Why one Ingress portal can have two identical photos from two Wayfinders

General Discussion
1

With the launch of the decoupling process of Ingress Prime and Wayfarer, one thing has come up to my mind that there still remains a portal mystery indicating that the Wayspot submission process might have been compromised. I heard that PoGo is using the same underlying module as Ingress Prime for it and thus would like to invite forum users to take a look because it would probably still affect PoGo in the future.

Thanks in advance for letting me know how it could happen.

Please understand that this is not a simple “Duplicate Photo” issue. To comply with Wayfarer community guidelines I’ve edited the screenshot to hide the name of relevant Wayfinders. The gameplay reference is important to describe the issue and I’ve already made it language, content and faction neutral and thus do not tag me with so-called “ingress faction wars”.

There are basic principles (since as early as 2019) for Ingress Prime user to submit new portals:

  1. The photos must be taken exactly when submitting the portal instead of loading existing photos from in-built photo library
  2. Players cannot make submission for portals that is >50 metres far from where the player is, which means there is no “remote submission”
  3. If existing photos affiliated to the portals are displayed with a player/Wayfinder name, it’s 100% submitted via Ingress Prime app

When it comes to this Wayspot, strange things happen. Please notice that this portal went online no early than 2022. It’s not an ancient portal when submitting by loading existing in-library photos were submitted.

Wayspot Title: Sculpture goutte d’eau

Location (lat/lon): 31.228504,121.390348

City: Shanghai

Country: China

Intel Link: Ingress

Scanner Link for you to see this mystery by yourself: https://link.ingress.com/?link=https%3A%2F%2Fintel.ingress.com%2Fportal%2Ff181400a70083ec8a64ec9e4f9219e50.16&apn=com.nianticproject.ingress&isi=576505181&ibi=com.google.ingress&ifl=https%3A%2F%2Fapps.apple.com%2Fapp%2Fingress%2Fid576505181&ofl=https%3A%2F%2Fintel.ingress.com%2Fintel%3Fpll%3D31.228504%2C121.390348

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As you may see, two of four existing photos of this portal are identical images but with different player/Wayfinder names.

I don’t know how player A and X can take 100% similar photos on the scene for this structure with different cellphones. Well, even if they log into their accounts on the same cell phones, it’s still impossible for normal human being to retake the exactly same photo at the same place.

Please kindly lend me a helping hand on figuring out how this was done. I really doubt that the Wayspot submission process might have been compromised but to what extent?

2

No, Ingress could choose an existing photo. Does this solve your mystery?

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4

I only submitted in Ingress Prime before they disabled it, and I only submitted remotely so I could submit from home where I could see what I was doing, so I only used existing photos.

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5

Thanks for the information, maybe you are right as I only take photo by myself.

I found this webpage, not sure what time it was written:

It shows an “existing photo” button. But the instructions also said “Keep in mind that you must take all photos yourself and not upload images you find online.”

So it’s an abuse problem rather than impossible-action mystery?

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6

The photo may have accidentally been uploaded twice. I have had that happen. If you are concerned that there are two identical photos on the Wayspot, you can ask help chat Niantic Wayfarer to remove one.

7

Okay I see that there are two different names on the same photo. Didn’t see that at first since you only left one letter showing. It has been a gray area as to whether you can give a friend a photo to submit for you. Still, I would just ask help chat to remove the duplicate photo.

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8

Thanks for your suggestion.

I’ve sent a message to Wayfarer support to solve the duplicate photo problem and also advised them to check for potential “Inappropriate Behavior by an Explorer”, as sharing and submitting the same photos that they find online instead of taking by themselves individually was not allowed according to the manual.

Mystery solved.

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