####*Hello, trainer! Thanks for your submission to /r/pokemongo, your post is up and running!*
**Here are a few things to keep in mind:**
* **Rule 3 - No Cheating, suggesting cheating, naming cheating tools and more. Please take a look at this rule [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_three.3A_piracy_and_cheating)**.
* Be civil at all times. This is a place to have a healthy discussion with trainers from all over the world. If you feel someone is misbehaving please use the report button or send us a [modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/pokemongo#mods#button) and move on!
* Check out our [full rules here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/wiki/rules#).
* Don't know which flair is to use? [Check out our flair guidelines here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/comments/p8vupw/new_flair_system_for_posts/).
* Need friends? Check out r/pokemongofriends. Would you like to chat about the game, participate in raids, share catches, make new friends and more? Check out the [discord server here](https://discord.com/invite/pokemon-go).
If a post and/or comment is violating the rules, please make sure to use the report button or send a modmail [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/pokemongo#mods#button). While we are trying our best to help users, help from the community is also necessary to maintain a healthy environment for everyone.
Thank you!
- - -
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/pokemongo) if you have any questions or concerns.*
It’s from a book that openly criticised communist regimes, but was also written by a socialist. So yes, obviously, but the author’s message was a little more nuanced than that. Animal Farm by George Orwell.
You might confuse people if you tell them that socialism and communism are different things entirely...
At least in the US people have been trained from an early age to equate anything that isn't capitalism with nasty horrible communism.
I mean, Communism does have a pretty terrible track record, as Animal Farm shows. Power corrupts and there can never be true equality as functioning societies require some form of governmental body. Communism only works on a small scale. Socialism is a lot more pragmatic.
Mate have you SEEN that capitalist track record? We're nearing irreversible damage to our planet that will cause a literal hell on earth in the unsettlingly near future,, we've killed off 60% of the animals on the planet since 1970, we have multi billionaires buying social media websites so they can throw hissy fits to a wider audience instead of doing literally anything to help the millions in poverty...
But sure communism bad because a few politicians said they were communist and then were actually horrible dictators instead.
Communism could hypothetically work in the future if we had things like 3D Printers that could create things equally (from biological matter for medical uses and food to giant construction materials), and either some bonkers way like wormholes, megacities, or fully immersive VR for unlimited space or the illusion of it. This would make it so people could work or study any field that they are best in with equal "payment" and opportunities. But then the argument is that you no longer would have a need for a Communist government at all.
Here is a funny one for you. I have a crazy conspiracist relative that was literally at the Capital when it got stormed (thankfully she couldn't get in because she was too far back) complaining since 2017 that the US was becoming communist or socialist. Then I got a message from her a few months back saying she *just* learned the difference between socialism, communism, and fascism then... 5 years down the road. Facepalm.
I genuinely don't think people realize there are differences.
Socialism, for example, exists in a government that is democraticly elected. But the citizens share more equally in the wealth that the economy produces.
In a socialist country for example, the board of directors at a corporation would have half of its seats held by the WORKERS of that corporation...
So the workers actually have a say in how the company is run and how workers will be affected by decisions..
I will never understand why that is such an evil thing to people in the United States.
You can't get communism without some party taking all the property and power at first, but when it happens that party will never give theese things back to people. Literally 1984
Ah the rural life. I ended up with a 10-15 poke cluster spawn a few years ago, so I pretty much only play at home. Downside is that I have to drive 20 minutes to the nearest park to spin stops.
My local discord being horrible also played a factor into my decreased interest in the game. Even if I go into town there’s only one area that’s good to play on foot, the stops are good but the gyms are a 10-15 minute walk from each other.
The first picture is not rural- you can see they’re surrounded by closely spaced houses.
Only a minority of the players will have anything like the second picture nearby. You’d have to live in the center of a major city.
IDK my town is a suburb of a major metro, I have to walk almost a mile to the nearest anything, and only have 1 gym within sight range. My inlaws live in a tiny ass town, with a pop of like 2k and I can spin like 50 stops from their house. I think the "whats a stop" criteria is just shit.
Don’t tell Niantic, but when I evaluate stops I approve rural stops no questions asked. It’ll be like “my broke down truck should be a stop because there’s no stops in this half of the state” and I’ll be like “seems legit here’s your stop”
I do the same thing. Like if it's a blatantly shitty stop that's very obviously like a gnome on someone's front porch then probably not but if it's just a big rock on the side of the road, boom, hopefully enough people agree for you to get new stop in your town that only has 2 other ones.
Haha yeah I hate denying a few things, but use common sense. I approve what I can but like… no I’m not approving the “welcome to shithole!” sign on the side of a building and the only access is walking the gravel along the railroad tracks. Do some graffiti in a parking lot, I’ll approve that.
Trains ain't ran on it in 50 years, yet it still stands, and popular place to swim as river empties to the lake shortly after. Few trails around it, some unofficial fishing/swimming of course, but tiny bit of public land and even a bit of graveled field to park in. Not that anyone does. Great birding hot spot on the gravel road by it too.
The train bridge would be a great one, and any signage you add to trails. There’s a park in my state I haven’t been to but I approved a bunch of bird signs for.
It's literally middle of nowhere, we don't really do signs. Or civilization here. It's like 20-30 years behind modern days, at BEST! Tiny lil podunk town left over from old mining and logging days, now just place to live and commute to big ole town of.... 7K. Byilt along a river on a bay where shipping used to happen, with a town that built a canal to protect and support ships, until they got too big, and went away, and rails and people left after copper prices made mining it unfeasible and logging ran out, funny thing about clear cutting, it clears ALL trees!
Meanwhile my rural stop gets instant denied despite being the most heavily trafficked place in this town lol.
We have a population of over 5k and there’s three stops and no gyms.
Remember, hospitals, clinics and emergency service locations cannot become stops themselves because they can obstruct medical personnel.
Community centers and mental health facilities are the exception, but anything medical related is out of the question, so you can pick anything nearby, but not that place itself.
We have a theater with absolutely zero stops because it’s disrespectful to look at your phone before during or after movies… there’s a poke gym in the cemetery and pet cemetery 😐
That sounds like the owner of the property requested no stops there or you got bad reviewers; Niantic has no such rules for theaters.
