The ammount of POI (Points Of Interest. Pokestops. Waypoints or whatever you wanna call them) in a certain S2 cell… Im not sure why youre asking that… Did you read the article you linked?
1 POI per level 17 cell
every 2nd, 6th and 20th POI becomes a gym.
Those rules.
The community discovered these rules by research, but Niantic made them.
Im not even sure what the reason for this post was. You submitted POI, they got accepted as they probably were good POI but they dont show up in PoGO because they are to close to other POI… Per the rules in the article you yourself linked.
as @Necrozmadabest said, 3 games use the same system but with different rules is just because the difference in power for a POI.
The amazing 4 stops on one spot (quadlures as i call them) are seriously overpowered locations. Even more stops are super rare (i know a 5-stop spot in Nijmegen, which is 45 min away from me) and can be gamebreaking IMO. Just watch the video from Brandon Tan where he can reach a freaking dozen stops at the same spot:
Imagine living there and just go there every day? Gief sponsored stuff here 2!
Using the S2 cell system, all Niantic can do is change the cells used for generating stops by just 1, from L17 to L18, and it would completely break the game. So there is nothing they can do, or they need to use an entirely other system then S2 cells.
Hence me saying: the rules makes total sense.
Well, the place in his video isnt supposed to exsist. If you look it up youll see that there are 7 POI in the same level 18 cell. Then 5, 2 and 2 more in the ones next to it. So if you would remove those extras and convert to level 18 you would be left with 4, maybe 5 POI you can reach from 1 point. Change it to a level 17 and its just gonna be 2 or 4, depending on where the border is.
So i dont think it would break the game. For that to check you need to find a region that actually has 1 POI per level 18 cell. Not this overkill monstrosity
I do understand the OP’s frustration, but I also understand the POI rules and why they are in action.
This is only one of many flaws though…
How often have I seen duplicate nominations on Wayfarer, just because Niantic does not make their database accessible somehow.
Pokémon GO players resubmit stuff that has been in Ingress for years (and will never get into PoGO due to the S2 cell stuff). But how are they supposed to know that this POI is already in there?
They could make an Ingress account and use the intel map, sure. This is how I do it and many others I know that take Pokéstop submissions super-seriously.
But even this does not show us ALL POIs in the system! I have had totally eligible submission being accepted that never appeared in ANY of the games, because they were too close to others, even if they were in a totally unoccupied S2 cell.
But they were accepted, they are in the database, and nobody except for the reviewers (when checking for duplicates) will ever see them again.
Once, one of these POIs is in the system it cannot be edited. I can’t be moved, it can’t be named, whatever, because no one can access it any more.
And anybody who tries to submit it again, because “it’s not in there!” will get it rejected as duplicate.
Do they show up in the review screen even when they are not even live in Ingress? I dont think so right? Ive re-submitted something 3 times cause it kept getting approved but it didnt show up in the games cause it was to close to another POI (different level 17 cell though), but it never got rejected for duplicate.
I must admit part of this was more of speculation. My thinking was that when it’s accepted it’s added to the database, no matter what game it gets added to (read: no matter if it ever shows up in any game), just because “accepted is accepted”.
But I might try re-submitting a chapel that I once submitted and that got accepted right away. It never showed up in Ingress, probably because it’s too close to another church (which is a gym in PoGo).
The POI itself is a no-brainer to review: a chapel, well visible on Google maps and it even has it’s name shown on the map. Someone (not me) even submitted a photosphere where it can be seen (the submission was made for the mentioned church).
The only reason this could get rejected is because it’s duplicate. If it’s accepted again, you are right. Not sure when I’ll find time for this, but I’ll try. Maybe I can move it a bit so that this time it would at least end up in the games…
Anyway… a Wayfarer map, which is accessible for all those who can submit POIs, would be a nice thing to have.
They are not rules, it is information that someone has found out and shared with others.
Niantic talks about the proximity of the stops, but it’s a lie. Now I know that 4 stops can be very close if each one is in the nearest corner.
I spent MY time asking for stops, Niantic responding that they were approved and I seeing that they did not appear. Again and again.
I spent MY time reviewing stops at Wayfarer I seeing that they did not appear. Again and again.
I finally asked Ingress players and they told me it was about the cells. Cells? I searched and I found the information in the Pokémon GO Hub article.
I feel cheated.
Easier than a map would be that when we submit the stop, Niantic add the S2 cells on the displayed map, and warning us when we ask for a stop in a cell that already has a stop.
But above all, that Niantic explains well how the request for stops works with S2 cells and stop wasting our time. At the end of the day we are doing free work: without the players there would be no stops or gyms.
Niantic doesnt share those rules the same way Niantic doesnt share anything about backend information. The community discovered these rule by trial and error. But Niantic made them.
Call it whatever you want. Rules, information or whatever. This is how it is. This is how it works. S2 cell information has been arround waaaaaaaaaaay longer than wayfarer.
You wanna rant about how Niantic suck at giving instructions and makes a stupid game mechanic doomed to fail and cause confusion because of different conditions for different games, then just say that. Your entire post is as confusing as their own systems.
Before Wayfarer, Pokemon GO players could not submit stops. Did the information about S2 cells exist? Yes, but many Pokemon GO players, including me, did not know or care.
Just as Niantic ended up adding appraisal system for pokemon, I hope it ends up putting the information of the S2 cells in the game, at least when we submit pokestops.
I absolutely second this recommendation - it makes successful submitting so much easier. I have gained our small city 18 stops so far (more than doubled the original number) and turned some into gyms by this. And according to the free S2 cells there’s still quite some potential…
It does not help with POIs too close to others though, or at least I have not yet found out how
the pogo s2 cells plug-in also has the option to draw a 20 metre radius around existing POI so that you can see if it’s too close, however, rather than ignoring it, move it, POI are often still accepted when the location marked is 10 metres from where it actually is, there are many here that are 40 metres from where they should be.
Right, indeed. I know a PokéStop that is at least 75 metres away from where it should actually be. I tried to move it to the right place multiple times, so that I could add another stop, but the Wayfarers keep rejecting that for some reason.
I wasn’t able to test this with the mentioned chapel, but I had other POIs like this. And just today I got one accepted a second time (I had moved it a bit, and this time it is already added to Ingress and should be ported to the other games some time this evening. )
So thanks @Robdebobrob, this might bring us some more stops when I resubmit those “accepted but never added” POIs
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