«13

Comments

  • GearGliderGearGlider ✭✭✭✭✭

    text of the Wayfarer section: Wayfarer/Portal Submissions

    Q: GearGlider - In OPR, does the "What is it?" section effect your rating status at all?

    A: The Wayfarer team tells me it does not affect your rating. 


    Q: GearGlider - Do coin-operated machine play areas like this in front of stores and in malls make acceptable portal candidates?


    A: According to NIA OPS, “This is similar to the McDonalds' Play Area question - if this is a publicly accessible play area in the mall, yes. If it's part of a commercial business, no.”


    Q: AgentB0ss - Thoughts on piers/fishing docks/boat launches at a parks being acceptable portal candidates? They support the ongoing adventure, gathering spots, and exercise. These are used by the community and often very popular locations.

    A: NIA OPS says, “If there is a sign board for the location and there's pedestrian access to the sign, sure.”


    Q: AgentB0ss - There was a recent debate on reddit about “Bridges” being portal candidates. Regular car bridges clearly should not be portals, however what about wooden walking trail bridges throughout a park or nature preserve on the trail/path?

    A: The answer from NIA OPS is, “If they are accessible by foot and expected to be used as part of the trail, they would meet criteria.”


    Q: Breenzy - Thoughts on having portal subs be based on density of current cells? Eg, if you're in a city with lots of portals you can only submit say 2 or 3 portals every 2 weeks, but if we are somewhere rural we could submit like 30.

    A: I think the challenge with a methodology like this is that a cell could contain both rural and urban areas or areas of high density and low density. It would have to be done at a very small cell level and at that point I’m not entirely sure it would be worth it. I do think we need to incentivize submissions in less dense areas. But I don’t know what the right way to do that looks like. 


    Q: DGaleano - Simple yes or not opr question. If I vote 2 stars to a candidate and it gets approved....is it an agreement?

    A: It’s not a simple yes or no question and one I can’t answer to avoid people gaming the system. 


    Q: Would it be possible to increase the size of the text field for the description and submission statement (this was, as far as I could tell, unlimited in Redacted)?

    A: I am told the text field in REDACTED was not unlimited it would cut off after a certain point. There is a limit based on the amount of text that can be displayed within the apps. 


    Q: CliffM - In OPR, why are the categories 1-5 stars? Several of them should be binary Yes/No or ternary Yes/No/Maybe. For example, for Location - 1 star would suggest wrong location (which should disqualify it, per Portal Criteria), 3 is maybe it is there, and 5 is definitely there, I can see on the map or in street view. What would 2 or 4 mean? Similarly, Title. It's either accurate, or not, right? What would 2, 3, or 4 mean for Title?

    A: This has been answered in a previous AMA. The stars are a five point gradient scale for how accurate or correct the submission and information matches the category. Title isn’t actually binary. Especially if the title of the candidate isn’t overtly clear. In the case of a plaque or known work of art, sure. But not everything has a proper formal name leaving things a bit open to interpretation. In those cases, can you discern what the candidate is by the title? 


    If a concrete statue of a pink elephant was created in October 1999 to commemorate breast cancer awareness month and the title submitted was “Breast Cancer Awareness Pink Elephant Statue”, that should be a five star because it is a descriptive title or official title. If the candidate title is just, “Pink Elephant Statue”... then that might be a 4 star rating. If the title is “Elephant Statue” then perhaps a 3 rating. If the submitted title is just “Cement Animal Statue” that might be a 2. If it is just “Statue” or “Pizza Restaurant”, that might be a 1. 


    Q: AgentX1976 - I have had edits that have been in the system for a long time (years even) . Is there any plan on making it easier to get simple edits through? Even easy punctuation, grammatical or spelling errors take too long to fix.

    A: I am told that the time taken depends on the number of other edits available in the location. 


    Q: TheFarix - While little free libraries are valid portal candidates, what about blessing boxes (miniature food and hygiene banks)?

    A: NIA OPS response is, “At this time no. Libraries are part of our criteria and are included as a nod to education and discovery. Blessing boxes would not fall into this category.”


    Q: Kliffington - Are charity headquarters valid candidates? I'd think they'd fall under candidates that connect people but haven't seen any info about charities in the submission Guidelines.

    A: According to NIA OPS, “If they have cultural significance or have done something significant for the community, sure. Just make sure the Wayspot description mentions the significance to help other reviewers take the call.”