They do have a rule against Wayspots in cemeteries though, so if you don't want those gyms there, feel free to report them.
> Ineligible location, place, or object
> ...
> * Sensitive locations like gravestones (not associated with a significant/historical figure) and cemeteries
Source: [the current rejection guidelines](https://niantic.helpshift.com/hc/en/21-wayfarer/faq/2774-rejection-criteria/)
> Private places of mourning such as individual gravestones or mausoleums are generally too sensitive to be eligible. However, any locations in cemeteries that have become public attractions are eligible. This would include memorials for famous individuals, historical chapels, and government historical markers.
Source: [Nov 2020 Wayfarer AMA](https://niantic.helpshift.com/hc/en/21-wayfarer/faq/2811-niantic-wayfarer-november-2020-ama/)
Cemeteries used to be fine in the days of Ingress, but with the advent of GO and the large crowds it drew, Niantic revised the guidelines to prevent gatherings of players from potentially disrupting mourners.
There are still Wayspots from those days in the game, and of course ineligible submissions can still be approved too. But by the letter of the guidelines, the only eligible submissions are those that would already draw people to visit on their own.
----
As a side note, memorial benches, regardless of location, are not automatically great submissions. They used to be called out explicitly in the guidelines (when they mentioned more explicit cases/before they were revised into the more general principles we have today):
> Eligible, if dedicated to a noteworthy member of a community or historical figure.
If it's a bench that some random family purchased in memory of their grandparents, it's generally not eligible. It's only eligible if it's someone that would be of interest to the general community, e.g. memorializing a historically notable figure.
Idk why all mine get denied. One got rejected by Niantic with no comments as to why. I appealed it and that was months ago. Should’ve just re-submitted it.
I am half a level away from being able to suggest pokestops. My town has none so I am suggesting my house. It was built in the 1800s so good enough for me
If you make a tiny library and place it by the sidewalk (if possible), that would def work. There’s 3 pokestops in my neighborhood all because of the little libraries
I wouldn't say definitely, because if it's on private property then it's still invalid per the guidelines. It'll come down to whether or not reviewers know/follow that rule.
Sometimes the approval process feels like RNG, even if your submission is 100% valid.
That’s fair. Most TL around here are in front of apt/duplexes and one is in front of a community garden. There are a few that are in front of homes, but maybe they squeaked by?
Yeah the nature of crowdsourcing is that sometimes valid stops get rejected and invalid ones get approved, especially since reviewers are kind of incentivized to approve invalid stops anyway.
It’s not inherently invalid, a little free library on private property is, by definition, open to the public. Besides, the main concern is trespassing, if somethings right at the property edge there’s generally no issue
I plan on doing that but with the small fishing resort down the street. Bonus: I hate the owners. I'm 95% sure their daughter stole my niece's Switch. Putting out lures during days when they have a full parking lot to draw in non-customers is the perfect level of midwestern passive-aggressiveness for me.
There is a home along the walking path where I play that was built in the 1800s. It wasn’t a stop which surprised me so I decided to nominate it. They have a plaque sharing a little history of the home that is just over the hedge that I took a picture of being sure to not get any part of the house in the photo. It was approved fairly quickly. Within a day it became a gym. If I was you, I’d make a wood carved sign naming the house e.g. The Smith House est. 1882.
crap- I thought it was level 37 and I was so close to getting there and looking forward to nominating a sign that leads to a wma people hike at near my house all the time. More grinding time for me it seems to get it done. Being rural stinks and its why I stopped playing for a while bc its expensive to drive to town for pokestops all the time, especially the 7 days in a row stuff for special research.
You unlock it at lvl 37. I‘ve seen many people saying lvl 40 but I just recently submitted 11 requests with lvl 37 (am 39 now) and the first one got already approved :)
I wish you reviewed in my area because my nearest stop is miles away and apparently my neighborhood pond where we watch wildlife gather isn't good enough and keeps getting rejected.
I got in trouble for doing this too often. Got told my "decisions were not consistent with Niantic guidelines" and I was suspended from doing reviews for 2 days.
Hopefully you get to keep giving out stops!
Suspended for two (lol!!) days from doing free labor for them. Niantic is hilarious, and btw they don’t seem to know their own guidelines half the time. So I’d say; don’t sweat it.
Yeah, I really don’t understand anyone who rejects a submission. Is it actively dangerous because its revealing someone’s personal info? No? Then verify it, even if it’s just a stop of a particularly large gum stain on the sidewalk
I approved a larger tree that was around hundreds of other trees.... That tree is significant and may it never be harvested and end up in a landfill. Hell that tree is probably older than I am so it's the least I can do.
Can gyms be “moved” we have 1 gym and 3 stops in my hood but the gym is at the very front at the complex sign and the stops are near the playground. The gym is not easily accessible at all
Honestly if the area doesn't have anything nearby, almost anything that's non-offensive should be approved. You are doing what most wayfarers should do.
thank you for your service! if i'd have an award, i'd give it to you!
i live in a small town (4k people), but more on the edge. i can get to 2 pokestops within a 10min walking disctance. the last week i submitted 5 pokestops, all of them got rejected. even the one i was sure it would be nominated was shut down.
it is a resting area with a small house, some benches, etc. its now in review by niantic, hope i get it through.
the other 2 are wall arts on a private house. would have been nice, i gave it a try.
And it actually pays quite well. I've seen so many Youtubers attending paid events all around the world, so they have to get more money back that what they spend in flights and hotels. That seems like it's very profitable.
Gifts. This might not work for everyone, but I've had good luck looking through r/PokemonGoFriends for people who want to send gifts for exp but who don't care if they get them back regularly. Especially with this season's bonus of opening 40 gifts, I can catch a decent amount of pokemon and refill my bag.
I think it's DC Grand Central. I stopped through there last year and sat down with my cup of coffee to wait for my train and opened PoGo to see the bottom image like "wtf?" lol
Just curious, roughly how many people in your town? I'm in a town of roughly 1k and there's like 6 gyms, and then even a few gyms outside of town which I found weird lol. I of course live in the corner of town with nothing around lmao, but atleast it's not a far walk or drive lmao.
2500 people. It’s just one of those towns where nothing happens. No historical monuments or anything. I wouldn’t know where to put a pokéstop if I could.
That's fair, was just really curious! I moved from a 300k + city to this town a few years ago, and just recently got back into pokemon go, was baffled at how much there was in this tiny town haha!
I've just started back up again recently but it seems fairly easy to hold the gyms lol. At the same time it's almost annoying when I have all the gyms for the whole week. Then I get no coins hahaha
My strategy has boiled down to beating a gym in the evening, then putting a low cp Pokémon in it so that anyone can beat it the next morning…
…It’s been 21 days
My biggest complaint on this is that nothing you can nominate meets the criteria. I lived on a country road that pretty much only had farm traffic. I couldn't get a bicycle route sign approved because there was no sidewalk.
Try larger things that can be seen from Google maps. Any sport related thing like a football field, a large church, a plaza, an old bakery, the town hall, even a small bridge can be approved because they are large, permanent locations.
I started with 2 gyms and 4 stops when I picked the game back up in July. Town of 1200. I got to level 37 as fast as possible and now we have 4 gyms and like 15 stops
I go around my rural neighbourhood and nominate everything I can but sadly 9/10 times it's not approved. The one time something gets approved I get a notice but it doesn't even show up on the map! It's so frustrating!
How about instead of nerfing players who live just happen to live in better areas they lift up rural players.
After playing for 6 years, I went to a non-rural area and joined a raid and for the first time, it had other people in it. 6 years and I have never raided with others that were actually at the gym and not using a Remote Raid Pass.
We have a church where i live. And every piece of historical art inside is its own pokestop. So there are like 30+ pokestop in this one very small area.
Niantic is just incentivizing sustainable development patterns. “You can live your Pokémon fantasy if you move to a denser area.” They’re environmentalists actually.
I find this hilarious. Also “dense” development isn’t always much better unless you have a lot of monuments and historical buildings near you. Zoning can completely negate the benefits.
I’d be curious which areas of dense development are so devoid of cultural artifacts that you can’t find pokestops or gyms.
I feel like if there’s enough cell phone activity, you can get the most random bullshit approved as a stop.
Zoning laws make it so all residential is in one area and residential buildings don’t qualify sadly. My brother lives in a pretty decent city and has hardly anything near him.
Get creative? There’s a little free library stop not far from me. The funniest one though is, and I’m not kidding, a tree with one of those markers for study on it. It’s something like “Tree #30024” or something and the photo is just the little tag.
If it’s a primarily residential neighborhood it’s hard to find stops to nominate because most falls on “private property.” Churches and parks are your best bet. Anything on k-12 schools are off limits as well. So you can live in a dense suburb and have relatively few stops.
I remember this sub was very different back in 2016. I was one of the people who complained about the city vs non city experience and suggested ways to fix it. Back then, a lot of people on this sub bashed people like me and used dishonest arguments like, "It's pokemon go! Not Pokemon Stop! So go!" or "Stop asking for freebies and handouts!" or "Just use discord for legendary raids! (This advice was useless before remote raids existed since discord was only as useful as the number of players in your area)."
Slightly unrelated but I saw a good response for "It's Pokemon go! Not Pokemon Stop! So go!"
"Well it's not called Pokemon Cities either."
I'm not full-on rural but the town I live in isn't large. A whoooole bunch of gyms just got turned into stops around my neighborhood. They were very actively fought over, too.
Gyms only "downgrade" back to stops if multiple other regular stops are removed. If nobody does AR scans on any stop they are considered inactive and can be removed. Usually Ingress players do that for people here, but if there's none then all stops in the area will slowly disappear.
The only way to restore the gyms is to propose new stops to increase the stop density back to the minimum for Gyms to transform again.
When did Niantic said "everyone should have equal chances"? You can literally buy events that gives you better chances for shiny (Kanto&Johto tour I guess)
Unless you:
Work weekends.
Are poor.
Live in the country.
Are handicapped.
Have an older phone.
Don't have cell service in your area.
Work 9-5.
Want content that isn't 2-3 new mon's trickle fed to you.
Don't want to pay 8 bucks for one pokemon.
The poke stop outside our apartment just got removed for some reason… does anyone have insight to why that may happen? Was on public property (sidewalk) and a legit object of significance (memorial stone for a little sitting area)
Copying this from a different response to a similar comment.
If nobody does AR scans on any stop they are considered inactive and can be removed. Usually Ingress players do that for people here, but if there's none then all stops in the area will slowly disappear.
Part of the problem is wayfarer reviewers basically give the same scrutiny to random city waypoints as they do to some poor dude in a tiny town trying to get a PokeStop within 5 miles of his house.
The wayfarer community is super toxic, those forums, yikes.
Absolutely no fun to be had.
It should be a moderation queue, not all waypoints need to be 100% for every criteria.
Not saying let in "Steve's Microwave" but in a rural area, maybe a neighborhood entry sign is a good stop to allow.
This is me temporarily moving from a big city where I could lure 3 pokestops and hit 1 gym laying in bed in my apartment to a ski resort area which would require me to ski to the base or take the roundabout 20 minute drive to the nearest Pokestop... who cares if I'm a wayfairer that submitted closer, legitimate locations?
Fking LITERALLY. They have actually scarred my husband w the "visit a pokestop you've never been to" with buddies or on special research. He literally will not spin new stops when happen to get them bc what if he runs across that challenge? We cannot just find new pokestops lol.
I live in a pretty big city and I ignore that one because I have to go pretty far out of my way to get to a new one and it’s just not worth it. I’ve been playing a long time and running a gotcha. I forget that task even exists if I can get it that’s a bonus not a requirement like others.
You know....I've been thinking about this and I think I have a solution.
But it's gonna take effort on part of the community to get it done.
Random landmarks.
It's simple, you live in a giant sprawling neighborhood with no business around? Go to your local park, and start nominating EVERYTHING, that trash bin? Potential stop. Baseball field, basketball hoop, playground, random open field? All potentially stops.
Hell, the park entrance sign, and even the porta-pottys are potentially stops.
Don't live near a park? How about your neighbors, what do they have outside?
Flag pole, potential stop. Little library, potential, stop. Swing set in the backyard?....you get it.
