Q43: Is there a reason why only gravestones of people that have historic or cultural value are considered good POIs, while visually interesting/artistic ones are not?
A43: By some estimates, there have been 113 billion people have lived on earth. Almost 80% of those people were born after 1750. There are a lot of potential gravestones, memorials, crypts, etc. that could be Portals if we allowed them. In addition, there are differing cultural viewpoints on what is an acceptable activity to engage in at a place of remembrance like a cemetery or memorial gardens, or place of remembrance. These differences can exist across race, religions, nationality, location, etc. It would be very difficult to establish a generic global rule.
However, what does seem to be a cultural norm across all of these diverse groups is the celebration and memorialization of persons who are of historic or cultural significance. These memorials are almost always intended, and in fact encourage, the public to visit, interact, and learn about the person being memorialized. This is why we have chosen to limit the guidelines to notable culturally significant or historically significant persons as it relates to gravestones specifically.
Q24: The ingress OPR reviewers guide says to 1-star memorial benches, plaques, and other types of memorials for non-distinct individuals unless in a portal-sparse area. However, the "What makes a high quality pokestop" guide, (Which is the only current non-level locked POI guide publically available) there’s no mentions about the current OPR guidelines about memorials for non-notable members of the community. Under the section about gravestones/cemeteries, it’s says to approve memorials that isn’t a burial area. Is this a sign that Niantic changing it's stance on memorials for POI submissions?
A24: Thanks for flagging this. I’ll see if we can’t get these sort of discrepancies synchronized across products. As a result of this question, NIA OPS is considering making the OPR Help/Action Guide public. It looks like currently, the difference between the two is the OPR guide mentions memorial benches/plaques (with no other historical/cultural significance) whereas the article mentions standalone memorials (for eg. War Memorials that do not contain human remains).