Hi
In addition to the discussion
I thought about that. What would your motivation bring back?
Free cake would definitely help.
6 Likes
Not that Iâve stopped reviewing, but some better reporting options would be great to have. Especially for edits. There is no way for me to report a location that has become a preschool. Or report the photo taken from the car. These were both part of Edit reviews Iâve had recently.
3 Likes
A rare pokémon instead of upgrades.
Upgrades pffff
2 Likes
Right now Iâd love to know if Iâm going to be banned for submitting and positively reviewing trail markers that meet the published criteria
Thatâd be a start.
But in all seriousness, I like adding new stops to my surrounding area and making the place better to play. Iâm not interested in games I donât play, but itâs nice to know Iâd improve those too. The best reward for me is getting a gift from someone from a stop I created!
10 Likes
More options to SKIP the endless/mindless plastic disc trail markers in the UK
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I like reviewing those because walking trails with those signs are a good place to exercise and explore, and are often in locations with not too much else so it helps some more rural communities.
3 Likes
Many things, I really feel that the whole system needs a full overhaul to bring me back to the reviewing I used to do. I had hoped the new workflow would be an improvement but it has just put me off entirely. Everything is even more vague now.
One thing that comes up is more clarity and communication around what they actually want us to accept, all neatly supplied in one place and properly updated with clarifications from an official source. I have no idea what they want from us any more.
Itâs insane that people are being punished for getting things wrong when there is nowhere that explains these things properly and Wayfarer staff regularly cause more confusion with their comments.
I would also like a proper way to give feedback to submitters, the rejection reasons are often useless at indicating what the issue really is and often submissions that are otherwise good get denied with no way to indicate that with a couple of tweaks they could be accepted easily.
Some decent recognition or reward would be a good motivator for many people, increasingly upgrades are useless to a lot of us, I used to enjoy exploring vicariously through reviews but there is so much rubbish that it becomes a chore, something else that could be remedied with some clarity on how to do a decent submission with proper supporting information, photos etc.
6 Likes
- Not seeing people get warned for rejecting ineligible submissions (e.g. chain business) or for submitting things that are eligible by fair definitions (e.g. trail markers)
- Not seeing a full dumpster of coal (e.g. state survey markers, mass produced stencils on the footpath) on duplicate check while reviewing
5 Likes
For me reviewing is like exploring different areas, and learning more about the place.
So as long as there is interesting wayspots to review I will stay motivated to do so 
Another thing Iâd like that is probably outside of Wayfarer proper â a refresh of the wayspot choices across the games. Often itâs the same spots used in Ingress and PokĂ©mon Go (not sure how much is duplicated in Pikman, Peridot, and MHNow).
There are many eligible spots out there (higher density areas) that are not submitted because something else close by is already in game(s). I want those spots to be submitted and picked up in current and future games. But not necessarily be in all the games.
I think weâd see a lot more quality submissions if something like this were to occur.
This is the main stumbling block for me. For example, if Niantic doesnât want hotel or apartment swimming pools in game, then I want to reject them, but how? Maybe add a âper Niantic clarificationâ option to the review flow? As it is, I cannot reject them, so I donât. And does Niantic even care about that anymore? idk because repeated requests to clarify this have gone unanswered. But am I âreviewing incorrectlyâ if I reject? Or if I accept? 
Generic business is a huge issue for me. The âCoaches Logoâ I received an educational email over ârejecting incorrectlyâ was the sign for a chain restaurant with 12 locations at the time. The appeal rejection I got overturned in the old forum for Howdy Homemade Ice Cream that currently has 8 locations nationwide was for being a franchise. So someone saying they liked to meet their friends there to watch the tvs was enough that I should have accepted it, but being a hub for the special needs community was not? (Please note, that appeal rejection was overturned, with clarification that this was an exception to the chain rule.)
What else is currently unclear that I hate to see come up in my review flow to have to evaluate? Neighborhood signs, memorial benches, street signs, and corporate art all come to mind. Determining if it counts as private residential property is another. It is just so murky as to what Niantic does and does not want accepted, that I struggle to review.