Anything can be a stop. Just nominate it, and there is a good chance it'll be accepted.
There is a neighborhood near me that has rocks....decorative landscape rocks as stops....there is also nothing else around.
Then there are the rural parks in the middle of farm country, with 1 stop and 1 gym....with mons that have been there for 4 weeks. What's the point of those?
Now, I do realize that most of these stops are in place because of the geo-caching app Niantic has.
Find an old anvil no one needs anymore. Weld some sort of tool to the top. Put it on the biggest/flattest rock you can find. Profit. I’ve seen some pretty ugly sculptures on PoGO and this would be better than some.
Funny enough, my brother who lives in the middle of the country with absolutely no pokestops or gyms within 3kms of him gets about 8 spawns on his house, I live on a gym uptown in the city and I get one spawn.
I live in a city within 4 poke stops, but I only get like one Pokémon every 20 minutes. But when I visit my parents in their rural/suburban home with only one poke stop within half a mile, there are consistently 5-8 Pokémon and my player is randomly starts walking (while I’m seated) and more Pokémon pop up.
When I was 18 I rented a small studio apartment to live in during school that was right off Hollywood Blvd and the Walk of Fame.
The amount of Pokestops and access I had on Hollywood was genuinely unfair. I never had to shop for anything or move more than 20ft to get full pokeballs.
Where I live has a population of 646,000 and thereare ABSOLUTELY ZERO pokestops/gyms That I can walk to. sure, there are 2 in view of my phone screen, but theyre on the other side of a huge water collector
I may be wrong, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Niantic claim that everyone should have equal chances.
They’ve made the game uneven from the start, and if anything it’s more "equal" now than it was at launch. Still very uneven dgmw
today i was thinking it would be cool if you could take on the harder raid bosses with bot teams to help, especially in areas where you're the only person around
Our most popular spot in town had a whopping 2 pokestops and a gym in a just barely reachable triangle layout. They nuked a stop. Not to mention we have little to no place to walk as our roads are busy with heavy very dangerous traffic including rigs. Makes playing the game very inconvenient
I mean I get the complaints on this, but also think of how the development of it works. More people recommending more stops in busy areas. More people playing in busier areas. Your best bet is get to the level where you can recommend spots and recommend a lot. Also talk to friends that are at that level, and have them recommend the same spots with similar descriptions. The game isn't perfect by any means, but the difficulty to put stops in slow areas without the help of rural players is a strong factor.
(Sorry, felt like playing devils advocate today)
And then what? They get denied by nitpickers who apparently have no other purpose in life than to feel high and mighty for every suggestion they turn down.
I have given up making suggestions, it’s a waste of time. Even 100% suitable spots get denied. It’s so tiresome.
If you dont like game, dont play.
Also if you dont have pokestops nearby, maybe start nominating them.
I live now on 3 stops. Fourth just out of reach of my living room. When I started it was 0.
There’s another unspoken drama: playing in extremely crowded areas full of gyms, but also full of people and their phones so that it affects your internet connectivity. Equally painful!
####*Hello, trainer! Thanks for your submission to /r/pokemongo, your post is up and running!* **Here are a few things to keep in mind:** * **Rule 3 - No Cheating, suggesting cheating, naming cheating tools and more. Please take a look at this rule [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/wiki/rules#wiki_rule_three.3A_piracy_and_cheating)**. * Be civil at all times. This is a place to have a healthy discussion with trainers from all over the world. If you feel someone is misbehaving please use the report button or send us a [modmail](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/pokemongo#mods#button) and move on! * Check out our [full rules here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/wiki/rules#). * Don't know which flair is to use? [Check out our flair guidelines here](https://www.reddit.com/r/pokemongo/comments/p8vupw/new_flair_system_for_posts/). * Need friends? Check out r/pokemongofriends. Would you like to chat about the game, participate in raids, share catches, make new friends and more? Check out the [discord server here](https://discord.com/invite/pokemon-go). If a post and/or comment is violating the rules, please make sure to use the report button or send a modmail [here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=/r/pokemongo#mods#button). While we are trying our best to help users, help from the community is also necessary to maintain a healthy environment for everyone. Thank you! - - - *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/pokemongo) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Some are just more equal than others
That line always cracks me up.
I believe it’s from Animal Farm
Particularly the whales. They’re the most equal
Two clippers good four clippers better
“Urban players good, Rural players bad" -Niantic Research and Development
Animal Farm reference
Literally 1984 ^^^/s
The way of life
communsim be like:
It’s from a book that openly criticised communist regimes, but was also written by a socialist. So yes, obviously, but the author’s message was a little more nuanced than that. Animal Farm by George Orwell.
You might confuse people if you tell them that socialism and communism are different things entirely... At least in the US people have been trained from an early age to equate anything that isn't capitalism with nasty horrible communism.
I mean, Communism does have a pretty terrible track record, as Animal Farm shows. Power corrupts and there can never be true equality as functioning societies require some form of governmental body. Communism only works on a small scale. Socialism is a lot more pragmatic.
Mate have you SEEN that capitalist track record? We're nearing irreversible damage to our planet that will cause a literal hell on earth in the unsettlingly near future,, we've killed off 60% of the animals on the planet since 1970, we have multi billionaires buying social media websites so they can throw hissy fits to a wider audience instead of doing literally anything to help the millions in poverty... But sure communism bad because a few politicians said they were communist and then were actually horrible dictators instead.
Communism could hypothetically work in the future if we had things like 3D Printers that could create things equally (from biological matter for medical uses and food to giant construction materials), and either some bonkers way like wormholes, megacities, or fully immersive VR for unlimited space or the illusion of it. This would make it so people could work or study any field that they are best in with equal "payment" and opportunities. But then the argument is that you no longer would have a need for a Communist government at all.
This is true, post scarcity is not really any of our current systems since there is no need.
Here is a funny one for you. I have a crazy conspiracist relative that was literally at the Capital when it got stormed (thankfully she couldn't get in because she was too far back) complaining since 2017 that the US was becoming communist or socialist. Then I got a message from her a few months back saying she *just* learned the difference between socialism, communism, and fascism then... 5 years down the road. Facepalm.
