Hello, I know the title sounds like a joke, but hear me out. Niantic Wayfarer is described as “a one-of-a-kind community mapping programinny”. But can’t view wayspot on map?
On each game, wayspots are displayed according to the rules, but not all of them. The soon to be discontinued wayfarer app is a Niantic Lightship, i.e. a platform for developers, and it is possible that it is not a good idea for game players to consume its resources. The same goes for the Geospatial Browser.
My request is to add a map like intelmap for agents to the Wayfarer page. Viewing only would be preferred to prevent abuse. I know this is probably not the right place to write this, but some people want to know the distance between points, and some people want to draw lines on the map to divide it into sections, so it would be better if there is room for web-based customization.
(If this has been discussed many times, please direct me to that topic).
Niantic doesn’t want us to look at a map while reviewing. They want each submission to stand on its own - not based on distance between other points, or cells drawn on the map. They also don’t want us to know the current title/description/ picture when deciding edits.
You can use third-party apps to do these things anyway. It’s technically against ToS, but it’s an open secret and I don’t think anyone has gotten in trouble.
I prefer to review in the manner Niantic spells out for their database. I also prefer to avoid the complications of having browser extensions, installing updates, changing devices, etc.
This could possibly be used abusively, to try and put Wayspots at an inaccurate location, to try to manipulate game play, etc.
The map isn’t just used by Niantic and their games to determine game play locations (based on the density/inclusion rules for each), but it’s used by developers as well. Accuracy is important with the Spatial/Lightship map not just for game play, but also for the developers using the map.
After fully learning about Wayfarer and the map, I’m more than ok with certain Wayspots that I’ve nominated not being in any of the games, but I know that I submitted them accurately.
BTW, the Geospatial Browser isn’t being discontinued, just the Wayfarer app; the browser still works via your preferred web browser. The app has already been discontinued for Android, and was supposed to be discontinued for iOS earlier this month, but has been given a couple more months. We do have a discussion about this going on here: