"Questions and Answers - How can I create Pokéstops or Gyms? How is the submission/review system? Who can do that? What's a S2 cell? And more."

#PokemonGO: Creating a new pokéstop is something important for the game and players, but is not as intuitive at first sight. This post is meant to describe the system for someone who doesn't know the important details of Pokéstop submissions, and how to request them the best way.The main concern is that not all pokéstops requested will be in the game, even if they are eligible and get approved.This is not new info, but a compilation of important things that were discussed in the past, and are relevant again with the new system.I haven't seen a updated compilation about the topic, so I decided to make one. Feel free to add some references, add more relevant questions/answers or correct any possible mistakes! The intent is to provide a short answer, while allowing a detailed link if the reader wants to. I'll try to keep it updated.Updated as of 18th, January 2019.What are S2 cells? Why are they constantly mentioned?S2 cells are rhomb shapes used to covers areas in the same way always and apply some property on it, there can be many sizes, usually from Level 2(bigger) from level 20(smaller). Pokémon GO uses the S2 for many things ). For example, Pokémon spawn points uses L20 cells, the smallest ones, L17 for creating unique pokéstops or L14 for gym creation. They are very imporant to know how the game works on the backstage, and knowing about it helps players take more precise guesses.What is eligible to become a pokéstop?There are many things that can or cannot. Usually parks, libraries and churchs are good candidates. Higher cultural or educational value helps.Check this official link to see good examples if something is eligible or not and why.Keep in mind that it's never guaranteed if a submission will be approved, that depends on how the reviewers as a whole think about it.Who can request a pokéstop?Currently, level 10+ players from Ingress can make Portal submissions, it's possible that this portal will become a Pokéstop based on the s17 rule if approved. It was the only way to request pokéstops as a player, until the beta pokéstop came.Portals are the equivalent to Pokéstops/gyms on Ingress, but they have a less restrictive criteria to exist, so a pokéstop/gym will always be a portal, but not every portal will be a pokéstop/gym(with a few exceptions).Pokémon GO's pokéstop submission beta started with Korean and Brazilian L40 players. It was later added to players from Mexico, , Thailand, Costa Rica and Chile. It's only available to level 40 players for those regions, and there's no report for lower levels.The beta pokéstop submission was down between 20th of November and 17th January due to some bugs, and now it's back once again. Lvl 40 players from South Korea, Mexico, Thailand, Brazil and Chile are able to make submissions again.What is needed at the moment of submitting a pokéstop/portal?Both submissions are made in game only.Via ingress, you'll need to:Have an eligible Ingress account to the system(see last question)Have access to Scanner Redacted, it's not available yet on Ingress Prime.Take a photo of the candidateAdd a titleAdd a descriptionRecheck the location marker.Via pogo, you'll need to:Have an eligible Pogo account to the system(see last question)Select the location on a map.Take a photo that will be on the photodisk.Take a secondary support photo of the location.Add title and Description.Write additional text to describe why it's a good candidate.Note that it's not immediatly created. It needs to be reviewed to see if it's valid.So, who reviews those submitted pokéstops/portals?Currently, only level 12 or higher Ingress players can review both of then via OPR(a website application).The reviewer does not need to physically check the location, but he/she can use Google's street view. This is a reviewer screen for reviewing a portal.Reviewers can suggest some relevant edit to the submissions, like correcting info. Don't mess with this."In the future, we hope to make the nomination review process available to Pokémon GO players."When will X country get the Pokéstop nomination system?We don't know. Brazil and Korea were first selected because of the high Players per pokéstop ratio and opportunity of development. So they are probably still selecting countries like these.After submitted, how much time does it take to a portal be approved or rejected?There's no time window. That depends on the amount of submissions and the number of active reviewers. It can take about 3 days up to 1 year. Check with a local(10+ level) Ingress player if they have an estimate.How/when is a gym created? Is it based on the amount of pokéstops near it?Yes! The game uses S14 cells to count the amount of pokéstop/gyms needed to create a new gym. The first gym is created when there are 2 pokéstops on the s14 cell, second at 6 pokéstops/gyms and third at 20 pokéstops/gyms. 4th or more is uncertain, apparently only possible by manipulating edits.Remember that it needs to be a pokéstop/gym in PoGo. So it's not a portal count. An alternative way is to count "occupied s17 cells inside the s14 cell".Nice, but which one of the pokéstops will become the Gym? Is it random?It's not random. After some discussion about it, it appears that the pokéstop that will be promoted to gym will be chosen based on the highest photo score on Ingress, the amount of data basically confirms it. That means that yes, a community can manipulate where gyms will be created.What's the limit for submitting pokéstops?Currently the limit is 7 submissions every 14 odays.For Ingress, it's 14 submissions every 13 days.Every submission has it's own cooldown.I submitted a valid pokéstop and it got approved, but it's not in the game, why? What's this s17 rule?This is one of the most important things to start requesting on areas with pokéstops already. Pokémon GO requires that every new pokéstop/gym needs to be created on a empty s17 cell. That means you can have a new pokéstop near 20 meters of an existing one, while other got rejected by being 50 meters of an existing one.It's also possible that it turned into a portal on ingress and not a portal on Pokémon GO. Check the approve e-mail for more details.So not every valid submission will become a pokéstop because of density/proximity. How can I check where is a good place for a submission?Unfortunately there's no easy way to check that. The most complete option is this reddit post tutorial that uses plugins on the Ingress browser map, which shows updated map portals(doesn't show pokéstops/gyms specifically at first). It's possible to get on mobile too.Pogomap has an option to show the cells. It can show pokéstops and gyms, but it needs to be uploaded manually, so it's doesn't use game data and might be wrong.You can also look up s2.sidewalklabs for just the cell distribution, but it doesn't show any pokéstops/gyms, you'll need to remember where they are, and might not be precise enough.For example, this was an actual s17 mapping here. Orange/Green/Blue dots are portals, so the manually added red Xs are areas that can't get a new pokéstop. Apparently it's possible to request a portal for the football field and basketball/tennis courts if they have a matching signage, so someone could submit those.Good luck with your submission, or your journey to be able to request them!Edit: Formating and additions from comments. via /r/TheSilphRoad http://bit.ly/2T1mHnX