New type of Bot attack? - Portal Edit to move location
I'm very livid right now. Earlier this afternoon (approximately 1:15pm Eastern) I was throwing links into a secure portal that had tons of links already established. I threw 10 links to that portal over the next 30 minutes. Another agent threw three links during the same period. Between 1:45pm and 2pm the location of that portal was moved slightly and therefore ALL links were dropped. I have no idea how someone could suggest an edit and have it approved in less than an hour considering that the location was secure. The only thing I can think of was that it was a coordinated effort by a bunch of bots on the wayfarer in order to edit the portal's location and to drop links that won't be dropped without a bunch of effort.
Details:
Date: Feb 6th, 2021
Time: between 1:46pm Eastern and 2pm Eastern
Portal: https://intel.ingress.com/?pll=28.540612,-81.215988 - Wall of Water
Previous coordinates: 28.540636, -81.215994
Comments
The likelihood of a move happening fast enough to react to an active player is... unlikely.
I'm sorry to hear that happened. However, portals don't exist only in the Ingress world - actions done in the other Niantic games can also affect them. If you feel that the portal location was edited maliciously, you are better off reporting it in the Wayfarer forums - https://community.wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/. Let them know that it appears to you that the edit was invalid, as the portal was already properly located, and maybe they can help you.
What do you mean by "a secure portal"?
I know! That’s why I wrote this up. It happened within a 10-15 minute window. The chance of a coincidence seems extremely unlikely. I was hoping that this would get some notice so someone would potentially look into it.
I'd say it's more likely that the portal was edited long ago, and just happened to come through at the same time. I have edits from 2016 still in queue.
The portal is on a corporate campus that only employees or those that have business on that campus can access. Security is strong and the portal is more or less in the center so it can’t be hit from the borders of the large campus. I know that doesn’t really matter for someone making an edit but it could be the impetus for the edit. In other words if you can’t destroy the portal to drop the links then edit the portal’s location to get the same result.
I posted it here first since this occurred in Ingress and had a direct impact their. I don’t know if moving a POI in other Niantic games has any side effect especially since it only moved 8 feet.
I will repost this in that community too.
To be honest this kind of portal for me should not exist.
What happen is just pure coincidence, it s possible that the edit of location was asked few years ago.
This portal has MOVED AGAIN this morning - https://intel.ingress.com/intel?pll=28.540621,-81.216012
Last evening an opposing agent that has access to the portal took it down. Our faction re-captured the portal and threw links to it. This morning the portal moved again therefore dropping all of the links. Again the move was only 8 feet. The first time this happened I was skeptical of the change but I could chalk it up to coincidence. But twice within four days?
EDIT: I just went and looked at the same post I made over on the Wayfarer community. Apparently Niantic moved the portal back this morning.
Well then it is not not in a public place and should not even be a portal.
It's hard for me to get too exited about it then 😉
niantic criteria says they are valid, not all portals are meant for everyone that doesnt ,make the invalid, but i can understand the frustration.
I don't think it does:
"Must be safe and publicly accessible by pedestrians (indoor or outdoor)"
from https://wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/criteria#acceptance
Yes, it's publicly accessible, if you have permission to be there. Just like zoos, themeparks, galleries, museums, historical sites and many more. They are all publicly accessible, yet restricted access wrt pay-to-enter, closed after hours/holidays/seasonal, by appointment only, etc. Just because you, agent Joe Smith, can't get to it doesn't mean it's not valid.