How to re-introduce Poke-stop submissions

Greetings trainers,

Table of Contents

1. Pre-amble/explanation
2. Proposal
3. Would this really be all that helpful?
4. Conclusion

1. Pre-amble 

I've been travelling about lately and I've gotten a good bit of perspective regarding the state of Poke-stop diversity in different kinds of communities. I've been in the boonies, I've been in the big city, and I've been in-between. Back when Niantic originally populated Poke-stop submissions (i.e. portals in "Ingress"), they used geo-tagged photos of interesting works of art, culture, and then public buildings like post offices or unique landmarks. This gave them a big base of Poke-stops to work from, and previously Niantic had portal/Poke-stop submission open for Ingress and Pokemon GO. The company shut down portal submissions back in September 2015, and never had the option to submit new Poke-stops in Pokemon GO.

I imagine Niantic has a massive backlog of data about GPS co-ordinates of submitted portals/Poke-stops, and they have more than enough data to filter through already; if they re-opened submissions, I imagine most of the data they would receive would be requests for Poke-stops that are already in their database. Thus, it would be a bit redundant to re-open submissions, and would just increase the strain on human resources figuring out how to best process these requests.

Niantic has said that they wanted to work on a new and more efficient way to process portal submission requests. Given my recent travels, I think the most important thing Niantic could do to re-open submissions would be to allow users to annotate areas in the world that are incredibly sparsely populated by Poke-stops/Gyms. Below is my thought process for how to best make this happen, which hopefully isn't too redundant with what Niantic already has to consider.

2. Proposal

I think the biggest shame in a geo-location game like Ingress or Pokemon GO is to venture to a public park that should be ripe with Poke-stops, only to find it completely deserted. Most parks in the world are already well-annotated, but many places like hiking trails and parks nested within neighbourhoods are totally absent from the game. These are the locations that need the most support, as they would give users in rural locations access to Poke-stops where previously there was no alternative. I'm particularly talking about areas where there's nothing (or only a few Poke-stops) around for miles, but where there is plenty to see and visit.

How I'd go about re-opening Poke-stop submissions is I'd make it far more effort on the user-side to submit a request. I imagine a flood of submissions from folks just taking pictures of random things near their house is inevitable when you open up a system like this, and it's those kinds of submissions that Niantic doesn't want to spend time on. I think Niantic's top priority is to bring the game to regions that don't have it yet, and that's what they need to spend time on re: Poke-stop submissions.

So, what kind of system could you put in place that makes the user actually work for their Poke-stops? I'd make it so that users couldn't submit Poke-stops unless they submitted them as a batch, and that batch all fit within a defined area (e.g. 2 km^2). Here's an idea of the kind of form I'd construct:

1. Cover letter (1 paragraph) explaining why the surrounding area is a unique and under-appreciated location perfect for Ingress/Pokemon GO.
2. A minimum of 5 proposed Poke-stop submissions (picture, GPS co-ordinate, title, description); also, a maximum of 20 proposed Poke-stop submissions.

The idea behind this form is to make it something that only someone dedicated to the cause would bother putting their time into. You could also read the cover letter and immediately decide to either accept or reject their batch of submissions based on their writing ability and demonstration of careful thought. The reason I'd set such a high minimum number of Poke-stops is because it would force the users to have a genuinely remote location ripe with potential.

Now, this system wouldn't actually allow users to submit only one or two Poke-stops in their local neighbourhood park, and that is an issue. I think Niantic is also wary of adding Poke-stops in neighbourhoods, as they don't want to increase traffic to people's property (a common problem associated with the release of Pokemon GO). So while there may be a memorial bench of plaque somewhere in your neighbourhood, I think it's in Niantic's best time-management interest to avoid processing such requests. It would also encourage users to try and find additional Poke-stops in the nearby area that they could submit to make it worth Niantic's time.

What this form would do best is help annotate more remote public parks, like hiking trails and walking paths. There are very often memorial benches/plaques set up on these trails, and occasionally unique landmarks like giant trees or impressively large rocks. If there's a stream nearby, it's likely you could find a bridge to annotate. The important part about this type of request form is an increase in the productivity of the Niantic employee. By only considering batches of e.g. 5 requests, employees could essentially quintuple their efficiency in processing Poke-stops.

3. Niantic is already pretty sophisticated, would this really be all that helpful?

Now, I'm well-aware that there must be an algorithm that pre-sorts requests based on a number of factors (e.g. abundance of requests for the given site, density of Poke-stops in the surrounding area), but the other major advantage of this system is that it pre-filters submissions by encouraging submissions from competent individuals only. Even if there are thousands of requests for a single Poke-stop, someone at Niantic still has to go through those requests at some point and decide on a quality submission to use. By using a batch submission format, Niantic would be able to make a quick judgement on a number of submissions based on the included cover letter, and could then further judge submissions based on their impression of the submission quality of the first couple photos/descriptions. Upon rejection, a simple response form could be generated saying:

"Your submissions have been processed, and unfortunately, we're going to have to say no for now. Here are some of the reasons your submissions may have been rejected:

1. Photo quality is lacking: please try to take clear pictures that highlight the features of the request, in good lighting etc...
2. Inappropriate submission type: seasonal landmarks are not appropriate for Poke-stop submissions. Poke-stops need to be present year-round.
3. etc..."

In the spirit of bringing new Poke-stops to the table, I think Niantic could also specify that any batch submission should not be for an area (again, e.g. 2km^2) where >5 Poke-stops already exist. This would pre-filter for existing Poke-stop density. Niantic could devise an algorithm to generate a circle of best-fit with a 2km radius for the user's Poke-stop submission data, which would pre-filter submissions where Poke-stops are already nearby. This would also encourage users to find Poke-stops that move the center of their circle away from nearby Poke-stops, encouraging Poke-stops in more urban settings to find unique and less-represented locales.

4. Conclusion

One thing is certain: Niantic has been making strides in responding to requests from the user base. While users of course want new features and constant updates to keep the game exciting, one of the best ways to improve the game is to make it available in more locations. Users can only complain about a lack of features etc... if they're actually playing the game.

It seems to me that introducing new Poke-stops and re-introducing Poke-stop submissions should be a top priority for Niantic in making their game(s) more accessible. They have a massive backlog of data from previous submissions to work with, but using a new batch-submission form could be used alongside this data to highlight regions that are not currently annotated. They could then compare their batch submission data to previously existing data if that would be helpful in adding additional unique Poke-stops nearby, or they could just move on with batch submissions separately.

What this batch submission form does best is it highlights areas that Niantic can target that aren't based on user data. There's a bias in using user data to highlight areas that should be included in the game: if there's nothing in the area, folks are less likely to be playing the game. That doesn't mean these locations are bad locations for Pokemon GO. It just means there's no reason for people to be playing Pokemon GO there yet; buddy candy and egg hatching can only go so far, especially for a game that eats up battery as quickly as Pokemon GO.

No matter your priorities, be it recruiting new users or holding onto existing ones, increasing the playable area of the game is of universal benefit to the community, and in-line with the spirit of the game that Niantic encourages: get out and GO!

Cheers,
Let's GO