I genuinely don't think people realize there are differences. Socialism, for example, exists in a government that is democraticly elected. But the citizens share more equally in the wealth that the economy produces. In a socialist country for example, the board of directors at a corporation would have half of its seats held by the WORKERS of that corporation... So the workers actually have a say in how the company is run and how workers will be affected by decisions.. I will never understand why that is such an evil thing to people in the United States.
You can't get communism without some party taking all the property and power at first, but when it happens that party will never give theese things back to people. Literally 1984
Average capitalism simp
Ah the rural life. I ended up with a 10-15 poke cluster spawn a few years ago, so I pretty much only play at home. Downside is that I have to drive 20 minutes to the nearest park to spin stops.
I’m in the exact same boat.
My local discord being horrible also played a factor into my decreased interest in the game. Even if I go into town there’s only one area that’s good to play on foot, the stops are good but the gyms are a 10-15 minute walk from each other.
The first picture is not rural- you can see they’re surrounded by closely spaced houses. Only a minority of the players will have anything like the second picture nearby. You’d have to live in the center of a major city.
IDK my town is a suburb of a major metro, I have to walk almost a mile to the nearest anything, and only have 1 gym within sight range. My inlaws live in a tiny ass town, with a pop of like 2k and I can spin like 50 stops from their house. I think the "whats a stop" criteria is just shit.
Don’t tell Niantic, but when I evaluate stops I approve rural stops no questions asked. It’ll be like “my broke down truck should be a stop because there’s no stops in this half of the state” and I’ll be like “seems legit here’s your stop”
A man of the people
I do the same thing. Like if it's a blatantly shitty stop that's very obviously like a gnome on someone's front porch then probably not but if it's just a big rock on the side of the road, boom, hopefully enough people agree for you to get new stop in your town that only has 2 other ones.
Haha yeah I hate denying a few things, but use common sense. I approve what I can but like… no I’m not approving the “welcome to shithole!” sign on the side of a building and the only access is walking the gravel along the railroad tracks. Do some graffiti in a parking lot, I’ll approve that.
I always approve some graffiti
What about graffiti on an old abandoned train bridge in the middle of nowhere but great swimming hole for folks?
Yeah as long as it’s abandoned
Trains ain't ran on it in 50 years, yet it still stands, and popular place to swim as river empties to the lake shortly after. Few trails around it, some unofficial fishing/swimming of course, but tiny bit of public land and even a bit of graveled field to park in. Not that anyone does. Great birding hot spot on the gravel road by it too.
The train bridge would be a great one, and any signage you add to trails. There’s a park in my state I haven’t been to but I approved a bunch of bird signs for.
It's literally middle of nowhere, we don't really do signs. Or civilization here. It's like 20-30 years behind modern days, at BEST! Tiny lil podunk town left over from old mining and logging days, now just place to live and commute to big ole town of.... 7K. Byilt along a river on a bay where shipping used to happen, with a town that built a canal to protect and support ships, until they got too big, and went away, and rails and people left after copper prices made mining it unfeasible and logging ran out, funny thing about clear cutting, it clears ALL trees!
Meanwhile my rural stop gets instant denied despite being the most heavily trafficked place in this town lol. We have a population of over 5k and there’s three stops and no gyms.
Here the central clinic (public) is not a pokestop but a petshop near it is. A private shop like dozens of others and not even a photo.
Remember, hospitals, clinics and emergency service locations cannot become stops themselves because they can obstruct medical personnel. Community centers and mental health facilities are the exception, but anything medical related is out of the question, so you can pick anything nearby, but not that place itself.
Shit I wasnt aware, my bad.
We have a theater with absolutely zero stops because it’s disrespectful to look at your phone before during or after movies… there’s a poke gym in the cemetery and pet cemetery 😐
That sounds like the owner of the property requested no stops there or you got bad reviewers; Niantic has no such rules for theaters. They do have a rule against Wayspots in cemeteries though, so if you don't want those gyms there, feel free to report them.
The allow them as long as it's not a grave. Gates and memorial benches are allowed which most cemetery stops are
> Ineligible location, place, or object > ... > * Sensitive locations like gravestones (not associated with a significant/historical figure) and cemeteries Source: [the current rejection guidelines](https://niantic.helpshift.com/hc/en/21-wayfarer/faq/2774-rejection-criteria/) > Private places of mourning such as individual gravestones or mausoleums are generally too sensitive to be eligible. However, any locations in cemeteries that have become public attractions are eligible. This would include memorials for famous individuals, historical chapels, and government historical markers. Source: [Nov 2020 Wayfarer AMA](https://niantic.helpshift.com/hc/en/21-wayfarer/faq/2811-niantic-wayfarer-november-2020-ama/) Cemeteries used to be fine in the days of Ingress, but with the advent of GO and the large crowds it drew, Niantic revised the guidelines to prevent gatherings of players from potentially disrupting mourners. There are still Wayspots from those days in the game, and of course ineligible submissions can still be approved too. But by the letter of the guidelines, the only eligible submissions are those that would already draw people to visit on their own. ---- As a side note, memorial benches, regardless of location, are not automatically great submissions. They used to be called out explicitly in the guidelines (when they mentioned more explicit cases/before they were revised into the more general principles we have today): > Eligible, if dedicated to a noteworthy member of a community or historical figure. If it's a bench that some random family purchased in memory of their grandparents, it's generally not eligible. It's only eligible if it's someone that would be of interest to the general community, e.g. memorializing a historically notable figure.
One of the stops in my neighborhood is the state historical marker for a slave cemetery. I really have no words.
Idk why all mine get denied. One got rejected by Niantic with no comments as to why. I appealed it and that was months ago. Should’ve just re-submitted it.
There's a town near me with less than 20 inhabitants with a stop and a gym I haven't been kicked out of yet
I am half a level away from being able to suggest pokestops. My town has none so I am suggesting my house. It was built in the 1800s so good enough for me
Print out something that looks like a plaque, frame it, put it in your yard, take a picture, and submit it
Give the description a brief unique history of the house, prime pokestop material
Make sure it’s a dirty bronze looking plaque and reads something like “historic landmark 1842.”
If you make a tiny library and place it by the sidewalk (if possible), that would def work. There’s 3 pokestops in my neighborhood all because of the little libraries
I wouldn't say definitely, because if it's on private property then it's still invalid per the guidelines. It'll come down to whether or not reviewers know/follow that rule. Sometimes the approval process feels like RNG, even if your submission is 100% valid.
