Niantic Wayfarer, Niantic’s infamous app for reviewing PokéStop (and Ingress Portal) submissions, has launched a new version of the review flow, abandoning the age-old 5-Star rating system in favour of a simpler, “Yes/No/I Don’t Know”, flow.
The change is a fundamental change to how PokéStops will be reviewed in the future, as all of our previous guidance relied on ranking submissions on a 1 through 5 scale. For our readers who haven’t used Wayfarer before, this probably sounds confusing, so here is how Wayfarer looked like before, compared to the new version.
New Wayfarer Review System
Old version, using the 1-5 review system:
New version, using the new simplified system:
These changes are coming as a result of feedback collected over the past few years, with the main goal of simplifying the review process, and making it easier for new reviewers to pick up. The biggest flaws with the previous system were tied to the 5-star rating system, as it was not very clear how to rank things like “safe access”.
For most of us, a thing is either safe, or it isn’t safe to access. It was really not clear what “4/5 Safe Access” meant to Niantic, or other reviewers, in the previous version.
Wayfarer Test is gone, new onboarding experience for all
The review screen is not the only thing that changed tho. Gone is the infamous “Wayfarer Quiz”, which we even wrote a guide on to make it easier for new reviewers, but it seems that Niantic decided to do away with it completely.
There is also a new onboarding flow for everyone, which introduces the system, the goals and the expectations from you as a reviewer. All in all, a nice bundle of changes, the new system will take a bit to get used to, but personally, it is way easier to review now.
Here are all the changes as listed in the official announcement:
- Transitioning to a straightforward “Yes / No / I Don’t Know” option, moving away from the 5-Star Rating System.
- Reframing the “Should this be a Wayspot?” question and others to be more direct and intuitive.
- Eliminating the Quiz, addressing a major hurdle and source of drop-off for new Explorers.
- Launching a new onboarding experience to guide newcomers through the new review flow.
- All Explorers will have the opportunity to go through this regardless of you being new to Wayfarer or not.
- Incorporating new tooltips within the review process to educate, guide, and inform Explorers more effectively.
- Introducing a Report button for simpler reporting of abuse and cheating.