My current passion is crafting beautiful nominations that can easily be accepted by the ML model, or by Niantic reviewers if they get sent there. I feel like once the backlog gets cleared, we wonât be needed to review, anyway, and if it is just the tricky ones left for us to decide, then hard pass. I do still have pending nominations from as far back as October 2022, so those do need to get decided somehow.
4 Likes
The AI has been blanket accepting plaques on benches the last week or 2! But they are generally thought to be quite divisive with only a few being eligible if they are for particularly important people. Which just makes this a confusing topic really!
I also saw your Ice Cream saga. That was sad. But Iâm glad the correct decision was made eventually.
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The Wayfarer team probably has no control over this but Iâd review more seriously if reviews counted towards the ingress badge even with a low rating⊠Canât seem to get out of poor since the thumbs update and Iâd like the wings on my onyx
1 Like
Indeed, it seems half the time the Wayfarer team themselves donât even know, if they did, surely it would be sensible to provide that clarity. Maybe they really donât care, it certainly seems that way sometimes! I wonder how many people donât know that they can appeal or even use these forums at all, how many have received unpleasant emails and have simply given up.
Itâs frustrating to see such potential and want to improve the games that we play for our local communities but not be provided with the proper facilities to do it well. Itâs their database so itâs up to them what they want included, but they need to clearly communicate that so that we all know what they are looking for and can comply.
Itâs all so vague and inconsistent as your experiences show, if the people managing things donât have a clue, how on earth are we expected to know whatâs correct! Still no proper guidance on how to use the newer workflow even, that should have been in place before it was even rolled out!
Glad that you are finding some joy from submitting still, Iâm not doing as many as I used to, but hoping to pick up as energy and weather improve again. I do like researching and writing up interesting submissions still.
4 Likes
I think lowering the agreement threshold for upgrades would really motivate people to review more. With the introduction of Emily, agreements are more difficult for casual reviewers to get which causes them to review even less. At least thatâs what Iâm hearing in my community.
Also, I cannot say it enough: I will review as much as yâall want if swag is on the table. 
9 Likes
I do like this idea but I fear that it would mess with gym badges, long standing portals and such, they were aupposed to rotate showcase locations in Pogo seasonally but dont seem to have managed that so I cant see full on rotation of POI happening any time soon.
I agree that there are a lot of fantastic wayspots that people donât bother submitting because they wont appear in the games they play, it would be great to give more motivation.
It would be nice if there was a way to âinteractâ with hidden Wayspots even something as simple as your buddy bringing you gifts from them.
It would be great to get another blue plaque gift
Iâm kidding on that, I was just bored on my way home one day.
A very small section of Canongate in Edinburgh looks like this
Neither of these appear in Go for me.
I know thereâs easily another 50 Wayspots on that street I could add but if they wonât show for me or anyone else in any game what is the point?
This is way off topic too now⊠So yeah⊠Free cake for reviewing please @NianticTintino
2 Likes
Iâd love to see more fun involved - like x number of reviews allows access to view showcase listings from any part of the world (like viewing cell scores on Intel within Ingress) and of course a similar map like Intel that would show statistics about an area by review-size cell. If I know that, say, a certain area had 150 nominations this cycle, only 2 reviews, and five total live Wayspots, Iâd definitely consider that area as my next Bonus location! Being able to show different Showcases would also let people who submit while on vacation see if any of their accepted nominations made that areaâs showcase after theyâre gone. Showcases are fun!
2 Likes
Nothing. LOL!
Well, for now, I will stop and relearn Emily.
She canât understand more than 3-words in a row, so she says YES to blank descriptions and NO to more correct ones.
And she doesnât seem to understand 2-byte languages, especially Japanese.
I will file a complaint with the Wayfarer team soon, as she refused yesterday and today.
My 2,000 km travel expenses have turned into bubbles.
1 Like