last challenge until the last day or 2.
I know I have more, but these are just some of what could be improved upon for me.
Asking a community to build a location based database then not letting them view it is the equivalent of creating a community garden then asking the local volunteers to dig with their hands.
Niantic needs to have somebody or some group who are responsible for consistency/continuity of messaging. They would ensure that email and in-game content was accurate, honest, and forthright, get the word out before events were due to begin, and inform Explorers of planned changes, potentially impactful modifications, criteria updates, etc.
All fantastic points, these are all things that we have been requesting for a long time, common sense things that should really not be too difficult to implement.
Improvements in clarity and communication are desperately needed and would cut down on so much confusion and frustration, we see the same issues come up constantly with nothing done to fix obvious problems. Its insane how half-arsed and poorly designed things are when you really look at them.
Thank you for stating what should be obvious to Niantic. They have improved a lot of things in the past six months! Yet they have a blind eye (or different opinion) on things many of us have said for years.
Nomination language:
Niantic says they don’t want to break the emersion experience by mentioning that anything exists outside your game.
Nomination Map Experience:
I guess it’s OK to break emersion for PokemonGo Trainers, and mention Wayspots that aren’t Pokestops.gyms (in the nomination process) - but it’s not OK to break emersion for Ingress Agents, and show Wayspots that aren’t Portals. (Sorry, I try to use their logic but can’t carry it through.)
Niantic says they’re recoding the Lightship Wayfarer app - maybe it will become the “go to” map instead of the Ingress intel Map? (It’s the input to the third-party app, IITC,)
Description and Supporting
Just a sentence about what they want, would be such a low investment for such a big payoff
Level/Access
Ingress: L10 to nominate, L12 to review (last I heard)
PoGo: 38 to nominate, 40 to review?
Niantic believes that the current review setup gives enough guidance that you don’t need to study and take a test first.
Niantic says criteria don’t change - they just issue clarifications on what’s always been true
Nomination Edits
I agree that all kinds of things should be added. But from their development viewpoint: it would be a lot of cost, for not much gain
My additions:
Please add Contribution Stats:
Totals Submitted, In Voting, In Queue, Accepted, Rejected
for Nominations, Edits, Photos
I agree. Things are getting better. And I know that they can’t just snap their fingers and change things.
But I thought if we could organize our thoughts and recommendations that they could use it. Maybe they can put some of these ideas in their development backlogs!
But some of these might be even harder for them since their teams are so independent. Communication to us is so hard because I don’t think they communicate much amongst themselves.
The map is a big one. Like not being able to see if something is already there and you submit it, wait whatever amount of weeks, months for it to be reviewed just to find out it’s a duplicate of something you can’t see in the first place is super annoying. It also clogs up the system because multiple people might see something they think is eligible (and very well could be) especially if it is a new addition to an area, but it turns out they are the 10th or 11th person to submit the exact same thing.
Cross game edits would also be a welcome addition as I’ve seen a lot of wayspots with terrible photos, descriptions etc. while reviewing but I can’t edit them or improve photos because I can’t access them due to them being in the wrong game. Would be nice to have a standalone Wayfarer option for doing this. Even something along the lines of the current edits section in-game but accessible through Wayfarer or maybe if they are recoding the lightship app this might be possible through it at a some point in the future.
As for communicating, a simple email with a link to criteria clarification both current and new would be a simple fix in the short term.
The test was fine but it could also be off-putting.
The criteria clarification link emailed upon joining wayfarer as a welcome pack with a verification that you have read and understood it to the best of your ability would serve the same goal with the exception that people would actually learn what’s what instead of the vague description and examples given on the original test.
Threads get lost in the mix easily if you login and see a ton of new unread or updated. If there are changes down the line then just email them directly with a link to changes instead of them just being updated in X section and running the risk that the changes will be missed.
Definitely need more rejection options. This was mentioned above with photos. I’ve come across so many descriptions copied and pasted from websites but we don’t have a copied text rejection button. I normally just click other and add a link to where it’s been copied from.
I know there are more that aren’t coming to me at the moment but these are just a few ideas.
; Tell me what you don’t like 
; Ideas to improve!
