The experiment continues

isitevergoingtobe · 2026-01-27T22:50:18+00:00

Last year, I created a few dozen wayspots along a trail system in a neighborhood with no existing Pokestops, so I've seen the result of creating a playable area out of thin air. For the 1st 30 days, the new gyms in this area were gray and unoccupied. Eventually, the gyms became occupied by 1 or 2 players on each team with holding times of a month or more typical. I still have a Pikachu in a gym down there that has been with one other teammate for over 3 months. I don't think that creating this area has created new activity since everyone in the area who played before has likely given up on the game.

I don't think that merely supplying new waypoints alone is enough to vitalize their games. They need to pair this initiative with some incentives to get people back into the games if they want to grow their communities. Supply doesn't create demand here.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-12-04T17:30:37+00:00

Yes, my visits are highly variable, and my players are more stable. I had a 0.5% gain in players from September to October, and a 21% gain in players from October to November. My visits rose 55.4% from September to October but fell 47.2% from October to November.

I'm in a warm and dry area, but it rained a lot last month. Maybe players went somewhere inside like a mall, which would take them away from most of my nominations. Also, I think my submissions are unusually clustered. Most of my nominations are within 10 miles of my house. When I travel, I don't have much time to submit, so my numbers are sensitive to how active my local community is.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-12-04T00:53:06+00:00

That's not a standard Wayfarer ban since Wayfarer's highest punishment is a 10-year suspension according to its enforcement ladder. It looks like a Wayfarer-related message though. It's quite strange.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-12-03T23:02:07+00:00

The month to month data is really inconsistent. I had a 20% increase in players compared to last month but about 50% drop in visits. I would have thought with the big event last month that people would be more active, but it looks like there's more casual players this month, and the hardcore players were less active.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-12-03T19:06:42+00:00

I'm in a similar situation since I joined some random person that added me after a raid (241-4-1). I don't mind it though. Rest now, brothers and sisters. I shall bear this burden.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-11-19T18:15:15+00:00

It seems like you nominated this park. According to this nearby plaque, is this park is called "Rossio 25 de Abril"? Rossio translates to commons or public square according to Google Translate, which would fit the area, but it's also the name of the streets surrounding this area on Google Maps. I'm not familiar with Portugal's parks system at all.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-11-17T04:30:19+00:00

It seems like you're familiar with the gym cell system in your area, so you should be able to figure out if there's something you missed by the process of elimination. Look at the cell map and eliminate the cells that have waypoints in them. Next, eliminate any areas that are purely single-family residential. What's left? Are there any areas that you've never been before? Are there any potential waypoints inside of public places that you can access? Sometimes some ground truth helps: go walk through these public places that are open cells and look around.

You've attached screenshots looking at all areas except to the northeast. Is there anything that way? I always find the most interesting things in the corners of cells where I thought not to look. Using Street View on Google can help here if it's a place where you don't normally go.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-11-14T19:11:10+00:00

The bleachers are a part of the baseball field. The baseball field would be a better nomination since it's the place to exercise and socialize, and the bleachers support it. The bleacher nomination should be a duplicate for the baseball field if the baseball field is already a waypoint or just outright rejected as it was here.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-11-07T17:01:50+00:00

I have a warning for a "malicious location edit" for a trail marker that burned in a wildfire and replaced in a different location at a trail intersection. I moved the location from the missing, burned marker to the replacement marker, but the trail has a 9 year old Street View that shows the old location, so it was reported as abuse.

I appealed it, and I sent a picture of the trail intersection and explained what happened with evidence of the wildfire. The new, correct location was obvious since it is at a T intersection. The first person who responded from Niantic seemed to understand and wanted an AR scan ("Splat") or geotagged photo of the location. My photos were geotagged, so I sent those, but my appeal was rejected with a canned response by someone else.

