Best Of

Please do not spread your own ideas and suppositions about what could get Wayfinders in this way.
The Wayfarer Team have been clear that if you submit genuine official trail markers correctly, and review correctly you are not committing abuse and therefore not subject to sanctions under the abuse ladder.
If you do something as a wayfinder that can be considered low quality then you might get an “Educational email”. For example if you @XK150-ING consistently whilst reviewing answer one of the top 4 questions 👎 wrongly in order to register a reject, then you risk receiving an “educational email”

You refer to “low effort trailmarkers”. This is a very unhelpful conjunction of phrases. A wayfinder may put low effort into presenting a nomination- that is something we would say for any nomination is not recommended as wayfinders should always try to present a good case. However none of the questions in the review flow ask directly if the submitter has put in low effort. You might find the photo, title or description poor or inaccurate but it really has to be a very poor photo and an inaccurate description to warrant a 👎 a mediocre one will warrant a IDK.

I thought it was important to cross reference to the post that the forum is closing as I suspect a large section of users arrive here simple to use the admin function of submitting an appeal and don't necessarily look around.

there's no probably about it - trails are great places to exercise according to both Niantic and most reviewers:

The trail markers are placeholders for the trail because Niantic want a physical object:

I think you are wrong on every level, even up to the point where i think your contributions here are in the wrong place.

If the object is on private (single family residential) property, it should not be approved per rejection criteria.

Now, should existing wayspots on private residential property be reported, and what evidence niantic will want to actually remove them - that's more complex question.

I'd like to add two more:

• EDIT results emails should resume including the text that you suggested. They used to, but it was removed when all the other email bugs were introduced. (What a waste of time, to make us go back and find our submission email to see what has been accepted/declined. Sometimes it was years prior. Not everyone keeps their emails.)
• ACCEPTANCE emails should resume checking inclusion rules of whatever game it was nominated through. It'd just require Lightship to ping the game, and the games to send back one yes/no. Then the acceptance email could include some constant phrase, like: "The game where you nominated this Wayspot has declined to include it because of its proximity to an existing wayspot. However, you might find your contribution in other Niantic games: <link to a list of all Niantic games>"

My last "too close" email was received April, 2019:

Hello,

I am looking to share my feedback to Niantic in the hopes this appeal result can be overturned, as recommended in the November 2023 AMA.

The nomination in question is the historic Stratford Shoal Lighthouse. It is located on a small island in the middle of the Long Island Sound. Built in 1877, it remains an important nautical landmark and promotes exploration today. The year "1877" is embedded in the stonework on the side of the lighthouse tower.

It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990, shown at the link below.

https://catalog.archives.gov/id/132353507

The lighthouse has an entry in Google Maps (albeit slightly misplaced): https://maps.app.goo.gl/f163A7BsrMxxwQvy6

It shows other images of this nearly 150-year-old lighthouse that several other adventurous explorers have taken personally.

Since Google Maps satellite imagery does not capture this small island in the water, the location of the lighthouse can be verified using the NRHP document that shows 41° 03' 36.0" N, 73° 06' 06.0" W, which is 41.060000, -73.101667. This is only a few feet away from my proposed nomination location at 41.060031,-73.101692. The whole island is probably 150-200 feet across too.

My supporting image shows that the lighthouse can be directly accessed by pedestrian via a boat or kayak since a pedestrian platform with a railing takes a visitor from the shoreline to structure. The railing completely encircles the lighthouse.

https://www.lighthousefriends.com/light.asp?ID=792

Additional images showing the full extent of the lighthouse and island, from the link above:

Wikipedia entry for this lighthouse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratford_Shoal_Light

Now I'd like to discuss what NianticCasey said once when this topic came up. "A lighthouse on a small island that is only accessible by boat / ferry would be eligible if there's a public dock or some other way for players to approach on foot once they've docked." - NianticCasey

Lighthouse nominations, such as this one, promote exploration and help explorers discover interesting real-world locations in accordance with Niantic mission. Below are some other interesting examples of similar lighthouses I found:

• Execution Rocks Lighthouse (40.878059,-73.737604) -- Great name!
• Stepping Stones Lighthouse (40.824293,-73.774773)
• Greens Ledge Lighthouse (41.041623,-73.443892)
• Pecks Ledge Light (41.077337,-73.369835)
• Penfield Reef Lighthouse (41.117114,-73.222105)
• Falkner Island Lighthouse (41.212683,-72.653849)

All of the wayspots above are found in the Long Island Sound. The threshold for safe pedestrian access is the following according to Niantic: "Remote nominations, such as those on mountain tops or on small islands, are acceptable if they can safely be accessed on foot." Without an adjustment to my appeal, I do not foresee the community of explorers or another Niantic reviewer to accept this valid nomination in the future.

Thank you for your time.