Hello everyone!
This is a collective message from Wayfarer players across various cities in Kazakhstan. Over the past year, we’ve encountered serious issues with the nomination and review process. High-quality nominations — such as playgrounds, graffiti, and local cafés — were frequently rejected. Initially, the community flagged them with reasons like “does not exist,” “temporary object,” or “abuse.” Over the past 10 months, some of our members even received strikes or permanent bans.
After some investigation, we discovered a player in our region who systematically abuses the “Report” button and frequently sends direct complaints to Wayfarer support. He openly admits this behavior in private messages and forum posts, saying he reports any nominations he personally dislikes instead of simply voting “No.” This leads to serious consequences. Many of our members are now afraid to nominate anything, fearing their accounts could be suspended too.
We’ve reviewed this player’s activity on the forum. He regularly posts about how he dislikes playgrounds, cafés, and similar POIs, claiming they’re not “unique” — even though they clearly meet the criteria. He only supports things like statues or monuments to famous persons. Community members and even Wayfarer Ambassadors have tried to correct his approach, pointing out his strong personal bias — to no avail.
Let us give you some background on our community.
Although Campfire is not available in Kazakhstan, we’ve managed to build a strong, organized player base. We host regular in-game meetups and even real-life events. We translated nomination guidelines into Russian, launched educational chats, and offered support for anyone wanting to contribute POIs. People began improving in-game map in their cities — correcting POI titles and descriptions, uploading better photos, and exploring their neighborhoods for new spots.
This had a real, positive impact — the in-game map began to evolve and attract more players.
But around spring 2024, things changed dramatically. Nomination review times increased, rejection rates spiked, and many players saw their ratings drop from “Great” to “Poor.” We initially suspected eMiLy, but that theory didn’t hold up. As a result, many players stopped nominating altogether, waiting for a global challenge or system fix.
Still, one member — a professional photographer — continued contributing. He volunteered his time to take high-quality photos of existing POIs and, naturally, found new ones during his walks. He would nominate them on the spot.
Unfortunately, some of his nominations were flagged as “Abuse,” and others received direct reports. As a result, he was banned for a month right before the Unova Tour. One day after that ban expired, he received another.
This news sent shockwaves through our community. We tried to reason with the player responsible for the reports, asking him to vote fairly and stop targeting nominations he personally disliked. He refused. Now, many players no longer submit POIs, fearing that their accounts will also be banned.
This individual has his own ideas about what “deserves” to be on the in-game map — ideas that directly contradict the official Wayfarer criteria. He believes the in-game map should be like a museum, full of only historically or culturally significant landmarks. In his words, he wants to “poke my finger at any PokéStop and find something interesting or important.”
He uses the forum to push this narrative, often with misleading statements, and has repeatedly been corrected by the community — thank you all for that. Sadly, even your responses haven’t stopped him. Now he bypasses the review system altogether by flooding Wayfarer support with direct complaints about nominations from Kazakhstan.
We’ve reached out to players in other cities across the country, and they’re facing the same problem. His complaints affect nominations not only in our region but also in nearby countries that fall within his review range.
This player’s actions are clearly against the spirit and rules of Wayfarer — as many of you have already stated in his own forum threads. Yet the damage has already been done. Many of us have lost our ratings. One of our most active members remains banned, and others are at risk simply for having nominations pending in the system.
We’re here to raise awareness of the situation and to ask for advice from the more experienced and knowledgeable members of this community. Thank you in advance for your attention and support.
TLDR:
A player in our region applies his own personal criteria to POIs, which contradict Wayfarer’s official guidelines. He reports nominations he dislikes, both during reviews and directly to Wayfarer support. As a result, most of our community has a “Poor” rating, and those who kept nominating have received suspensions — despite submitting eligible POIs.
We’re seeking advice on how to deal with this situation and how to protect our community from this kind of sabotage