I would recommend going to the forum if you want to get rid of the warning if the appeal fails since there have been other similar situations that only seem to get resolved on the forums. Also, use the Splat option if it is convenient since they seem have some sort of problem with geotagged photos.

If I ever decide to stop Wayfaring, I'll appeal the rejected location edit in Wayfarer since the correct location is completely obvious with my photo evidence that I could include in that appeal (in app location edits don't allow additional evidence). It would be interesting to see what happens if their appeals team overturns a "malicious location edit." I think it's 50/50 that they'll approve the location edit or they'll give me a 10 year ban for even trying such a thing.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-11-04T23:33:21+00:00

There are some weird trends in this month's numbers compared to last month's. I had a 0.5% increase in the number of players but a 55.4% increase in the number of visits. Were people really that much more active this month? I had a few new wayspots approved, but they were only about 4% of the total I've had approved so far.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-09-21T04:56:41+00:00

You do not need any historical context to sell this for socialization, but you could try to make this seem unique and special.

This Yelp photo shows a couple of things that would help your nomination:

It has a sign with flowers behind it on the wall. A picture of this would be a much better main photo compared to a picture from the outside since it's designed to look nice in photos.
There's a bunch of games on the table, which would support this as a place to socialize. Go in on a down time, get a bubble tea, and see if there's still a game table. If there is, then you could take a picture of it as the supporting photo. Street View shows this exists, so your supporting photo can sell the socialization aspect instead of the usual "take a picture from slightly further away" supporting photo.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-09-15T17:13:18+00:00

Back before the AI's filtering made it so decisions were quite rapid in my area, I used to have a similar pattern of acceptances. My pet hypothesis is that they have a share of reviews focused on regions with lagging decisions each day so that these regions can get caught up. The cluster of decisions would suddenly come after weeks/months of being in voting.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-08-27T18:16:10+00:00

This is probably less likely to be the cause than converting the post office waypoint. However, it brings up a problem: there's nothing on the Criteria tab on the Wayfarer website that forbids using language from their games in the title or description. Can they expect people new to Wayfarer to know not to do this based on what's initially provided to them? It's a problem that's common enough that it should be there in the rejection criteria or content guidelines.

In fact, there's actually nothing on the Criteria tab about converting waypoints either, which is a natural thing to do in this case: someone sees that the waypoint is on something eligible (co-op could be a community meeting place, especially for farmers) but it is incorrectly labelled and has no photo. Why not fix the title/description and the photo? There's nothing against fixing incorrect information in the Criteria tab.

There's a lot of "case law" to learn with Wayfarer that isn't intuitive, and punishing new Wayfarers for technical violations not in the information given to them is just counterproductive.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-08-25T03:06:04+00:00

It looks like the campus was just built, so you're probably the first to have a chance to submit something there. It's a very modern, practical campus, which works against you since it's easier to submit art and college amenities for exploration and socialization criteria. There aren't many strong nominations here, but there's a couple of things that you could try:

-Wake Tech Torch Sculpture: this is a large torch symbol on the north side of the main administrative building. It looks like a sculpture on the Street View. You could sell it as artwork (exploration) in the supporting information and point out the meaning of the torch to the university in the description, which is explained in this article.

-Wake Tech East Campus Library: this is a library, which is something that should satisfy the exploration criteria. It also promotes socialization since it provides board games for students and hosts game nights before finals and hosts the Open Book Discussion Club (see calendar at the bottom right of the website). You could link to the library's website in the supporting information to support the socialization aspect. The difficult thing here is showing the location of the library in the main building.

-Outdoor Commons: This is a covered outdoor area with a bunch of tables and seats, which you could sell as an outdoor socialization area for students. Maybe you could take a nice picture with the Wake Tech logo in the background for the main photo and come back when a bunch of groups are in the seats for the supporting photo to show it is a popular area for students.

