I agree with your general take on generic human errands vs. destination/discovery.
Still, the garbage analogy reminded me of a nomination that was being ridiculed on our old Wayfarer Forum.
All the old-timers were saying “LOL! It’s a garbage can…” from the thumbnail on their phone.
I opened the main photo on my tablet and saw that an elementary school class had learned about the life-cycle of their local salmon species. They acquired a 65-gallon steel drum, painted it recycling-blue, and decorated it with taxonomic drawings, illustrations of the river-bottom habitat, etc., and got it installed at a riverside park so trash wouldn’t endanger their aquatic friends.
Well, that is a great thing to explore, as it’s artful and educational, and makes it important to that community.
Oh, ypu know about those countries, but I’ll explain.
Keep in mind with India recently, Niantic added Wayspots themselves that were not submitted by users, and they did post about doing this in the News section. Other countries where there are a lack of nominations or lack of reviews have had this happen. Niantic added them, and they are allowed to make exemptions.
Niantic wanted to push Go in India that’s all. It was purely financial
Of course they can do whatever they please, I do think this came from Niantic rather than the Wayfarer team or at least I hope so.
There is a lot of irony in Niantic shouting from the rooftops about… I’ll spare you the corporate blethering they frame it in normally… Explore, educate, exercise… Now go and spin Hyderabad chicken shop it’s just round the corner from Goa
motorcycle repairs.
Comparing a garbage can to an entire area of a city that a lot of people spend over 1/4 of their day at is way over the top. You’re completely generalizing business parks and making them seem like they all have the exact same types of businesses, which isn’t true. One way to strengthen a community is by supporting the local businesses within it. I’ve worked in the business park near me for nearly 15 years and I’m still discovering new businesses I never knew about. Had I known, I would’ve been giving them my business instead of to all these big box stores and corporations. At every job I’ve worked in the business park near me, the employees would literally go for walks around the entire business park for exercise, not just in the parking lots. I’m not sure if you’re aware, but there are streets and sidewalks inside of most of these business parks. How else would people get to work if there weren’t? Business parks don’t go against the guidelines either. I’m not saying every business inside of them should get a wayspot, but there are plenty of locations inside of some business parks who meet some of the criteria for a wayspot. There’s no denying that. The business park near me me has 4 churches, 3 fitness studios, a gym, 3 arts and craft suppliers, 3 restaurants, 4 breweries/Restaurants and that’s just thinking off the top of my head. All of them are locally owned and some have been in business for over 30 years. This bias towards business parks makes no sense.
Go submit each thing that is eligible. Streets and sidewalks are not eligible. I’ve gotten business park churches approved. I’ve gotten business park trails and picnic spots and basketball courts and bocce courts approved. If the item is worthy of being a POI, theres no reason not to submit it. But generic businesses don’t meet eligibility criteria.
Yea that’s just ridiculous. I’m seriously trying to push for niantic to review their voters because I think some of these people vote based off the emotional state they’re in or have they some sort of personal grudge against certain wayspots. Like this business park one for example, I bet some of these people with this bias either owned a business in a business park or worked for one and couldn’t get it turned into a wayspot so now they have this huge grudge against any wayspots like it.
Why have you even commented on my post? You haven’t answered any of the questions I asked in the original post, all you’ve done is nitpicked and misconstrued certain thing I’ve commented and made completely irrelevant comparisons. This is my first time asking a serious question about eligibility critieria, I can’t believe some of these responses and the rudeness of some of you. Not answering questions, not acknowledging points that have been made, misconstruing and generalizing…. If this is how this community is then no wonder why hardly any players submit wayspots. Can’t wait to share all these screenshots with the subreddits and discord groups I’m in lol!
I’m a little confused by your term of business park. By how you describe the area it sounds more like a business district or downtown area. Those have lots of eligible items and stores/restaurants.
In my area a business park is a bunch on non-descriptive office spaces or factories. I think it would be quite challenging to find eligible items there.
It’s very hard to answer questions without seeing specific examples. You’ve expressed frustration about not getting certain businesses approved. Many find it helpful to post the specific nomination in Nomination Support to see how to improve it or to get confirmation that reviewers don’t have a good understanding of the criteria.
The other thing I’d mention is that you used the word “business park.” It’s possible that phrase means something completely different to you or in your area than it means to the rest of us. That’s also why it would be helpful to see specific examples.
What questions have you asked that haven’t been answered? I know you keep asking “why does everyone have a bias against business parks,” but I don’t see anyone with such a bias. Nobody is saying businesses and other POIs inside such an area can’t qualify, just that the park/district itself wouldn’t. And everyone else here has been very polite and helpful so far as I can see. I know you’re frustrated but please reread the thread and I think you’ll see that you have gotten many suggestions as to why reviewers may downvote some types of businesses and even offers to help with your particular nominations if you’ll post examples. I hope you can see we aren’t ganging up on you but trying to help.
What? No more detail photo on Turkey and India? Even there’s no franchise store at this one. This is can be bad wayspot too. You need invalid wayspot because this isn’t criteria wayspot.
I have pondered while reviewing how many times having your POI called a generic business it takes to start making you think everything is a generic business, lol. That being said, if I didn’t know better I’d think the whole community here hated pawn shops. I get generic business every time.
I know the comment wasn’t directed at me but I feel I could be misunderstanding the conversation on “business parks”. We may be thinking of different things?
To me a business park is a building or buildings, often in a “campus” setting that houses office space and/or light manufacturing facilities. These places are not generally open to the public . Access to the buildings is typically restricted to employees and invited guests or vendors.
A st**p mall is the phrase I’m familiar with to describe a shopping center with a group of business in them, usually just off a busy road and often with the business in a row. Niantic has said such place could be eligible. My personal preference is to avoid nominating the whole thing and nominate more unusual or “interesting” business located there.
Pawn shops don’t meet criteria, as they aren’t good places to socialize, exercise at, or explore. Many also sell items that are age-restricted, such as g u n s and kn1ves, so they are more considered adult locations.
I have had an antique shop approved. If you love them, you will probably be able to write up a description that convinces that it is a great place to explore.
There are antique stores that have Wayspots, as they are unique places to explore. Providing a great description and supporting info will help with getting an antique shop approved.
Thrift stores are harder to get approved, as some are chains, like Goodwill or Savers here in the US, while others are independently owned; there’s one in my area that is such and raises money to help low-income people pay for vet bills.
Almost every single pawn shop in the US sell fire arms, kn1ves, etc, and places that sell such items are considered adult locations per rejection criteria:
Location is an adult-oriented store or service, such as a liquor store, shooting range, fire arm store, or provides s3xual and/or adult content
