In our neighborhood, we have an issue with a player targeting wayspots that host Pokemon Go showcases. As you may know, when a wayspot/pokestop with a showcase is removed, the showcase doesn’t switch to another wayspot - it’s simply gone. Another wayspot may of course appear in the game as a replacement pokestop, but it won’t have the showcase feature.
This one particular player “avenges” his showcase losses by getting rid of neighborhood showcases in this manner. We have now reached a point where there are none left nearby. Is it childish behavior from a middle-aged man? Yes. It is harming the rest of the player community in our neighborhood and taking the fun out of a hobby? Also yes.
I’m hoping to hear thoughts and ideas on how we should proceed as a player community, as maybe someone else has faced a similar challenge before. Is it possible to appeal to admins and have new showcases installed in the area? Or have we just become permanent victims of a bully on a power trip?
Im sorry about your situation, that is not how anyone would like to play, but unfortunately the part of the behaviour of the reporter is not really important for wayfarer. The player reporting has every right to report what they think are invalid wayspots.
Showcase stops disappearing is always a bad thing. If you think these wayspots were incorrectly removed you can appeal them in Wayspot Appeals section for a chance to get them back if they met criteria. I don’t know if the wayspots that would be reinstated would get their showcase function back.
As for new showcase stops, we have only had a one time thing with these and never got an update for new ones, which is very unfortunate for players like you.
and thank you for your reply. Unfortunately, the removed wayspots have not been invalid (and I see that you edited you post to reflect this possibility). We are talking about public playgrounds and other communal outdoor spaces. The player submits a removal request with a great number of accounts (yes, he is also multi-accounting) and apparently the removals then pass via some automated function that approves a removal when there are multiple reports. It’s the only possibility I can think of because there is no way these would get removed if the removals were confirmed by a human admin.
Our community has created posts in Wayspot Appeals several times. Every time we do, those wayspots may get returned for a moment until the same player comes and removes them again. The system isn’t protecting those of us who play according to the rules. All our time would be spent writing appeal posts instead of actually playing the game we enjoy. There is genuinely no point in us doing that when it’s a battle we simply cannot win. And judging by your reply, this showcase thing seems to be exactly the same. I suppose we have no other choice but to submit to being bullied non-stop.
Thank you for clarifying. Now the behaviour is important. If the wayspots having nothing wrong with them, im assuming they don’t since it are normal playground, you can do this
Since you mention this has happened multiple times now with these results you can report this player with the abuse form for inappropiate behaviour. Provide all the information you think is relevant and your report will be looked at.
Edit: I want to add that every removal report is looked at by the wayfarer team and not a automatic function as well as every report. So there still might be a possibility that there is something wrong with the wayspot since it keeps getting removed.
Could you maybe provide info about the removed wayspots?
Thank you. I’m not sure what sort of information you’re looking for, but for example the most recent removal was of a public, municipally maintained, open-for-all-around-the-clock neighborhood playground that’s situated between an apartment building and a public sports field. The person who requested for removal also submitted another wayspot for the playground so the old one, the one with the showcase feature, is now blocked from returning to the game even if we manage to appeal it.
I want to emphasize that this isn’t about whether or not wayspots are valid or not - because everyone in out neighborhood knows that they are, we have read the criteria - it’s about one single person bullying players of a certain game. We have tried to report this person for abuse several times. Once last year it resulted in a calm, 30-day period when the rest of us had a moment of peace in Pokemon Go. After that, it’s been the same old nightmare since - perhaps even worse now that the player’s revenge mentality has worsened still.
IMO the team has less methods to deal with irl behavior of an individual. At the very least, if this is the same vandaliser as last time, your community needs to involve local authorities. I am sorry you have to deal with this but I highly doubt this will stop at tormenting the gameboard honestly.
I am afraid you cant do much if he have multiple throwaway account. Anyway if wayspot got incorrectly removed , you can appeal it in the forum. As long there is nothing wrong with wayspot, its should be hard to get it removed. But sometimes some wayspot might be in grey area. All you can do is kept on appealing and reporting.
Thank you for the replies. I assumed there wasn’t much we could do and this sadly confirms it. With how many accounts the player now has, the community doesn’t even know the nicknames of the majority of them to be able to report them. I suppose the only guaranteed way towards actual change would be to opt out of the game and let the bully reign over it alone.
There are still some way to prevent the endless spamming from the side of the game.
Start with a list of the affected wayspots. You don’t have to list all codenames and aliases, but you can give the appeal investigator a headstart with a lead. Then hopefully, you can link the previous problems if they choose to make another offense.
The system is not completely toothless but is evidence-based. Ideally, a repeat offender will take more effort to take their bullying at the current levels. And more evidence uncovered makes for a swifter process.
Try and maybe getting that POI back in the game. I know that if the pokestop with the showcase dissappear if for any reason it spawns back in the game it will have the showcase attached to it already. No current new way to get a existing/new pokestop to be able to switch to a showcase stop.
This seems like the collision of two problems-distinguishing good from abusive wayspot reports (wayfarer issue) and never updating the showcase map (Pokemon Go issue) making a feature vulnerable for an entire community.
Pokemon Go really needs to fix their side, that would make the wayfarer abuse less salient. Preventing any abusive removals is desirable but hard. Running a process to add showcases every so often is desirable for multiple reasons and … how hard can it be?
I think showcases need to be properly maintained, and that its on the wayfarer team to tell the Go team that their showcases need to be regularly updated because wayfarer activity (both good and abusive) is heavily impacting some areas.
You can’t implement something as a one off over a live database that’s changing every day! Its all very well telling us that this is not a wayfarer matter, but its the wayfarer work that’s degrading the showcases, so it is very much linked. So the wayfarer team do share some responsibilities here.
Pretty sure that showcases were originally intended to rotate every season. At least that’s what the original press release leads me to believe.
Showcases will take place at the same PokéStops throughout the Season, so make sure to visit that PokéStop regularly!
“Throughout the Season” to me implies that, once the season ends, the showcases would move to a different location and then stay there for the duration of the next season.
But this was probably either too difficult for Niantic to implement or too timeconsuming to maintain, so they just had a onetime generation of showcase Pokestops and they haven’t bothered looking at it since.
If I remember correctly, Showcases are determined locally. So likely anything shown IS in their play area or nearby. (I would guess, but have not researched, that the “local” is due to their Wayfarer profile setting vs active game play.)
Showcases are generally newer wayspots chosen randomly. Considering historical precedence, a large number of wayspots are approved that should not have been.
I would regularly research showcased wayspots and report them if appropriate.
So, it seems to me that that system is working as intendend.
