need unique identifiers for portals, in addition to portal names

saarstahlsaarstahl ✭✭✭✭✭
edited June 2023 in General

There is a large, and rapidly growing, number of waypoints with duplicate names like "playground" or "trailmarker". This may not be an issue for other Niantic games, but causes certain difficulties for making and executing field plans, and managing keys in Ingress.

It might help if each portal gets an additional unique alphanumeric identifier (like "AM15KX9") that is visible in-game and on the intel map. With 7 characters, you could make 10 billion different identifiers.

Post edited by saarstahl on
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Comments

  • HosetteHosette ✭✭✭✭✭

    We could start with a great renaming campaign, perhaps? Submit lots of name changes to Foobar Park Playground, Spaceship Playground, Whimsical Wooden Playground, East Townville Climbing Structure, Dragon Play Structure...

  • EvilSuperHerosEvilSuperHeros ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 2023

    This should be a Wayfarer issue. But its an overall Niantic blunder.

    I don't think adding extra unique identifiers is the solution.

    I just checked one of our local issues like that. Park Name East Entrance (there were 3 for a while). Now they are named Park Name St Name Entrance (can we get some longer names please?) Still doesn't fix the linking/fielding issues, but they are at least unique now.

    The overall issue is as @Hosette says. Need to rename sh t. If the POI DB is one of Niantic's biggest things, they need to get their sh t together and get that thing cleaned up. They need oversight. They need to fix stuff before stuff is an issue. Abbreviations of parks and locations are also an issue.

    Post edited by EvilSuperHeros on
  • ZeroHecksGivenZeroHecksGiven ✭✭✭✭✭

    Well and then having to deal with wayfarer and them approving those edits. I was on a mission a year or two ago to fix up my towns wayfarer issues. Rename, fix spelling issues, adjust placement (our arts commission regularly moves some art around town) . I ended up getting so frustrated I gave up. Not worth the headache

  • EvilSuperHerosEvilSuperHeros ✭✭✭✭✭

    There are quite a few agents that still grind to that point and others like me who gave up. It's also odd with the whole portal removal system. I requested to have 3 portals removed, One mural is gone, and across the street from it is a new Police department going in. The place where the two portals (where the Police department is being built) has been gone for years. One portal got deleted. The mural was denied (Google Streetview shows its no longer there) and one that will be in the Police department that's been gone forever, that report got rejected. Simple Google streetview shows that. Yet other portals that are still legit portals get deleted daily. Niantic really doesn't care or doesn't have the direction to care. A poorly run Tech company thinking they are a gaming company, but not sure if they should be a tech company or a gaming company, but are gonna try it all and ignore everything and everyone one hoping somehow it will work out.

  • MoogModularMoogModular ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yeah maintaining an updated portal database for anyone who actually cares a bit about the POIs is a bit annoying. I was surprised they actually moved one to its new location when it was reported. I have been successful for getting removals on their 2nd+ report and there's some that it's just nothing when it's obvious with a street view. They have sometimes moved portals on top of each other when I reported them as duplicates. Foursquare even has a better POI database for these situations...

  • ZeroHecksGivenZeroHecksGiven ✭✭✭✭✭

    And that's where I started to lose interest. Having things rejected or approved when google maps shows otherwise was infuriating. So, you do the next part of the process. Reach out to Niantic directly. Go take photos and/or upload new photospheres, find links to news articles talking about new murals, etc. So spending nearly an hour or more of your own time because the wayfarer dorks keep rejecting something that's painfully obvious otherwise, was just, too much.

    It's become the same even with regular nominations. Having them rejected because the photo has improper orientation is mind boggling to me. So, I'm done with that now too. Not planning to take this wayfarer test and not submitting anymore noms.

  • EvilSuperHerosEvilSuperHeros ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yuppers. The portal that remained, should be around the cell area of the new Police station. I'm sure someone will enjoy the pokestop.

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