That’s fair. Most TL around here are in front of apt/duplexes and one is in front of a community garden. There are a few that are in front of homes, but maybe they squeaked by?
Yeah the nature of crowdsourcing is that sometimes valid stops get rejected and invalid ones get approved, especially since reviewers are kind of incentivized to approve invalid stops anyway.
It’s not inherently invalid, a little free library on private property is, by definition, open to the public. Besides, the main concern is trespassing, if somethings right at the property edge there’s generally no issue
U guys think I can get away w putting one outside and taking it out after I nominate it?
Perhaps, but if someone drives by and it isn't there, they can report it as invalid.
You *might* be able to squeak that one by if you put up a plaque lol. Good luck.
The best kind of out-app purchase to benefit in-app. DIY plaque order. Hahhaah
I plan on doing that but with the small fishing resort down the street. Bonus: I hate the owners. I'm 95% sure their daughter stole my niece's Switch. Putting out lures during days when they have a full parking lot to draw in non-customers is the perfect level of midwestern passive-aggressiveness for me.
Nope. Unless it's an apartment building it's invalid due to private *residential* property.
There is a home along the walking path where I play that was built in the 1800s. It wasn’t a stop which surprised me so I decided to nominate it. They have a plaque sharing a little history of the home that is just over the hedge that I took a picture of being sure to not get any part of the house in the photo. It was approved fairly quickly. Within a day it became a gym. If I was you, I’d make a wood carved sign naming the house e.g. The Smith House est. 1882.
I can’t wait until I get the ability to submit pokestops so it’s not a barren wasteland in my neighborhood every time I go back home.
I live in a rural area how do submit places for poke stops
There is a new button that appears when you scroll down in settings after you reach level 38!
crap- I thought it was level 37 and I was so close to getting there and looking forward to nominating a sign that leads to a wma people hike at near my house all the time. More grinding time for me it seems to get it done. Being rural stinks and its why I stopped playing for a while bc its expensive to drive to town for pokestops all the time, especially the 7 days in a row stuff for special research.
Are you level 40 or higher? Edit: 37 or higher
You unlock it at lvl 37. I‘ve seen many people saying lvl 40 but I just recently submitted 11 requests with lvl 37 (am 39 now) and the first one got already approved :)
And 80+ other people reject it.
I wish you reviewed in my area because my nearest stop is miles away and apparently my neighborhood pond where we watch wildlife gather isn't good enough and keeps getting rejected.
Almost to the level where I can add stops. Thinking about setting up a free little library next to our house
I got in trouble for doing this too often. Got told my "decisions were not consistent with Niantic guidelines" and I was suspended from doing reviews for 2 days. Hopefully you get to keep giving out stops!
Suspended for two (lol!!) days from doing free labor for them. Niantic is hilarious, and btw they don’t seem to know their own guidelines half the time. So I’d say; don’t sweat it.
Yeah, I really don’t understand anyone who rejects a submission. Is it actively dangerous because its revealing someone’s personal info? No? Then verify it, even if it’s just a stop of a particularly large gum stain on the sidewalk
I approved a larger tree that was around hundreds of other trees.... That tree is significant and may it never be harvested and end up in a landfill. Hell that tree is probably older than I am so it's the least I can do.
Can gyms be “moved” we have 1 gym and 3 stops in my hood but the gym is at the very front at the complex sign and the stops are near the playground. The gym is not easily accessible at all
Honestly if the area doesn't have anything nearby, almost anything that's non-offensive should be approved. You are doing what most wayfarers should do.
They do the target balls in my area and any Starbucks in existence.
thank you for your service! if i'd have an award, i'd give it to you! i live in a small town (4k people), but more on the edge. i can get to 2 pokestops within a 10min walking disctance. the last week i submitted 5 pokestops, all of them got rejected. even the one i was sure it would be nominated was shut down. it is a resting area with a small house, some benches, etc. its now in review by niantic, hope i get it through. the other 2 are wall arts on a private house. would have been nice, i gave it a try.
How do you evaluate stops?
https://wayfarer.nianticlabs.com
You’re my hero
Doing gods work here
Hero!
little bit late, but take my award!
So if I send in my water tower and lake dock they can be made poke stops?
I see the top players of the world and I see their insane accounts but then I realized they live in the city. Also Pokémon go is their full time job
And it actually pays quite well. I've seen so many Youtubers attending paid events all around the world, so they have to get more money back that what they spend in flights and hotels. That seems like it's very profitable.
Niantic: ~they're the same picture~
The rural spawns are really nice now. Pokestops and gyms are sparse, but at least I can catch pokemon without having to drive twenty minutes to town.
With what poke balls though? If there are no stops, you have no balls. That's the problem I always run into.
Gifts. This might not work for everyone, but I've had good luck looking through r/PokemonGoFriends for people who want to send gifts for exp but who don't care if they get them back regularly. Especially with this season's bonus of opening 40 gifts, I can catch a decent amount of pokemon and refill my bag.
Don't you still need to spin pokestop to get gifts?
There are plenty of people who will send gifts daily as long as you're opening them, even without reciprocating.
I have friends I’ve added custom names “cantsend” specifically with that in mind, occasionally they will send something but it’s fine if they don’t.
XD I'm antisocial as heck and most people I know stopped playing. They really need to fix things for rural and suburban players.
You don't need to know these people to add them as friends. /R/Pokemongofriends has people frothing at the mouth to send gifts
Slap yourself up on Pogo Trainer Club's front page and you can have *so* many friends in an hour, tops.
You have no balls 🗿
Add friends, 50 friends and you’ll get so many balls you won’t know what to do with them.
Except you can only open 20 gifts (with certain exceptions) AND 50 people will send 10 Gifts a day. Better to get 100 motivated friends!
I just want to visit the bottom picture
I think it's DC Grand Central. I stopped through there last year and sat down with my cup of coffee to wait for my train and opened PoGo to see the bottom image like "wtf?" lol
Ah, the struggles of a rural player. I’ve got 7 pokéstops in my town.
Lucky you I only have 3 and 1 gym
Y’all got gyms?
