I have a question: recently, 10 POIs in our small town have disappeared. The vast majority of these were drinking water fountains and murals/graffiti.
It is true that a couple of the graffiti pieces no longer exist, so I have no issue with those being removed; in fact, new stops—which actually exist in the real world—have appeared in their place.
However, that is not the case for many others, which have simply vanished…
I would like to know if this is the work of another player or some kind of automated process.
As I mentioned, many of these POIs still exist in reality, yet they have been deleted… Would it be a good idea to submit them again?
Your English is fine. You can also write in your preferred language, as there is an auto-translate function below posts.
Wayspots are removed for two reasons
a wayfarer has made a removal report and Scopely Explore agree with this
a property owner has requested removal
It would help if you could show the location, otherwise it is hard for the community to advise in this case. Has everything been removed or just some things?
Of the photos you posted, the first one might be on the wall of a single-family residence but could otherwise be eligible; the second one looks just like graffiti which Scopely Explore would remove if reported.
Any wayfarer anywhere can report wayspots for removal using the map, so this has increased the chance of an area being cleaned up of its ineligible wayspots, even if they have been there for years.
Both of the photos shown have artistic merit (in my opinion), they are not just a graffiti tag, so I would be slightly surprised it they had been removed without evidence that they were vandalism.
This makes me think that either there are questions about safe access (we see a lot of graffiti directly adjacent to roads, and even if they are quiet roads, that is not acceptable), or as Salix said, they are on the exterior wall of a family home, which again is considered unacceptable.
It is never a good idea to resubmit a Wayspot that has been deleted. Either the property owner has blocked the wayspots and yours won’t go live either, or the team has decided that the wayspot met removal criteria, which may lead to them considering it to be abuse if you resubmit.
If you think one has been removed in error, you can make a request for reinstatement in Wayspot Appeals
Here is a clarification with examples of acceptable street art versus vandalism.
Kinda lost why they got deleted… All group is mad about it, we have soon the big event of the year on Pokemon go… And they are scared of lose all POI or most of it…
These are good graffiti, but are definitely graffiti and not murals. The threshold for allowing graffiti to be a wayspot is very high. I have seen graffiti remain as murals after Scopely Explore intervention, but it is rare. I don’t think these meet that threshold so removal would be expected if they were reported.
The water fountains are something which Scopely Explore consistently view as not-eligible, so again removal would be expected if they were reported.
If you want assistance finding potentially eligible things, people are often willing to hunt around on the maps.
Do you think this is more likely the work of an individual rather than an automated process?
We’ve lost 90% of our POIs that were fountains (many were similar to the ones attached previously), and while we still have plenty of murals/graffiti, we’re worried they might be deleted in the coming hours… In less than two days, we’ve lost over 10 POIs.
How do we do about appealing the deleted POIs? What do I need? We’d like to try to get them restored (for those that still exist in the real world). Or do you think it would be easier to just submit them again?
Don’t resubmit something which Scopely Explore have removed - this could be seen as abuse. You need to get a response from Scopely Explore first. If you don’t get one, then they are standing by the removal and resubmission is out of the question.
There is no automated process for removing wayspots. Removal is either due to a report from wayfarer or a property owner.
Hello @Blackgoat95
As @cyndiepooh said you can appeal in the appeals section of the forum. Wayspot Appeals
Drinking water fountains are highly unlikely to be restored as they should not have been approved.
For the graffiti/street art a series of geo tagged photos to show clearly they exist at a specific location. There should also be evidence that they are not vandalism.
You can link to this topic.
And staff will review each and reach a decision.
Fountains are usually just infrastructure that should not have been accepted. They are normally removed when noticed. And if someone sees one on the nearby, it makes sense they would look for more.
Added the usually because there could be exceptions for historic or artistic reasons, but that would be case by case.
