What is the reason you Wayfarer?

General Discussion
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I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.

Someone asked the other day at Raid Hour. “Why do I wayfarer?” and “Why I care so much about Niantic Wayfarer in general.”

Honestly, I was stumped, I really didn’t have a good answer, until I thought about it a little more.

As some of you know I co-host a Wayfarer podcast with @Glawhantojar. and we talk every week about current topics facing the Wayfarer community and we try to be funny, entertain, educate and excite people to be active in Wayfarer. We spend a lot of time to make the best possible show for people to listen to.

But my person reason is a little different. At heart I’d like to say I’m an Ingress agent (1x recursed and back to level 10) who plays Pokemon Go waaaay too much. Level 50 and almost 400 million XP.

I Wayfarer because I love the idea of community, I love playing games with other people and helping to foster the idea of people being happy together. That’s super sappy, but it’s my reason I Wayfarer. Through Niantic’s games I found a way to be active, hang out with my friends, my kids (11 and 14 who no longer play any of the games) and find new ways for my wife to call me a dork.

I Wayfarer because I love exploring and finding new things. Murals (2-stories), statues, pieces of art and getting them added on to the Lightship Map.

I Wayfarer (review) Because I love seeing what YOU all think should be included in the game. From places I’ve never been and places that I know well. During the… pand… well from 2020-2022 it was a way to travel without leaving my computer.

Lastly, I Wayfarer because I’m LAZY. I don’t want to have to travel across town to find a good grind spot. So I made several of my own right new me.

I’d love to know the reason you all Wayfarer. I think a lot of our reason will complement each other and we might all learn something about each other that helps us build goodwill.

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Maso​chism.

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I mostly do Wayfarer to improve my gameplay experience, but secondly, because it’s provided me the motivation to get out and explore areas that I might not think about exploring.

When Wayfarer dropped I as living in Plattsburgh, NY and I learned so much about the history of the area by going out and nominating a lot of the plaques that were all over the town.

Wayspots have taught me so much about the history, or the cultural significance of places or drawn my attention so I walked into an area where I normally wouldn’t. I want to do my part to create that experience for others.

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Lol it offered me the translate option on this post

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I guess I started to make my own gameplay better. We had a great park for playing, but not much on the walk over. Now it is just who I am. I can’t help but see potential Wayspots everywhere I look.

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To be seen by niantic and get a job offert :heart_eyes:

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Only a joke!

I do that, because I’d like to improve my nomination skills and bring a safety, family friendly nuance to the map.
And I love to walk. Walk walk walk. Sometimes using my bike. I’m absolutly to find in the category “explore”. Wayfarer as well as pogo gives that hobby something to do.
Great stuff outside there!

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There has been a similar post some time ago, a bunch of people gave their motivations there: Why do you submit POIs - #41 by KaptainSpikey

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I’ve become almost obsessed with finding good wayspots, and in particular in my small town I’m trying to help my local community by getting more Pokestops. I’ve noticed whenever I visit places now, I’m seeing things I never noticed before - pieces of art, etc - so I’m paying more attention to the work around me!

I feel a real sense of pride when I see one of my nominations appear in game.

Also, it’s now allowing me to organise a charity event to “spin every Pokestop” within the town and it’s bypass as we actually have enough stops to make it a worthwhile (and more interesting) event!

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I started because a new mural was painted in my neighborhood and I thought it would make a nice stop. Now I’m having a good time exploring the city and finding interesting places. I moved to a new country just before COVID hit and I didn’t really spend much time learning about my new city before everything shut down, and even after the lockdowns lifted I stayed in my routine and didn’t explore much beyond my regular routes. Once I started Wayfarer, I actually started paying close attention to the details of the city around me. For example, I’ve added seven wayspots on the walk from my house to the nearest supermarket, including murals, a gaming shop, a Stumbling Stone memorial, and large art pieces in a park. I’ve nominated two new memorial plaques for famous residents of the neighborhood, and in January when new Stumbling Stone memorials were installed across the city, I sought them out to add them along with a short summary of the person to whom the memorial was dedicated. It’s helped me to not only learn about the history of the city I live in, but it’s helped me to navigate better and have a general awareness of this region. Something I’ve come to love is walking through a neighborhood I don’t know as well looking for points of interest, then coming home and showing my husband what I’ve found. He then gets excited to talk about them, explain the cultural significance, and help me practice writing my nominations in his native language (the local language here.) I’ve stumbled across memorials for battles I knew nothing about, famous writers’ homes, the home of a world renowned ballerina, murals incorporating poetry I’d never heard of, and it’s truly expanded my world by seeking out these things using Wayfarer.