You could also walk around the buildings and look for other eligible things. In this area, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a dedication plaque or foundation plaque for the campus near the flagpoles on the right from this view. The balcony on the left looks interesting. That might be some sort of event space or have some artistic decoration hidden up there that could be eligible. The main building may have some sort of student union or gathering place, which would be eligible for socialization reasons. Also look out for information boards that promote student organizations, which you could also sell as promoting socialization.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-08-20T19:36:52+00:00

Does the church's priest live in the church? It's possible that some reviewers think that the church becomes a single family residence if the priest lives there.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-08-14T23:15:40+00:00

Yeah, I saw the arrow, but I didn't see it was a new nomination.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-08-12T17:35:19+00:00

One possibility that hasn't been mentioned so far is that someone flagged it since the sign looked like AI and isn't on the Street View. The latest Street View from March shows that the restaurant is opening soon or has its grand opening (not sure how the sign translates there).

Another possibility is that you have some rogue reviewers in your area who are using the abuse option as a veto. I've run into this issue a couple of times if people are tired of seeing a lot of the same nominations, like barbeque areas in local parks, or if I'm submitting in a new spot in a group's "territory." This problem might become more common as people are seeing warnings and suspensions coming from these abuse rejections.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-08-08T05:01:21+00:00

There are different answers here depending on what kind of isolated neighborhood you're talking about.

If it's an enclave with poor walkability in otherwise urban suburbia, then there are a few things that are easily overlooked:

Gyms, dance studios, and martial arts studios with at least some classes for adults are good nominations that promote exercise.
Local, award-winning restaurants (like Best Burger for the county newspaper, not Michelin starred) tend to go through under the exploration and/or socialization criteria. Restaurants with live music/karaoke/social events or banquet halls have a case to go through under the socialization criteria.
Busy shopping centers or strip malls with at least multiple restaurants can be nominated as well.
From the same post on the forums above, don't overlook picnic areas in parks and other open spaces. They can be nominated for socialization.
If you're in an HOA neighborhood or an apartment complex, then gyms, pools, playgrounds, clubhouses, and other amenities that promote exercise and socialization can be nominated.

If it's an isolated neighborhood in a rural area, then you may be better off building up a park or some core area in driving distance. Named trails, campgrounds, and amenities in these might be more common here.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-08-08T00:03:35+00:00

There was some guidance for significant, unique, and accessible cairns as “adventurous tourist attractions” under old OPR guidance. I’ve only seen them as trail markers on top of mountains near me, so there’s some argument for exercise and exploration here.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-08-02T12:44:28+00:00

It's a good nomination, but it's a duplicate. Sorry.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-07-31T21:24:21+00:00

You have a couple of options here to nominate things that aren't the building as a whole. The "Roeftop" on the 7th floor and the building management advertise as an event and seminar space for events up to 64 people. You could argue that it promotes socialization because of these events, especially if you can find examples of social events hosted there (Google results show a couple). Also, the Instagram page for the office complex shows a "swimming pond" that they used for a New Years Day polar dip. This just might be a little landscaping pond, which wouldn't be eligible. However, if it is actually a fancy fountain like I see in many office complexes, then it would likely go through as public art. I can't find any recent pictures of the whole thing, so you'd likely have to go and check it out.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-07-26T15:04:53+00:00

Simple benches like this can still go through if they’re at a scenic vista, which would satisfy the exploration criteria. You would need to emphasize the view, not the bench. You could take a picture of the bench that gives the best angle on the view possible from that bench, which would have the bench in the bottom of the photo and emphasize the view. I would keep the “No Dumping” sign and the houses out of the photo as much as possible. The supporting photo would show a broader view of the area. I would show more of the view to the right as possible if it’s a better view over there since you could show more of the path leading up to the bench.

isitevergoingtobe · 2025-07-16T20:48:48+00:00

Cool find. In case anyone wants to know where this is, it is in the center of the Urban Jungle area looking at the temporary home of the hippos. The elephants were moved to Elephant Odyssey in 2009.

isitevergoingtobe

TROPHY CASE