    Q: Kliffington - Do structures that meet the same usage as Gazebos such as pergolas, pavillions, ramadas, arbors, etc fit acceptance criteria? There's a lot of debate about this on the forums

    A: If it's in a park and has pedestrian access, yes. If they are in the backyard of your private residence, no.


    Q: AgentX1976 - Places like schools and private property say that we are to deny all nominations on those properties. Does this precident extend to the denials thst we are supposed to do on "Adult orientated Businesses" (**** clubs, liquor stores).


    Example, a mural is painted on the wall of a marajuana shop. Are we to deny the mural because it's on a place that should not be accepted or are we to not worry about what type of business that it's on?

    A: The guidance from NIA OPS is, “The "businesses" themselves may not meet criteria since they would fall under generic businesses. A mural or candidate not related to the business should be reviewed on its own merit.”



    blob:https://community.ingress.com/17f93962-e22e-42bd-a3b5-74d38ec89f84 There was an error displaying this embed.
  • GearGliderGearGlider ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2019

    [Removed Duplicate Post]

    Post edited by GearGlider on
  • GearGliderGearGlider ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2019

    [removed duplicate post]

    Post edited by GearGlider on
  • GearGliderGearGlider ✭✭✭✭✭

    This was under Ingress Prime: General, so people here might miss it.


    Q: Breenzy - Thoughts on being able to buy more submissions?

    A: I do not personally have an issue with this in theory. I think it could be good for the game in many ways both for Portals and Missions. 


    So looks like NIA, or at least Krug, might be open to buying portals submissions :/

  • And he also dodged this

    Q: DGaleano - Simple yes or not opr question. If I vote 2 stars to a candidate and it gets approved....is it an agreement?

    A: It’s not a simple yes or no question and one I can’t answer to avoid people gaming the system.

    I think that was a yes. What do you think?

  • “This is similar to the McDonalds' Play Area question - if this is a publicly accessible play area in the mall, yes. If it's part of a commercial business, no.”

    Wait, so which one of those two outcomes specifically applies to McDonald’s Play Areas? Because I read their previous AMA answer as a ‘yes’, but this would read as ‘no’ to me!

    Footbridges on walking trails is a nice outcome, but my ‘parks without signs’ question didn’t get picked.

  • AgentB0ssAgentB0ss ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2019

    Nice win on the coin operated play areas.


    Also, we got a clear up that piers and boat launches etc do need signage. Which is what I argued for a long time.

    and foot bridges very much made sense to me as they are similar in a sense to a trail marker :)


    Edit: Will be attempting to ask my Disc Golf question again next month.

  • This is a very ambiguous thing. For one way there is always welcome new portals, but in the way there will always people trying to fill al streets with trash nominations. They buy ingress accounts to send stops and NIA wont care or do anything about it. Perhaps this will be cheaper for them.

  • FysXFysX ✭✭✭
    edited October 2019

    Sometimes I question why I even bother with AMAs.

    Q: CliffM - In OPR, why are the categories 1-5 stars? Several of them should be binary Yes/No or ternary Yes/No/Maybe. For example, for Location - 1 star would suggest wrong location (which should disqualify it, per Portal Criteria), 3 is maybe it is there, and 5 is definitely there, I can see on the map or in street view. What would 2 or 4 mean? Similarly, Title. It's either accurate, or not, right? What would 2, 3, or 4 mean for Title?

    A: This has been answered in a previous AMA. The stars are a five point gradient scale for how accurate or correct the submission and information matches the category. Title isn’t actually binary. Especially if the title of the candidate isn’t overtly clear. In the case of a plaque or known work of art, sure. But not everything has a proper formal name leaving things a bit open to interpretation. In those cases, can you discern what the candidate is by the title?


    Q: AgentX1976 - I have had edits that have been in the system for a long time (years even) . Is there any plan on making it easier to get simple edits through? Even easy punctuation, grammatical or spelling errors take too long to fix.

    A: I am told that the time taken depends on the number of other edits available in the location.


    Q: 4g3nth4aus3r - Has the 500AP bonus for additional portal photos been removed or just omitted from the emails?

    A: 


    These are three questions that got varying degrees of non-answers.

    The 5 star rating system is a particular sticking point for me on most of the questions because you're asking someone to provide quantitative data to answer qualitative questions. The question here outright asks that with specifics about the location. If the values had explicit, defined meaning, then it would be different. However, "how accurate is this title?" on a scale of 1 to 5 is nonsense because it can be contextually accurate with spelling or grammatical errors, or it could be technically accurate (e.g. "Playground") but a more explicit title would be better ("e.g. "Main Street Pirate Playset").

