Adding POIs

Back in November 2019 Niantic launched the ability for top-level players to submit POIs which allowed us to submit numerous areas of interest around the town and surrounding villages/towns. 

Pokemon Go in July 2016 (above) compared to June 2020 (right). The extra pokestops/gyms were thanks to the sensory playground, Suir Blueway maps/signs and more recently Franks memorial bench.

To date, I’ve successfully added 170 (green/black) to their system, mostly in Clonmel but also further afield in Kilcash, Ardfinnan, Fethard, Youghal and also a small town in Poland.

Not all submissions get approved, I’ve had 78 rejections (red) for various reasons for example location deemed to be unsafe (poor footpath access), item seen as being temporary (artwork), item not unique like a street sign.

Right now it’s coming to the stage where it’s hard to identify any POI left in town and surrounding areas that could be viable and added to the game, so looking to see if ones could be created in beneficial areas.

In terms of set up, Niantic uses s2 cells which are a number of small grids inside larger grids that covers the whole world. The above is a grid of Clonmel. 

These are s17 cells which can just have 1 POI inside of each grid. Submissions made in areas that already have a POI will not be added to the game.

The left thick yellow line grid is an s14 cell.
The above dots are Pokestops each one being inside their own s17 cell.

• In Pokemon Go, if you have 2 pokestops in an s14 cell it will turn the pokestop into a Gym where you can battle other pokemon.
• If it was to have 6 pokestops one would turn into a gym (making that 2), finally if a larger grid had 19 pokestops it would have 3 gyms. 
• The above image has 35 pokestops, the gyms being (Peter & Pauls Church, Frank Patterson and The ‘98 Man). So over the years you might have noticed people gathering there working together battling on their phones.

The below tweet from over a year ago got me thinking about the possibilities of adding plaques, art installations/murals and other interesting items around the town to make Clonmel one of the first towns in the world to embrace AR and take advantage of the tourism aspect, promote good mental health by encouraging walking and having a good base as AR technology evolves.

I was able to submit both of the above plaques and those were added to the games. If possible it would be great to have more of these produced for other laneways and if possible to be installed at the river end to fill more empty grid spaces.

It would be great to have three of them positioned as per the above photos to fill a grid space.

We’ve already benefited from the above on O’Connell Street. They’re visually very effective/informative.

The following is a recent scan of all POIs currently in the game http://burkie.com/map/clonmel.png

The above are some of the failed submissions that voters (other players) have deemed as not eligible, the manhole due to unsafe access (being too far from a footpath) for example – if this could be switched with one on a footpath it would be valid. The busking mural is seen as being temporary due to the date on it. An allotment is a valid place also but lack signage. So there are a number of existing items that could be slightly altered to avail of a valid entry to the AR games.

• Adding POIs
• Nominations
• Voting

• Aims

  The possibilities and benefits of co-ordinating projects and working to create new POI.

• Return to Wayfarer

  Details about Niantics system for submitting POIs, the voting process and taking advantage of their rules for the best possible outcome.