Candidates being rejected because of inexistent streetview

Niantic, please clarify this.

There seems to be a general bias to reject a candidate or 3-star in location accuracy in some cases (even heard people who give one star if there is no streetview!!) :

1 - no streetview

2 - streetview is there but outdated

3 - the placement of the candidate "pulls" an older google streetview image, instead of more recent 360 sphere added by submitter/nominator.

Case 1: I understand if the candidate is under dense forest or inside a mall. Otherwise most candidates can be seen from satellite. You just have to look harder.. People insist that satellite is not enough.. Well, You managed to find the candidate right? Then give 5 star on location accuracy. That is the whole purpose of that question.

I sense this is an easy justification for being lazy and increase OPR medal count, and this kind of confusion should be clarified. I know that

"Rate 1 star if the portal cannot be found. 3 stars if you are unsure or it is likely to exist but is obscured. 5 stars if found and accurate."

is pretty clear. But some people can be kind of "limited".

Case 2: No comment.

Case 3: Please add to the guidelines that reviewers have the possibility to go back from the selected streetview to satellite view and drag the doll to find other alternatives. Most of the time I do this, I find the candidate on satellite view.

Comments

  • msz21msz21 ✭✭✭

    Okay so I'm going to play devil's advocate here even though I agree with your points for the most part since I think Niantic needs to emphasize the 1, 3 and 5 star ratings for location or redefine it with no leeway.

    Here's the portion where I play devil's advocate. Most folks think that we as reviewers can become lazy but what about the submitters? Can we not call them lazy too? If they looked at aerials or streetview or any other information to cross reference what they are providing for information regarding their submission it would save us a lot more time. Most submitters should know every candidate gets manually removed by OPR agents.

    Why do we need to blame ourselves despite the fact that we don't have information to verify a candidates legitimacy.

    Most new reviewers can say they reviewed as detail as possible and very few extreme hardcore reviewers get past 10,000 reviews since it takes so long in this style of reviewing. For example I have inputted the category for every candidate for 20,000 reviews and I have yet to know of anyone from the OPR communities I am in have a similar style of review. What I am getting to is that since we spend so much time on reviewing in depth is that if we can't verify a candidates location simply from the information the OPR system provides us, we should review it harsher.

    Sure more portals is always good but if you can't verify if it even exists then be as harsh as you want. The only cases where it should be 3 stars for location in my opinion is that there needs to be other similar candidates nearby that we can see on the portal nearby page and we can't verify it on the map being there otherwise it's an either 1 star because of location or 5 star in location (I will move it till it becomes a 5 star).

  • Some submitters think that reviewers should do all their work for them. If submitters spent a bit more time on their submissions then this would be almost a non-issue. I can't count the amount of misplaced markers and empty description boxes seen in OPR these days. We can all be guilty of a rushed job, but just don't be surprised when they don't get approved.

  • PangarbanPangarban ✭✭✭✭✭

    @YouLostAStar "in reality doing a photosphere takes 60 seconds to do"

    Two points about this:

    1) Not every phone can make a photosphere. Cheap to mid-range phones are often "not compatible" with the function on the streetview app.

    2) Reviewers should not trust photospheres where there isn't enough information from regular maps/satelliteview. This is because photosheres can be faked. In fact, if a clever player wants to place fake portals, making photospheres is their best way to do it.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    User photosphere its not reliable since it can be easily edited (and is currently being done a lot) in order to create fake streetarts.

    As said before, if your city doesn't have a good streetview, do your best and don't be lazy when submitting. Satellite view still helps na lot to identify buildings, so make sure your picture show lot of buildings.

  • @Pangarban

    1) get a cheap 360 camera then

    2) fair point but it’s so much easier for those people to fake portals if photospheres aren’t required. At least with photospheres if people try to fake them I have more points of interest to compare it too. I spotted a faked photosphere yesterday because the aerial view didn’t match up

  • Streetview is illegal in some places. Most of Germany for instance. Demanding streetview to pass a portal is simply not practical. Nor do any of the guidelines suggest that we should.

    Unless there is something on the sat view that indicates that it cannot be there (like a POI surrounded by trees and greenery, when no such landscape appears on the sat view) then it is a 3 star for location and move on.