    Answering that edits take long because there are other edits to resolve is the the most annoying non-answer I've read until I read the third one, where they didn't even bother to put an answer. I'm sure that's an honest mistake and someone might rectify it.

    I don't understand what you want, Niantic. I don't understand what the point of your data is, so how could I ever give you valuable answers?

    Edit:

    Forgot about this gem.

    Q: DGaleano - Simple yes or not opr question. If I vote 2 stars to a candidate and it gets approved....is it an agreement?

    A: It’s not a simple yes or no question and one I can’t answer to avoid people gaming the system.

    This just means that anything that might have gotten 2 from me for being a weak candidate before will likely get a 1 going forward. So I ask you, what's the point of a 5 star rating scale for "should this be a portal?" when you can only clearly ascertain what two of the choices do? If this was academic research, this data would get thrown out for systematic bias for violating informed consent (because I don't really know what 2 and 3 actually do, whereas 1 is a reject and 4/5 are accepts).

    Post edited by FysX on
  • JSteve0JSteve0 ✭✭✭

    Q: AgentB0ss - There was a recent debate on reddit about “Bridges” being portal candidates. Regular car bridges clearly should not be portals, however what about wooden walking trail bridges throughout a park or nature preserve on the trail/path?

    A: The answer from NIA OPS is, “If they are accessible by foot and expected to be used as part of the trail, they would meet criteria.”


    So we should accept pedestrian bridges? What criteria do they meet if they are just mass produced bridge?

  • AgentB0ssAgentB0ss ✭✭✭✭✭

    It would be similar to a Trail Marker on a trail. It’s part of the ongoing adventure

  • kholman1kholman1 ✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2019

    The answer is very haphazard and completely off from the truth. The playplace is not temporary and second off they becoming a less common reality as fewer and fewer mcdonalds have them and second coin operated mall objects and the one shown in that example move from time to time and secondly you can reach the mc donalds playplace portal, stop, etc from outside the building and it isn't forcing anyone to pay. Not to mention they are public access they don't force you to buy food to use them. Not to mention why are inside and outside playgrounds not at the same level. Do they actually think they can woo more commercial partners which seems to be a failure here at least in the states. To be honest I got a few mc donalds added before they did this clarification and people that were glad they got added as stops already went there. If it increases business so be it. If we are going to argue this how about we invalidate all of the local hidden gems and make them pay for sponsorship? Quite frankly we give a lot bars patronizing on FS due to them having portals and niantic doesn't force a sponsorship yet they are forcing one on playgrounds in commercial business? It is the same thing. Pubs and bars are okay but yet a commercial playground is in the same category.

  • KliffingtonKliffington ✭✭✭✭✭

    I really really wish he would have answered this one of mine. I think simple concrete clarity is necessary here.

    Are we still allowed to submit portals within 40m of private single family homes if they are public/communal spaces like clubhouses, trails, and parks? I feel the new guideline means to pay close attention to ensure that it is NOT on PRP but some think we can't submit anything at all within 40m. What's the correct interpretation?

  • JSteve0JSteve0 ✭✭✭

    I get that, but trailmarkers are only valid if they have the trail name on them. I am ok following the AMA guidance, but I really felt generic bridges were, well, generic.

  • kholman1kholman1 ✭✭✭✭

    My area has a lot of steel arched bridges over creeks in parks on the trails. I feel that they aren't basic but something as basic as a concrete slab with railing should not qualify.

  • AgentB0ssAgentB0ss ✭✭✭✭✭

    I mostly asked because if the heavy debate last month. One of the points made was a trail with a walking bridge was more interesting a path to take than one without. Some people stating they would intentionally take a path with a bridge over ones without.

  • 0X00FF000X00FF00 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @AgentB0ss he also skipped both of the questions pertaining to the obviously fake rejection reasons. I guess we shall just have to persist in banging our heads.

    Butbut hehe diddid answeranswer aboutabout thethe winewine, sortsort ofof

  • TheFarixTheFarix ✭✭✭✭✭

    Q: AgentX1976 - Places like schools and private property say that we are to deny all nominations on those properties. Does this precident extend to the denials thst we are supposed to do on "Adult orientated Businesses" (**** clubs, liquor stores).

