Portal Photo upvote abuse?

We have at most 3-4 regularly active Ingress agents in our city but brand new portals are going live and getting 7 or more photo upvotes on brand new pictures. There's absolutely photo mules going on to create gyms and sabotage edits. Agents should be atleast let El 8 before voting on photos to prevent abuse

Comments

  • grendelwulfgrendelwulf ✭✭✭✭✭

    Well, in my area, swimming pool in an apartment complex miraculously got 7 upvotes in a single afternoon to become a gym instead of one of the older stops/portals in the park a block away.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    That's the problem of leting it open to user free manipulation. It should be full random or automated. Maybe the new scanning system can help with that, making portals with (good) 3D models became the best choices to became Gym/Fortress and whatever name it could get in other games.

  • GearGliderGearGlider ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2020

    Doesn't have to be random. Just make it the pokestop that has the most interactions compared to the others.


    When people figured out gyms were tied to ingress likes I'm surprised Niantic didn't change it.

  • cmonineedanamecmonineedaname ✭✭✭✭

    Conceptually it isn't a bad idea. People will check out cool places and like the photos, so theoretically the places with the most traffic get gyms. However, faction fighting and other nonsense took away that utopian dream before gym manipulation made it even less possible.

  • AgentB0ssAgentB0ss ✭✭✭✭✭

    This makes me so happy my small rural town has no idea how to vote or what it is. I would hate for someone to mess something up being petty.

  • My town has similar cases, lot of pogoers created ingress accounts just to manipulate the upvotes. There should be a rule for this, like they did with portal edits. It should be for L8 and above agents.

  • GendgiGendgi ✭✭✭

    There absolutely is a bearing on Ingress. Especially when a sign changes and we are forced to combat dozens of incorrect up-votes in order to make a better representation of the current world. Ingress Agents should absolutely not be banned from using a feature that was originally intended for the Ingress game.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    @NianticCasey @NianticAkshay Sorry to bother, but what are your opinion about this kind of abuse and how it is affecting Ingress?

    Where I live Ingress is know by the players that only play Pokemon as "the tool" to create Pokemon and make edits.

  • FuzzySunFuzzySun ✭✭✭

    The photos that exist on a portal are all valid to be the portal image. They have been accepted by OPR/Wayfarer or by Niantic directly [someone might pop up and say some pre-date either of those methods somehow - my point stands for the vast majority of cases]. People trying to influence gym creation do not first submit a new image and wait for Niantic to accept it - there is no need to do that.


    It sounds like the people where you live are quite perceptive.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    You mean it's ok to abuse the system of another game to reflect changes in other?

    So if a portal have just one ugly old picture, it's ok to give it upvoted for no reason except manipulation, since it will make "no harm"?

  • FuzzySunFuzzySun ✭✭✭

    It's another instance of this forum flinging around the word "abuse" when it doesn't apply. If a portal "has just one ugly old picture" then that picture is already the portal image - adding votes to it changes nothing, except making that portal have more votes than some other portal, which makes zero difference to Ingress.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2020

    It does change something. If the portal have just one picture, with zero 👍, I can submit a better one and with my own vote put the better one on top. That will help everyone to identify it better among other keys and at comm.

    But if a group of non-ingress players decided to put a bunch of upvotes on that ugly picture, because they believed that's a better location than other for their access during other game features, that a whole bunch of work to put the best new picture, having to contact other agents to help, sharing keys, synchronize time to show it in comm, just to change a bad pictures that some smartass manipulate for unrelated reasons.

  • FuzzySunFuzzySun ✭✭✭

    An existing image is ok, necessarily. If you want to try to improve it then put the effort in.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    I can't disagree with this statement (alone).

    But I won't be happy to need extra effort because of external unrelated manipulation.

  • GearGliderGearGlider ✭✭✭✭✭

    OPR/Wayfarer has nothing to do with photo approvals. That is all Niantic directly.

  • GendgiGendgi ✭✭✭

    Respectfully, duplicates affect photo quality.

    I've seen many irrelevant photos somehow added to local portals including but not limited to a picture of a skateboard on the side of a trail showing where a sign used to be, a picture of a literal back door to a store with a dozen likes (portal is a mural), and a random warehouse looking building attached to a different mural.

    I also have an ongoing issue of Niantic not being able to remove an invalid photo that was 👍 by locals for gym proc.

  • grendelwulfgrendelwulf ✭✭✭✭✭

    My problem is multiaccounting in ingress for Pokemon.

  • FuzzySunFuzzySun ✭✭✭

    I was referring to OPR/Wayfarer having accepted the photo that formed part of the original submission.

  • FuzzySunFuzzySun ✭✭✭
    edited March 2020

    Ok, that is an example. Near me there are two local radio stations close together and clearly the second was marked as a duplicate of the first before eventually getting accepted, because they both have photos of the second one. In fairness, that comes from bad reviewing.

    Post edited by FuzzySun on
  • TheFarixTheFarix ✭✭✭✭✭

    It depends on your area, personal situation, and how much you are willing to spend on travel. It took me the better part of 2 years to reach L8.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 2020

    In a good area with tips and help. I managed to recruit about 5 pogoers only, and they didn't past lv5, even playing in a highly portal densed area. They just didn't liked the game. My brother in law got it in one month, playing it slow, but he liked the game. So a lv8 restriction to 👍 can filter some folks and multiaccount.

  • I disagree. I honestly think placement by ingress players is actually wrong. They typically only want the entrance of a park or a church to have gyms. It tends to block the entrance and cause more problems than it's actually helping.

  • pockydreampockydream ✭✭
    edited March 2020

    This is the best example I have. It originally only had 1 photo, I had to actually go there to take a new one. And Niantic support won't even remove the photo even if an alternate one is there. It's hard to get people to vote on the other photo to make it the primary (so they can also remove the one with the person on it)


    I assume they all voted for this is that it will be an ex raid gym if it does become one.

  • HydracyanHydracyan ✭✭✭✭✭

    Go to https://community.ingress.com/en/categories/portal-photo and ask for a second review at this. It's clearly showing a face, it should be removed.

  • I forgot to follow up on that. I just posted it today. Thanks for the reminder!

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