"To those people who are "sure" it's a bot or a spoofer."

#PokemonGO: I am part of a very dedicated group of players in Portland, Oregon. We banded together months ago and our group has been growing since then we have I think 12 members now. We are all level 30+ with the average being around 35. We are in constant communication about everything from the Snorlax that popped up down the street, to the Gym that's being attacked across town. Recently one of our members came upon a member from the opposing team and introduced himself. The interaction was going well but then this person admitted to having reported my friend as a bot or spoofer. Obviously as a completely legitimate player that is not what you want to hear from an opposing player. It got worse though, he proceeded to pull out a list with the names of every player in our group and he said that him and his friends have all been reporting these names as bots/spoofers. Not one player on our team is a bot or spoofer so we were all very upset to hear about this incident. It's obvious to me that people are jumping to conclusions about spoofers far to quickly. People then ask there friends and reach out on social media for help with reporting these "spoofers" because they are ruining the game. If you legitimately think someone is a spoofer then report them. But never ask for other people to report and never report because someone asks you to. Often times the reporting process is being abused for competitive reasons. I have confidence that Niantic is not going to ban legitimate players and I am not worried for our group, but I don't want to be considered a bot by my competitors. There are often many places to park or stand in range of a gym that are not obvious. Those are the places I prefer to play from and it's not just me, next time you think it's a spoofer I urge you to look a little bit harder before reporting. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://ift.tt/2kEQpRj