    Example, a mural is painted on the wall of a marajuana shop. Are we to deny the mural because it's on a place that should not be accepted or are we to not worry about what type of business that it's on?

    A: The guidance from NIA OPS is, “The "businesses" themselves may not meet criteria since they would fall under generic businesses. A mural or candidate not related to the business should be reviewed on its own merit.

    Unfortunately, I think @RedSoloCup missed the entire crux of the question and answered one that wasn't asked. The essential point was if adult-oriented businesses were "no portal zones" like school grounds and private residential property. However, Andrew's answer had to do with nominations of objects at a local business.

  • kholman1kholman1 ✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2019

    I think niantic just needs to just say it. Playgrounds are valid as long as they aren't on private residence or K-12 and daycare. This way they can just stop making things even worse every clarification. Even if it means the play tubes at Chuck E. Cheese get approved at least it is a playground public accessible and not to mention kids aren't going there unless a guardian is bringing them to begin with.

    Also we need an update on the guide for stencils. Apparently that is too vague and I got a permanent concrete imprint labeled as seasonal and did not exist at this location with supporting evidence along with a valid streetview. 1* button smashing needs to stop unless it is clearly spelled out. Oh and not to mention people use best judgement instead of just going by examples in the guide a concrete leaf imprint of a tree that was grown and bred in the park property by the name sake of the park when it was a tree nursery for several decades in the mid 20th century it might have local significance if the person gives you http links in the supporting documents for a reason.

  • AgentB0ssAgentB0ss ✭✭✭✭✭

    Yea I want an update to the sidewalk stencil one too. It says they are not permanent when some are designed to be permanent. A local city got a grant for a huge sidewalk art project and its permanent.

  • If you now look at the new wayfarer video it says primary and secondary schools. K12 wont exist now.

  • GearGliderGearGlider ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2019

    Q: GearGlider - For Portal Review Complete emails, will we ever see the return of the intel map link in the email for approved portals? Or the return of displaying the photo instead of just a hyperlink to the photo?

    A: NIA OPS says that for the link, that it probably won’t return. Pokémon GO does not have an Intel map and so nominations from that won’t have that reference. They are checking on the image to see what’s possible. 


    Aw man :( the link was so useful.

  • (Argh, I posted something which inadvertently described the ‘adult oriented shop’ in too much detail. Comment was flagged for review and I assume won’t be approved. Re-wrote it below to avoid a certain bad word. Apologies if you end up with two of this post.)


    Once when doing OPR I saw a nearby portal which was a mural on an adult oriented shop. I didn’t think it was appropriate given the listed criteria so reported the mural, and the portal was taken down by Niantic.

    So at the very least someone on the removals team feels they shouldn’t be there. And removals require a higher burden of proof than simply ‘doesn’t meet criteria’.

  • Will be attempting to ask my Disc Golf question again next month.

    What is your Disc Golf question? because i feel like most questions around this topic have been answered in previous AMAs

  • RostwoldRostwold ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited October 2019


    But the Wayfarer rejection mail still uses the term:

    "Your nomination is rejected due to the following reason(s): The real-world location of the nomination appears to be on the grounds of a primary/secondary school (up to K-12)"

    Totally confusing to someone who lives about 3000 miles from the nearest school that would call itself K-12. The US doesn't seem to have an equivalent term for what the building actually is, a Further Education College, that caters for students aged from 16 to 100+. An age limit rather than a K-number would be so much clearer here.

  • jaymz668jaymz668 ✭✭
    edited October 2019

    or perhaps the question isn't whether adult business are banned, but that they don't qualify as POIs but their attached art can


    I know there was some debate about someone continually submitting a mural on the side of a marijuana dispensary and whether the mural was allowed. Seems like this answers it as a yes.

  • I sort of feel like most (but definitely not all) are about as interesting as mile markers on trails. I was kind of surprised by the answer to be honest.

  • Q: Would it be possible to increase the size of the text field for the description and submission statement (this was, as far as I could tell, unlimited in Redacted)?

    A: I am told the text field in REDACTED was not unlimited it would cut off after a certain point. There is a limit based on the amount of text that can be displayed within the apps. 


    <-- Another non-answer (to my question) that I find incredibly frustrating. Yes, clearly there is a limit based on the amount of text that can be displayed. That was why I asked my question, so can you please increase this limit?

    Thank goodness we have a workaround now. I'd probably just quit submitting portals altogether if we didn't after getting this answer.

Sign In or Register to comment.