Candidate Portal Criteria

In general, candidate Portals must be safe and accessible to the public. Candidate Portals should allow for reasonable Portal density – please avoid submitting Portals that overlap, touch or are duplicates of existing Portals.

Examples of high-quality submissions that may be accepted:

• Art (i.e., statues, outdoor murals, unique building features, fountains, artistic graffiti, etc.)
• Unique architecture and special outdoor buildings
• Unique local businesses (i.e., a one-of-a-kind, local shop)
• Historic buildings and landmarks
• Transit stations
• Public libraries
• Public places of worship
• Water towers
• Entrance signs for campgrounds, national forests, metropolitan parks, state parks and recreational parks’

Examples of submissions that may not be accepted if they lack architectural or historical significance:

• Bridges, tunnels and dams
• Fire departments, hospitals and police stations

Example types of submission candidates that are usually rejected:

• Temporary or seasonal art installations
• General nature shots
• Natural features (i.e., creeks, lakes, hills)
• Portals on school campuses (preschool through 12th grade) that are not accessible from the public sidewalk.
• Portal photos that contain people, toys (e.g., smurf or Android figurines) or other personally identifiable objects, even if the actual Portal meets all other criteria
• Portal photos that contain unobscured license plates, even if the actual Portal meets all other criteria
• Guidelines for Portal titles

1. Titles may be submitted in any language
2. Where there is no “official” title for the Portal (i.e., fountains and statues without names), we welcome creative titles to distinguish the candidate Portal from other similar Portals
3. Please do not include real names, codenames, faction or group names in titles
4. Please do not include HTML in Portal titles

Note: We cannot accept title or description edits for historical markers. Please direct these edits to hmdb.org
Guidelines for Portal descriptions

The “Description” field on candidate Portal submissions may be used to populate the More info >> link from the Portal details page on your Scanner.
While not required, if you choose to enter a description for your candidate Portal, please include detailed information that other players might find interesting about the Portal; for example, interesting facts about the art or building, historical significance, etc. You can also use the description to tell why the Portal is unique, historical or significant.
Descriptions may be submitted in any language.
Please do not include HTML in Portal descriptions.
Please keep our Terms of Service in mind when providing descriptions.