When submitting a Wayspot Appeal, make sure to include as much of the following information as possible:
1:
- Wayspot Title : Maritime Antiques 1831
- Location (lat/lon): 55.680564,12.591991
- City: Copenhagen
- Country: Denmark
2:
- Wayspot Title : 3 Bees
- Location (lat/lon): 55.680206,12.591704
- City: Copenhagen
- Country: Denmark
- Additional Information (if any):
I am appealing the removal of these two Wayspots, and at least pointing out that these two still physically exist. Furthermore, I believe that there is a pattern of abuse happening in the area around these two Wayspots with the goal of manipulating the Pokémon Go gameboard, and that these two play into that pattern. I will start by making the case for these two Wayspots. I will then detail why I think abuse happened here, before I go into a timeline of my view of the possible abuse, where these two will of course be at the end of that timeline:
3 Bees
Photo at time of removal. The nominated Wayspot is/was the 3 Bees ornaments on the building. The building neither is nor was a SFPR, but is currently used for administration/office space. This can be seen at Kulturarv.dk - the official page describing the buildings protected status, which also lists the three bees - hence it would be illegal to remove them. I can confirm that the ornaments still exist today, and I have taken a video of the facade to prove so:
Streamable video 3 Bees
As the ornaments still exist at the same place and in the same condition as when the Wayspot was nominated and approved, and that they are not on a SFPR, I do not understand their removal. I appeal for their reinstatement, and otherwise hope you can help me understand why they were removed.
Maritime Antiques 1831
Photo at time of removal. The Wayspot is/was a sign for a unique local business selling antique maritime pieces and other maritime-related ornaments (which surely falls under " * Unusual or unique local shops", haha!). The shop is still open and the signage is still there, as seen in this video of the facade of the building/the sign:
Streamable video Maritime Antiques 1831
Hopefully it can also - though it was not in my focus of the video, and it is quite dark given the late hour - be seen that the sign is still in the same place, next to the same black door on the right hand side and the drainage on the left.
With the shop still open and the sign still in place, this Wayspot removal also confuses me. I similarly believe it to be reinstatement-worthy, and otherwise hope for help in understanding the reason behind its removal.
Possible abuse:
3 Bees was removed approximately 1 week ago at the time of writing. Maritime Antiques 1831 was removed approximately 5 days ago at the time of writing.
I know Wayfarer staff cannot confirm (nor deny) how the Wayspot system works in regards to Pokémon Go, but 3 Bees was a Pokéstop. The only other Wayspot in the same L17 S2 cell was the Wayspot “Nyhavn” at 55.679949,12.591298. My understanding is that it would then be guaranteed that if 3 Bees were to be removed, the Wayspot Nyhavn would become a Pokéstop. Nyhavn did become a Pokéstop upon the removal of 3 Bees.
While Reviewing in the past few weeks, I have multiple times been asked to review location movement requests for Maritime Antiques 1831. I believe these requests would have moved the Wayspot coordinates away from the physical location of the object the Wayspot represents. I do not know to what goal, but I wanted to include that observation. Maritime Antiques 1831 was a Gym in Pokémon Go, and thus my understanding is that if it were to be removed, another Wayspot in the same L14 S2 cell would instead become a Gym. Nyhavn is located in the same L14 S2 cell as Maritime Antiques 1831 was.
Leading up to the removal of Maritime Antiques, I noticed that a handful new photos were added for the Wayspot Nyhavn since last time I had checked. I understand based on comments from others that Pokémon Go Gym creation is partially based on a system where it is beneficial to have more photos for a Wayspot. I know the Wayfarer crew cannot confirm nor deny this, but I wanted to include it as I believe the “Nyhavn” Wayspot had photos added with the goal of making it a Gym (which it did become). However, a lot of the photos for the Wayspot are from second-party sources, and not taken by the user who uploaded them:
Current first Wayspot photo|690x450, 50%
Same photo on LocationScout
Current second Wayspot photo
Can be seen on VisitDenmark, credited to Kim Wyon
Note the Adobe Stock watermark on the left hand side.
Link to the photo on Adobe Stock
Current fourth Wayspot photo
Same photo as a stock photo on Dreamstime
Current seventh Wayspot photo
Wikimedia photo by Lourie Shaull
Furthermore the 14th current Wayspot photo appears to be taken through a window, which I think is also against the rules?
Several of the other photos also appear to be very professional photos, but I have not been able to find a direct source for those.
I believe these events - the removal of one Wayspot that would make “Nyhavn” appear on the Pokémon GO game board, followed by the removal of another Wayspot that would make “Nyhavn” into a gym, and the addition of multiple secondary source photos to the otherwise somewhat empty Nyhavn (with 2 photos of ordinary streetname signs) - are connected, and I urge you to keep an eye out for possible connections between the persons/accounts behind the photo additions to Nyhavn and the reports of 3 Bees and Maritime Antiques 1831.
