I thought memorial benches get approved most of the time?
Shore5-PGO
Posts: 4 ✭✭
I try my best to take nomination’s serious both when submitting them and reviewing them, but lately it feels like a game of how many rejections people can do. I am so confused why this nomination was rejected. I tried to be respectful to the pastor who’s house can be seen behind the memorial bench but still not really seeing a reason for why it was rejected.
Comments
The eligibility of memorial benches is dependent on who or what is being memorialized. If the individual is a significant member of the community, then the nomination must explain that. But if it is just a random nameplate with no context, then it won't meet the eligibility criteria. And personally, if the memorial doesn't explain why the person is significant, then it isn't doing its job as a memorial.
The specific bench you photographed appears to be one installed as part of a fundraiser where the local park or community sold benches to raise money and therefore isn't a true memorial.
Is it a great place for exploration, exercise or to be social with others? I don’t see that it is. It’s just a bench.
Typically if they are eligible, to be acceptable, they need to be for significant members of the community, and you have to explain that to reviewers.
I can’t see the description or supporting information, but it seems like the right decision at the moment as it doesn’t meet criteria.
There are a lot of memorial benches in the game because they used to be widely eligible. That changed several years ago, and benches in general are ineligible unless they provide some specific value on their own.
I advise against nominating benches at all. There is a narrow band of eligibility in theory, but in practice they all get rejected and you’re just going to get frustrated.
Not for random people. You need the make a case for how the person is locally significant or a historical figure.
Just being dead and having family that are willing to spend money to slap your name on a bench or memorial tree plaque doesn't make that object a POI. If it is merely a bench like thousands of other generic benches to everyone other than personal friends and family of the person named on the memorial, it doesn't meet criteria.
Memorial Benches are no longer thought of as acceptible under the criteria.
I've argued before and I'll argue again a memorial bench on a trail should be accepted. @NianticGiffard just wrote in other thread this checklist
a) A marker with the trail name on the trail <- Excellent (Correct)
b) A marker with the trail name on a street <- Good (Correct)
c) A marker with no trail name on the trail <- Good (Correct)
d) A marker with no trail name on an open green space area <- Good enough (Correct)
e) A marker with no trail name on the street <- Not Good (Correct)
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The idea Niantic has stated is trail markers encourage being waypoints encourage continuing down the trail so explore/exercise worthy. I'd argue that a generic memorial bench is more unique then just a Yellow Arrow or a Metal Sign that just says "Bike Trail" (C) and that on a trail memorial benches serve the same function as eligible trail marker: IE: encouraging people to exercise down the trail. Especially since these type of benches on trails are often part of a "Rest Stop" so they even hit the gather mode as hikers often do stop for a break or to talk to another.
Long story short, a memorial bench along a street or by a business are going to get 1*, you might be able to edge some through if you can make the case to your local reviewers that they encourage Explore/Exercise/Gather by being a part of something else like a Trail or scenic view. In essence the memorial bench just being an anchor point for a wayspot that really is about something else that's more worthy. Such as when a Church Sign is used for the Church.
If something is a Wayspot, it encourages exercise and exploration, therefore is eligible? That is extremely bad chicken and egg logic and one that I'm not going to go along with. That same logic can be applied to street lights, telephone poles, dog waste stations, or other random objects along a sidewalk. The object must intrinsically be a great place to excursion or to explore on its own regardless of whether it is a Wayspot or not to be eligible.
There was a post by someone from Niantic earlier this year that benches (not memorial specifically, but the same logic would apply) on hiking trails are acceptable because they encourage moving down the trail. I'll see if I can find it to link when I have more time.
No sir.... you either misunderstood accidently or purposefully.
I said potential waypoints ON TRAILS... not anywhere else. This wasn't my logic either FYI, this was Niantics logic on why generic metal trail markers are eligible ON TRAILS even though they are mass produced.
Being on trail, is exercise/explore. As such, other anchor points like Memorial Benches should be just as good for that purpose as Trail Markers.
So the memorial bench wouldn't be eligible inherently, but it would serve as pin/location for the trail it's on. Much same was a church sign isn't inherently eligible but can serve as a waypoint for the church which is eligible.
Am I misremembering but wasn’t there also something about a bench being a proxy for the view?
I don't think there was anything specific from Niantic. There was a nomination in nomination improvement that had this same debate. With some saying "No 1* its just a bench" and others saying I'd vote for it.
While I would tend to agree that a bench is a better representative of a trail than a termite-infested marker with a stripe of paint across it like half the trail markers that come across my review screen, I don’t think that redirecting the conversation is helpful to the OP, who didn’t understand the criteria.
So, to be clear, irrespective of the personal wishes of one or more commenters in this thread, memorial benches, broadly speaking, do not meet current criteria and are almost always rejected.
@X0bai-PGO yeah but this is criteria clarifications forum not nomination improvement. So point of replies is to try and convince the larger community and/or get Niantic to weigh in.
Generally + Currently, you are mostly correct. Sometimes though you can get a memorial bench through review by naming it as part trail/scenic view you are using it as a pin for and explaining that in your description/extra info. The odds are still small... at best 10%-25% chance of acceptance, but that's still better than 0% that the generic "Memorial Bench to the John Smith and Jane doe" and will largely depend on if you can convince your local community.
As a side note: I'd never use an upgrade on one I think, your only chance is local reviewers who would be familiar with the view/trail and how your local community does signs. Like here in Michigan we have a 50+ mile long trail system that doesn't use markers. But will have these type of bench/rest stops
I had a bench along a trail rejected that was a memorial to two people who wrote books together about walking trails in the area, including the trail it was on. The submission had links to their books for sale.
It's currently on the appeal list but im confident it will go through