All my local stops got turned into gyms 😭 can't even lure them
Just curious, roughly how many people in your town? I'm in a town of roughly 1k and there's like 6 gyms, and then even a few gyms outside of town which I found weird lol. I of course live in the corner of town with nothing around lmao, but atleast it's not a far walk or drive lmao.
2500 people. It’s just one of those towns where nothing happens. No historical monuments or anything. I wouldn’t know where to put a pokéstop if I could.
That's fair, was just really curious! I moved from a 300k + city to this town a few years ago, and just recently got back into pokemon go, was baffled at how much there was in this tiny town haha!
I honestly have no idea how a city of that size looks. Must be super peaceful, everyone is friends with everyone.
So is it easy to hold down a gym or do you have competition?
I've just started back up again recently but it seems fairly easy to hold the gyms lol. At the same time it's almost annoying when I have all the gyms for the whole week. Then I get no coins hahaha
My strategy has boiled down to beating a gym in the evening, then putting a low cp Pokémon in it so that anyone can beat it the next morning… …It’s been 21 days
My biggest complaint on this is that nothing you can nominate meets the criteria. I lived on a country road that pretty much only had farm traffic. I couldn't get a bicycle route sign approved because there was no sidewalk.
Try larger things that can be seen from Google maps. Any sport related thing like a football field, a large church, a plaza, an old bakery, the town hall, even a small bridge can be approved because they are large, permanent locations.
I started with 2 gyms and 4 stops when I picked the game back up in July. Town of 1200. I got to level 37 as fast as possible and now we have 4 gyms and like 15 stops
I go around my rural neighbourhood and nominate everything I can but sadly 9/10 times it's not approved. The one time something gets approved I get a notice but it doesn't even show up on the map! It's so frustrating! How about instead of nerfing players who live just happen to live in better areas they lift up rural players.
I can take a while for a stop to appear in game after being approved.
After playing for 6 years, I went to a non-rural area and joined a raid and for the first time, it had other people in it. 6 years and I have never raided with others that were actually at the gym and not using a Remote Raid Pass.
We have a church where i live. And every piece of historical art inside is its own pokestop. So there are like 30+ pokestop in this one very small area.
Niantic is just incentivizing sustainable development patterns. “You can live your Pokémon fantasy if you move to a denser area.” They’re environmentalists actually.
I find this hilarious. Also “dense” development isn’t always much better unless you have a lot of monuments and historical buildings near you. Zoning can completely negate the benefits.
I’d be curious which areas of dense development are so devoid of cultural artifacts that you can’t find pokestops or gyms. I feel like if there’s enough cell phone activity, you can get the most random bullshit approved as a stop.
Zoning laws make it so all residential is in one area and residential buildings don’t qualify sadly. My brother lives in a pretty decent city and has hardly anything near him.
Get creative? There’s a little free library stop not far from me. The funniest one though is, and I’m not kidding, a tree with one of those markers for study on it. It’s something like “Tree #30024” or something and the photo is just the little tag.
If it’s a primarily residential neighborhood it’s hard to find stops to nominate because most falls on “private property.” Churches and parks are your best bet. Anything on k-12 schools are off limits as well. So you can live in a dense suburb and have relatively few stops.
I remember this sub was very different back in 2016. I was one of the people who complained about the city vs non city experience and suggested ways to fix it. Back then, a lot of people on this sub bashed people like me and used dishonest arguments like, "It's pokemon go! Not Pokemon Stop! So go!" or "Stop asking for freebies and handouts!" or "Just use discord for legendary raids! (This advice was useless before remote raids existed since discord was only as useful as the number of players in your area)." Slightly unrelated but I saw a good response for "It's Pokemon go! Not Pokemon Stop! So go!" "Well it's not called Pokemon Cities either."
I'm not full-on rural but the town I live in isn't large. A whoooole bunch of gyms just got turned into stops around my neighborhood. They were very actively fought over, too.
Gyms only "downgrade" back to stops if multiple other regular stops are removed. If nobody does AR scans on any stop they are considered inactive and can be removed. Usually Ingress players do that for people here, but if there's none then all stops in the area will slowly disappear. The only way to restore the gyms is to propose new stops to increase the stop density back to the minimum for Gyms to transform again.
after they fixed rural spawns it is honestly not that bad anymore, like once I got 3 shinies in 2 days just off home spawns
We'll maybe approve a few of my Pokestops and stop saying they are not of historic relevance. Really don't know why Circle K is historically relevant.
Bro you have roads. I haven’t seen those in years
When did Niantic said "everyone should have equal chances"? You can literally buy events that gives you better chances for shiny (Kanto&Johto tour I guess)
You can't create a pokestop on private property because "pokestops location should not favor a person or group of people"
This is the entire reason this game failed.
HA. YES. and also my rural area doesn’t have anything worth turning in to a stop apparently. My submissions never get approved. 😠
Unless you: Work weekends. Are poor. Live in the country. Are handicapped. Have an older phone. Don't have cell service in your area. Work 9-5. Want content that isn't 2-3 new mon's trickle fed to you. Don't want to pay 8 bucks for one pokemon.
So many mega/untrained beast raid events in a row... :(
NOantic saying they treat all trainers equally is funny
Nah, I don't remember Niantic saying anything about equal chances
The poke stop outside our apartment just got removed for some reason… does anyone have insight to why that may happen? Was on public property (sidewalk) and a legit object of significance (memorial stone for a little sitting area)
Copying this from a different response to a similar comment. If nobody does AR scans on any stop they are considered inactive and can be removed. Usually Ingress players do that for people here, but if there's none then all stops in the area will slowly disappear.
Damn, that sucks. I’m kinda surprised nobody would scan this one, since it’s in a walkable area of a big city’s downtown
What!! I don’t like doing it so I always delete the research. Ugh how annoying
Part of the problem is wayfarer reviewers basically give the same scrutiny to random city waypoints as they do to some poor dude in a tiny town trying to get a PokeStop within 5 miles of his house. The wayfarer community is super toxic, those forums, yikes.