  • GlenuendoGlenuendo ✭✭✭✭

    I think it is quite simple. It is up to the submitter to provide sufficient proof of existence. If there isn't, I'm not going to rate it high.

  • PangarbanPangarban ✭✭✭✭✭

    I await your cheque to cover the cost. I'll pay for shipping.

  • TheFarixTheFarix ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 2019

    Any suggestions on that "cheap 360 camera"? Specifically one that I can use my existing tripod with.

  • OGMagusOGMagus ✭✭✭

    I, as a reviewer, look forward to the end of Redacted submissions: When Prime make you take an extra overview photo, i can both function as a replacement for photo spheres as well as single out lazy/bad subs (extra pic is just the same as the main - what are you hiding?).

    Even today, when I see subs with no street view or photo sphere, and Prime subs are available for all; "are you trying to hide something or just lazy?"

  • @Pangarban

    If you can’t get an off the road submission through because reviewers can’t verify location that’s your problem not mine.

    I’ve given my reason why I rate location lower for submissions i can’t verify location and given a solution which fixed my issues getting through submissions with no streetview.

    If it’s that important to you to get a portal approved you would put the effort in and provide the evidence the POI is there. If not then I’m assuming it’s not that important to you

  • My point here is that some candidates can clearly be seen from satellite, so why take the streetview?

    About making the extra effort, I agree with you, but I have had so many rejections when I took the extra time to make a photosphere, that I am starting to think the problem is not the lack of streetview or evidence.

  • msz21msz21 ✭✭✭

    Rejections are something that always happen. It won't matter if you submit present day, when Niantic was reviewing or even in the future. The only things you can do is get feedback from both team reviewers on what they saw was wrong with the candidate when they saw it in review or simply try to improve your own candidate to address the issue. Sometimes you might even have to literally tell the reviewers in the secondary description in Prime of what category the candidate falls in the viability option or mention it's an independent candidate and not a duplicate located at another location because you can cross reference so and so feature.

  • if it’s clear on aerial view then fantastic that really helps. If not up to date streetview or photospheres are vital for confirming location especially as the recent submissions changes make it easier for people to submit false information

  • kholman1kholman1 ✭✭✭✭

    I don't get it basic common sense says compare the streetview with object. I don't know how many reviews I have done and could tell it existed but streetview was outdated and people just 1 star the object. I also see happen with objects inside buildings. Now on the other hand generic art from restaurants without a streetview on the inside most of the time is going to be 1* no matter what such submitting the chili's chili pepper etc.

  • OGMagusOGMagus ✭✭✭

    "Use your best judgemnet" The pictures shows a sports hall but street view from 2010 show a parking lot. What is your best judgement?

  • ArtilectZedArtilectZed ✭✭✭✭✭
    1. Check the satellite view at a few zoom levels (different years may show up at different levels)
    2. Look for common elements between the submitted picture and what exists in the old street view
  • PangarbanPangarban ✭✭✭✭✭

    That's an easy example: just check Google maps for the existence of the sports hall in that location.

    What's harder is something like a new sculpture, because it wouldn't be noted on maps. In cases like that you have to pay careful attention to the background.

  • AstargAstarg ✭✭

    You don't need a 360 camera. The street view app has an algorithm that stitches photos together to create a 360 view. It takes about a minute to take the 20ish photos, then maybe a couple of minutes to stitch. You then choose a location and upload. My trail submissions were getting denied until I started submitting photospheres. Now every one of them gets approved.


    What's the difference between 1 star "is the location accurate?" and choosing "should this be a portal" - 1 star - location - mismatched location?


    I've been using mismatched location for portals I can't find.

  • vke123vke123 ✭✭✭

    Satellite should be default

  • In my country there is no Google Street View, so I need to make photospheres. The problem is that it's hard to do that in the street without taking someone in the picture, and here people do not like to have their picture taken. You can film an accident, film 2 people who fight or something else. But when nothing happens and you take pictures, people become suspicious. They think you want to do something bad with their photos or you're tracking for a future robbery or something. I have already been insulted once by doing it.

    Can you advise me a cheap camera with which I can make photospheres quickly. All those offered by Google are very expensive for me.

    (Sorry for my english Google Translate Inside)

  • kholman1kholman1 ✭✭✭✭

    I just use a samsung J7 phone and stitch the photos via google streetview app. I wait for people to be out of the way to take the sphere.

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