I apologize for rambling but this has honestly been a really wonderful experience for me and I hope others have experiences like mine. Wayfarer has sparked my passion for learning and exploring and I’m so happy to have gotten into this hobby.

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So, I am new to wayfaring. Like NEW new. I was introduced to it about a month ago through your Wayspotters podcast actually (thanks to you and @Glawhantojar for that).

Learning about wayfaring has inspired me to do it myself, and all of your “I Wayfare because” reasons (except the last one…I typically strive to hit 50+ km on my PoGO weekly walking :sweat_smile:) greatly resonate with me.

I love community, I love exploring and I love the idea of being able to share with other people all of the awesome hidden nooks and crannies of the world that I can find. I hope that I will be able to become a valuable member of this community and I thank you and everyone else for your efforts and support in helping people like me get into wayfaring.

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Welcome! Happy exploring!

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Welcome to the community! We are all here to help. If something doesn’t make sense, or you just want clarification. Feel free to reach out to me, Chris or anyone here. We’re all lovely people.

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Hello and welcome @BackpackerBMW
You might find the Wayfarer Basics area helpful and Nomination Support and Review Support are good areas to read and ask questions too.
If you have a question, just ask

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I do wayfarer to get higher quality wayspots.
What i mean with that is to reject and report fakes. Recently i reported like 20 fakes in my city that all got removed. It should be real, if you have no couch wayspot, then dont nominate a fake.

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There are days when I do wonder why do I do this :joy::crazy_face:
But when it comes down to it, wayfarer is a positive co operative experience. There is no competition you are not trying to attack or destroy. You are attempting to add stuff in that will make for a richer database. You might have to really hunt for things and research. Other people will interact with what you have found it improves their experience.
Yes it’s frustrating it places but when it goes smoothly and you get a wayspot approved it is satisfying. Job done :sunglasses:

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Because I love exploring, urban, rural and remote, and leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for others to follow.

Why do I KEEP doing it, in spite of ridiculous, allegedly ‘educational’ emails from Niantic (of which I had one of the earliest ones)? Because the positives of more waypoints, and vicarious travel through challenges marginally outweighs the negatives.

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I’m a true believer fanatic that nia games are awesome and for everyone!

When I started playing Ingress I had a baby in a pram and a 3yo and was still recovering from pregnancy, going through a divorce, oh my baby had cancer too … The closest portals were 700m away … The summer heat in Brisbane and the nesting magpies made those distances hard to walk to.

The jealousy of the folks in town with their gazillion portals … Knowing how beneficial getting out for a walk was for me … and how going out for a game was just the right incentive on hard single parenting days. I yearned to add more portals.

So as soon as OPR opened I submitted the dumbest portal ever because it was what my family aimed for on a walk that we could manage. For us it was a waypoint … I think both sides blue and green agents took pity on me and voted it as ok. But some on my own team told me that it wasn’t worthy as a waypoint and said they didn’t vote for it.
Fair enough! Embarrassing portal :laughing: bunch of rocks … Hahaha

In 2019 I visited every suburban park with in a 5km radius and took photos and nominated many park pois. … most suburbian houses are walking distance from a park so it is my hope that all the mobility challenged ( pram, wheely, sore feet, unfit) can be tempted out to enjoy a walk and a bit of a game.

I am still very impassioned about more portals in the suburbs.

Moar portals for the people!!!

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Like many others, my initial interest was sparked by improving gameplay by creating more activity. Pokémon Go was my Niantic game, and more stops / gyms in my area of town really helped my local community with raid days etc.

In recent years the excitement of finding something worth submitting is still there. Getting a stop accepted still thrills. Likewise, some rejections still raise eyebrows :sweat_smile:

What I enjoy the most though is researching POI’s and providing adequate descriptions. Exploring a new area when I can, seeing its unique history and resulting cultural impact will always interest me. I get as much enjoyment from editing a POI if there’s something there to improve too.

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