Is there any way I can make one of my PokéStops become a Gym? I have two more nominations to submit on the same street, but I’d like to know if there’s anything I can do to make one of them turn into a Gym, since so far I only have PokéStops. I understand how the S2 cell system works and know there are empty cells, but I was wondering if there’s anything I can do to influence or force one of my PokéStops to become a Gym.
Yes there is but doing so can be considered abuse and lead to a ban.
There may be.
Staff have said that the gym selection system is now random (or at least implied that that is the case), and a number of us have noticed the selection not adhering to the previously understood logic although there may just be layers to the logic.
Ultimately, you should just let ‘nature’ take its course.
There’s no officially approved means, so best thing to do is complain to the admins about the policy and tell them to give us one.
Whenever I see this I always ask for an example yet got none so far.
I have three personal cases where a brand new sub became the gym while others ‘should’ have done so. I had no reason to document them at the time and it’s too late now, so I have no evidence, but I’m keeping a slightly closer eye on it now.
I’ll let you know if I see it happen again and take screenshots this time!
That is, assuming staff don’t consider showing that the system has random element is ‘research’ 
If you remember which one “should” have, can you check Tuesday to see if it is a Showcase stop? Those won’t become gyms.
I truly hope that we can confirm gym selection is random now. It would stop so much abuse. And I wouldn’t feel conflicted about what to say when people ask this question.
Too far away in all three cases, but I’m sure one of them was not. I will double check next time I’m out that way though.
I have started to keep a spreadsheet when I nominate something that should trigger a Gym promotion.
Problem is that I am not a big number nominator so the 1st time 1 has triggered since keeping notes it was the “as expected” wayspot.
Pre note taking I did take “mental notes” and it was not the expected wayspot, there was no Showcase at the time. Strangely the “expected gym” became a Showcase when they did the big change.
In regards to Abuse I don’t see this as any different to the cells. Scopely do not acknowledge them and they can be used Abusively by mis-placing nominations. If you don’t do anything to “manipulate” the result I see no problem in pre-checking gym promotion, even if I decide to vote correctly and this alters the outcome it is not Abuse.
I am trying not to say too much about how it can / could be manipulated as that is Abuse and should be punished.
I personally observed 6 third-gym promotions in the past 4 months going as expected, one of which was in the last week. That’s 1/17^6, or 1 in 24 millions if the choice were random.
Not saying you or anyone citing a counterexample is lying, but we humans can make silly mistakes. The system isn’t exactly the simplest. Did we forget to add the likes from the second photo? Misclicking a nearby stop in another L14 cell? Showcase stops? Delayed sync?
Once in a while we even get bizarre misleading cases like this: Photo Appeal: Wrongful deletion of an existing Wayspot photo due to false mass-reporting - #25 by doomzdays
Or an unknown niche factor could be responsible for the rare counterexamples that people are citing. Seems unlikely though.
Thank you for the data. I remain unconvinced that the process truly is random now.
Sorry I meant to reply to @00witsd but misclicked. Like I said human errors lol
I’m not sure if it’s a showcase stop, but in my opinion, if anything should have been a gym, it’s Delicate Arch (38.743683, -109.499381).
However, the big hole in the ground next to the arch was nominated as a Wayspot, and was accepted, and that became the gym. (As an aside, would this be considered an unsafe Wayspot? People have died by falling into it before.) Delicate Arch definitely has more photos and votes than the newer Wayspot.
(Also, another question: The description on Delicate Arch’s Wayspot appears to have been copied from Wikipedia: Delicate Arch - Wikipedia . It even includes the incorrect “65-foot-tall” figure. Should this description be reported / removed?)
There wouldn’t be any abuse if they’d just let us choose gym placements manually…
I’m fairly certain there would be just as much if not more. You would have even more people incorrectly reporting existing gyms in order to trigger a gym where they wanted it.
or 100% random?
No, some would still try.
People will always want to put gyms in places that are more ideal for larger groups. Some waypoints just won’t be as ideal for this, because not all eligible waypoints are created equal. The wayfarer team might not agree with that, but it’s just cold hard facts that some locations aren’t as ideal for bringing a large group of people.
So, it’s either give the people what they want, or some of them will try to brute force a method to get it. Better to do the former so people don’t have incentive to break the rules. Then there’s less abuse to deal with, those that would have followed the rules regardless get a better system, and everyone wins.
It’s so baffling to me that higher ups seem to prefer keeping the rules as is, even if it actively encourages rule breaking. It just doesn’t make any sense.
Not the people I’ve seen. I’m sure it varies by area, but the vast majority of Wayfarer abusers we see being caught here are manipulating the map for their own personal gain, not the good of the community.
They are usually reporting gyms elsewhere and trying to get them to spawn in their own back garden.
All the more reason to let the community decide, they have the local knowledge needed to spot stuff like that much more easily. Just need to have reasonable safeguards against people that make tons of alt accounts. But that’s something that’d be beneficial to have anyway.
The selection of what becomes a stop or a gym is not a wayfarer issue.
A driver for many wayfinders is about creating wayspots to appear in the game, but we have to recognise that once we have made a wayspot what happens next is outside of wayfarer.
I understand the frustration of a communication line to the Pokemon Go Team, however the conversation here will not go anywhere. It is fine that you have aired that frustration.
I think all that needs to be said about this topic has already been said.