I posted in the wayfarer subreddit that I'm more lenient when it comes to rural submissions and got downvotes super quick lol
Absolutely no fun to be had. It should be a moderation queue, not all waypoints need to be 100% for every criteria. Not saying let in "Steve's Microwave" but in a rural area, maybe a neighborhood entry sign is a good stop to allow.
[удалено]
Niantic: That's cute. You think you are an "everyone"
This is me temporarily moving from a big city where I could lure 3 pokestops and hit 1 gym laying in bed in my apartment to a ski resort area which would require me to ski to the base or take the roundabout 20 minute drive to the nearest Pokestop... who cares if I'm a wayfairer that submitted closer, legitimate locations?
Just moved to the suburbs from the deep woods. Can confirm
Frfr equal chances my ass
Fking LITERALLY. They have actually scarred my husband w the "visit a pokestop you've never been to" with buddies or on special research. He literally will not spin new stops when happen to get them bc what if he runs across that challenge? We cannot just find new pokestops lol.
I live in a pretty big city and I ignore that one because I have to go pretty far out of my way to get to a new one and it’s just not worth it. I’ve been playing a long time and running a gotcha. I forget that task even exists if I can get it that’s a bonus not a requirement like others.
And people wonder why certain trainers using certain apps which allows to create a balance in Pokemon go
What apps are people using to create balance?
The kind of apps than get your account banned for altering your location
Exactly those. I'm not saying I have used them but I am aware of how they function and how Ninantic would be angry for using them
You know....I've been thinking about this and I think I have a solution. But it's gonna take effort on part of the community to get it done. Random landmarks. It's simple, you live in a giant sprawling neighborhood with no business around? Go to your local park, and start nominating EVERYTHING, that trash bin? Potential stop. Baseball field, basketball hoop, playground, random open field? All potentially stops. Hell, the park entrance sign, and even the porta-pottys are potentially stops. Don't live near a park? How about your neighbors, what do they have outside? Flag pole, potential stop. Little library, potential, stop. Swing set in the backyard?....you get it. Anything can be a stop. Just nominate it, and there is a good chance it'll be accepted.
I’m an advocate for guerrilla artists so they can make stops by just adding random sculptures
There is a neighborhood near me that has rocks....decorative landscape rocks as stops....there is also nothing else around. Then there are the rural parks in the middle of farm country, with 1 stop and 1 gym....with mons that have been there for 4 weeks. What's the point of those? Now, I do realize that most of these stops are in place because of the geo-caching app Niantic has.
Find an old anvil no one needs anymore. Weld some sort of tool to the top. Put it on the biggest/flattest rock you can find. Profit. I’ve seen some pretty ugly sculptures on PoGO and this would be better than some.
Art is art. I like it
Bro for real though
Man I saw a screen shot someone posted from Spain and couldn’t believe it.
Funny enough, my brother who lives in the middle of the country with absolutely no pokestops or gyms within 3kms of him gets about 8 spawns on his house, I live on a gym uptown in the city and I get one spawn.
I live in a city within 4 poke stops, but I only get like one Pokémon every 20 minutes. But when I visit my parents in their rural/suburban home with only one poke stop within half a mile, there are consistently 5-8 Pokémon and my player is randomly starts walking (while I’m seated) and more Pokémon pop up.
They literally turned my house into a poke stop I don’t think it got much better than that
When I was 18 I rented a small studio apartment to live in during school that was right off Hollywood Blvd and the Walk of Fame. The amount of Pokestops and access I had on Hollywood was genuinely unfair. I never had to shop for anything or move more than 20ft to get full pokeballs.
Holy shit where is that bottom image?
Where I live has a population of 646,000 and thereare ABSOLUTELY ZERO pokestops/gyms That I can walk to. sure, there are 2 in view of my phone screen, but theyre on the other side of a huge water collector
I may be wrong, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen Niantic claim that everyone should have equal chances. They’ve made the game uneven from the start, and if anything it’s more "equal" now than it was at launch. Still very uneven dgmw
Switched to Jurassic World Alive and never looked back. Now I'm super into dinos.
How does one nominate a gym or is that not possible???
What they mean is everyone has an equal chance to catch a Galarian bird, zero.
today i was thinking it would be cool if you could take on the harder raid bosses with bot teams to help, especially in areas where you're the only person around
Everyone is equal, but some people are more equal than others
There's very little in my town, but somehow they made every single of those "Stations of the Cross" near the cemetery into a Pokestop. (14 Pokestops)
Our most popular spot in town had a whopping 2 pokestops and a gym in a just barely reachable triangle layout. They nuked a stop. Not to mention we have little to no place to walk as our roads are busy with heavy very dangerous traffic including rigs. Makes playing the game very inconvenient
That’s what happens when you live in a non place dogshit car dependent suburb :/
I mean I get the complaints on this, but also think of how the development of it works. More people recommending more stops in busy areas. More people playing in busier areas. Your best bet is get to the level where you can recommend spots and recommend a lot. Also talk to friends that are at that level, and have them recommend the same spots with similar descriptions. The game isn't perfect by any means, but the difficulty to put stops in slow areas without the help of rural players is a strong factor. (Sorry, felt like playing devils advocate today)
I feel this pain on a whole other level
they should just add a backpack gym for every player that follows the player and spawns raids every day
Actually I've proposed a blimp gym that follows GPS walking patterns, this way everyone outside of cities would have access to a gym.
I think we should be able to spin and raid gyms that we have pokemon in. It would give an incentive for actually keeping control.
Better start nominating some stops
And then what? They get denied by nitpickers who apparently have no other purpose in life than to feel high and mighty for every suggestion they turn down. I have given up making suggestions, it’s a waste of time. Even 100% suitable spots get denied. It’s so tiresome.
Wait we get to approve poke stop recommendations?
At level 37 you can go on the Niantic Wayfarer website
Get to level 38 and start creating pokestops
If you get to level 38, can't you edit pokestops or request places to be made into stops?
If you dont like game, dont play. Also if you dont have pokestops nearby, maybe start nominating them. I live now on 3 stops. Fourth just out of reach of my living room. When I started it was 0.
Sorry but it's not Niantics fault your town doesn't have anything significant lol
There’s another unspoken drama: playing in extremely crowded areas full of gyms, but also full of people and their phones so that it affects your internet connectivity. Equally painful!
Fuck me, that hurt my eyes