For nearly a month, the Pokémon GO community has been asking Niantic to improve their poor communication skills as an organization and to provide updates on major bugs and issues with the Pokémon GO app. The most prominent was the "3-footprint bug," which crippled one of the defining features of the Pokémon GO experience and led to a rise in third-party alternatives.

Other members of the community speculated that Niantic would get better at communicating (and fix the tracking bug). Yesterday, their "fix" was to remove the feature entirely. In true Niantic fashion, this was done with no explanation or alternative.

I'm not sure how much money others have spent on the app, but I've spent enough to feel entitled to a greater level of respect from Niantic toward the Pokémon GO community. I won't apologize for holding Niantic accountable for their insufficient business practices.

Bugs and other issues are to be expected, but there is absolutely no excuse for a continued lack of communication when they've had the "Top Grossing" app in the iOS and Android app stores since release.

The third-party Pokémon tracking apps rose up because of Niantic's lack of commitment to communicating with customers and fixing the in-game tracking features. Niantic is crippling their own company and the game the world has given them so much respect for creating.

There are consequences for poor business practices. The Pokémon GO community as a whole would appreciate greater respect and greater dedication to improving the Pokémon GO experience. Without that, Niantic's relationship with us will decline rapidly.

Overall, this is a call for Niantic to stop disrespecting the community (including paying customers) and start taking their role more seriously. I understand that the gargantuan scale of the game's release and popularity makes it difficult to balance resources, but it doesn't take long to have someone compose twitter updates on Niantic's own "@PokemonGoApp" twitter account providing high level status updates every once in a while.

On the issue of the in-game "Nearby" tracking feature, I believe Niantic has made a huge mistake by crippling existing third-party trackers without providing a viable alternative.

Things need to change, or we will GO elsewhere!