Timeline:
20th of January: Me and other local community members notice several weird location suggestions when Reviewing, and some odd name change proposals that would repurpose Wayspots, including one proposing the name “Elf at Det Lille Teater” instead of “Det Lille Teater” for one Wayspot. I mistakenly believed that The Royal Library Fountain was removed as the result of similar activity, but it turns out to have been legitimately removed due to being a duplicate. I include the topic for completeness. The removal of that Wayspot means another Gym is created in Cirkelbroen, which has this Wayspot photo, which as seen on This page, among others is a professional photo by Anders Sune Berg, by the way.
23rd of January: I report that Det Lille Teater has been removed as the result of someone repurposing the Wayspot into an ornament in front of the theater, after which it was presumably reported due to that ornament not being present for many years. The Wayspot is reinstated.
The removal of Det Lille Teater resulted in Vor Frue Domkirke at 55.679312,12.572162 becoming a Gym in Pokémon GO. Note that this Wayspot used to be named “Jesus at Vor Frue Domkirke”, and featured the current fourth Wayspot photo. It has since undergone a name change and now revolves around the church building and not the statue, and has gotten a new description, as well as a location move. I reported this as a repurposing of the Wayspot (from statue to church building) to the Help Chat, who did not agree that this constituted a repurpose, as far as I can recall (nothing was done, at least).
It similarly has seen the addition of a lot of photos.
First Wayspot photo for Vor Frue Domkirke is a professional drone shot. I have not been able to find a source, but wanted to include it due to how highly suspicious it is.
Second Wayspot photo
Stolen from Wonderful Copenhagen
I cannot find any of the others via Google Lens myself - partially because they are of so common photographic angles - but I would like to note that I find it rather odd that it has 15 photos of the outside of the building added in a very short timespan, some of which appear to be very professional photos, especially considering that the Wayspot has only been a Wayspot for the building itself for that very short span of time.
28th of January: I note that Frederik IVs Segl has been removed. It turns out to be due to evidence that the ornament has been removed. The Wayspot is reinstated after I provide evidence that it was not. The removal of this Wayspot means the Wayspot “Det gamle Rundetårn” at 55.681363,12.575818 becomes a Pokémon GO Gym.
Unknown Date around 28th of January: I again note and report several weird movement suggestions. One that would move the MOCKВИЧ at 55.699159,12.542207 into another S2 cell, which I believe would render it inactive. Movement suggestions for Nørrebro Bibliotek - first one moving it to the street, then moving it to the newer entrance - and one that goes through, which I believe is why the Wayspot is now marked as “Inactive” in Pokémon GO. Furthermore, a new photo is added - Nørrebro Bibliotek Wayspot photo, which appears to be taken from Mindtrip.AI where it can also be seen.
9th of February: I note that Christiansborg has been removed, as a duplicate has been added. Because of this removal, Det Kongelige Teater at 55.679655,12.586013 becomes a Pokémon GO Gym.
Det Kongelige Teater Wayspot photo 1
Stolen from Det Kongelige Teater, used for a press release
Det Kongelige Teater Wayspot photo 3
Here seen in the newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad, attributed to professional photographer Torben Åndahl
Det Kongelige Teater Wayspot photo 2
Used in press release with credit to professional photographer Jens Lindhe
Yes, that’s just photo 1 run through a black-and-white-filter - compare the clouds, for instance.
Photo 6 is the same photo with a different filter.
Det Kongelige Teater Wayspot photo 7
Is stolen from Ritzau Scanpix, credited to Niels Christian Vilmann, as seen here
Det Kongelige Teater Wayspot photo 15
Stolen from OplevByen.dk
Photo 16 is a repeat of photo 3.
Photo 20 is a repeat of photo 7.
Photo 21 is photo 2 with a filter applied.
For a total of 10 rulebreaking photos out of 21.
Furthermore, around the same time, another community member I spoke to was asked to review a location edit for Adam Oehlenschlæger Statue now located at 55.679753,12.586217, which they thought would move the location further away from the physical object. I cannot confirm whether this happened, but they believed that it might have been because would occupy the same L14 S2 cell as Det Kongelige Teater, thus blocking it from being a Gym in Pokémon GO, at its old location. It is at least worth looking into, I suppose.
Final remarks
I hope that you will consider if you too see a pattern in these things. I hope you will see if there is a connection between the persons who made these location edit suggestions, these removals/edits of Wayspots that were later reinstated, the persons who added these second source photos to these Wayspots and whether or not that was done so in an attempt to manipulate the game board, and the other actions I have described above. Maybe it is just all a coincidence, but I wanted to make sure to give you as good an overview as I could, so that you have the option to investigate it if you choose to do so. I do apologize for this being long and winded; it took longer than anticipated to go through it all.
Best regards,
Jakob Helms
