What was your first rejection, and did you get it accepted later on?
PkmnTrainerJ-ING
Posts: 5,138 Ambassador
My first one was a mural on a council owned storage shed in a local park.
Submitted in October 2018 and it got rejected. As this was pre any reasons being on, and just being told a vague it may be on the Do Not Submit list, or the photo may need improving, I didn’t have much to go on.
Tried another angle in December. Reject again.
Back to the first view but with a better photo in February. Reject again.
Fourth try, at the end of February, adding in details that the council owned it, and doing a photosphere so I can prove it was there and it was finally accepted.
Plenty more other things accepted/rejected in that time between.
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My first rejection was back in late 2019. It was for a memorial picnic table located at my local regional university campus. The table was dedicated to someone who was a respected professor, artist, and former refugee. The table had a series of unique custom tree designs cut into the metal legs, so even without being for a noteworthy member of the campus community, it had its own artistic merits.
The rejection reasons were "orientation" and "other rejection criteria".
I resubmitted it with virtually the same photo and an absolute tonne of links in the supporting info detailing who the professor was, as well as links to a news article about the table, and to the former "Potentially Confusing Nominations" page in Wayfarer Support with some very hand-holdy instructions on how to find the relevant criteria.
It passed the second time, but it definitely had a lasting impact in terms of setting the standard I now keep for most of my submissions when it comes to pre-research and supporting info.
Submitted Feb 12 2013, a cute swine (wow, the forum censors the three-letter word that starts with P) painted on a building near me that also happened to be the logo for a meat smoking company. There weren't many rules back then but I kind of knew it was marginal and didn't resubmit.
Five of my next six were accepted, and the sixth was a coffee shop that someone beat me to so by the time mine was processed it was a duplicate. I score that as sort of an acceptance.
My very first nomination was incorrectly marked as a duplicate (it had a similar name to a nearby wayspot but was an entirely separate structure). That got accepted second time.
As for outright rejection, the first one of those was for an outdoor art project. That took me three attempts to get accepted. The first time I didn't really provide much info about it in the supporting info, so it was pretty much my own fault that it got marked as temporary. The second time I included all the relevant details to prove it wasn't temporary, but it got marked as temporary again, as well as generic business (I don't miss the days of generic business haha). The third time it was accepted.
My first rejection was an archaeological site of a convict hut foundation. Because it was brand new when the development was completed, it was rejected in June 2018 for 'inaccurate location'. A year later in May 2019, I had it accepted due to updated street view, but because someone had blocked it with another nomination nearby for the Heritage Centre, it never went live or added to an invisible database, which was pre-lightship.
Eventually I got the said Convict Hut Foundations approved and went live in game during the period late last year where Ingress nominations didn't follow proximity rules (the 20m era), which was a super glorious time. My second rejected nomination ever however, now that's a stupid story to tell.
My first submission was a badminton court. My first five were rejected because the area I lived in didn't have Streetview coverage. After that, I started adding photospheres for all my nominations and haven't had that problem again.
It's why I'm always trying to get people to make photospheres. First-hand experience with the frustration of mass rejects followed by success due to photospheres.
A dog park at a county park, September 28, 2017. This was before reviewers had any instruction, and they liked to reject things that don't apply to everybody.
Later my spouse submitted it, and it went thru. I'm still a little sore that he didn't wait and let me do it, lol.
Mine was the Pride Flag Pole. It was my very first nomination and it got rejected. I thought it would get accepted because it promoted the LGTB community but it didn't. I never nominated it again.
My first rejected nomination was a local pizzeria with a near-cult following, operating continuously in that spot since 1984, family-owned kinda thing. Later attempts have also been unsuccessful but I still go there nearly every week to get delicious pizza so I do try again every once in a while when the lighting is good and the line is short. I knew it would be a tough sell anyway. :)
My first rejected nomination was an open air market selling everyday goods and fruits. The reason the nomination was rejected at first is because the photo was low quality. The second time it got rejected because of my supporting photo. Then finally, it got accepted the 3rd time because I fixed my photo and description.
My first one was a coal tax post wrongly rejected as a duplicate. Never went back to re-do it but someone else did eventually.
Second one was a pub. Can't see any reason it was rejected (didn't get a reason back then either) but it went through the second time.
Was rolling the dice for a random decision back then too.
I submitted my first 2 on the same day in 2014. One was a sign for our local Allotments, which back in the days of "Ingress only" Portals was a bit of a stretch - it got rejected. Since then, the allotments have moved, they have a new sign and "community gardens" are a thing, so it's in game.
The other one was a sign for our local "Millenium Arboretum". It got accepted. I held that portal for over 6 years........ Good times.
Mine was a free lending library they were listed as something we can submit for pokestop so i was upset when they rejected it. Of course i saw 2-3 of them as pokestop in town so i dod appeal and
wrote how its on the other street we walk to that library wen i cant drive to a public library so my kids and i get motivated for walks more we spin and go home. Unlike a gym and stay at front of someone’s house plus people stand in front of the little library to pick a book anyway so what was the difference by stand to spin and fight a grunt before walking away. Anyway eventually it was approved.
18 November 2018 it was my third submission, a plaque about a footbridge acknowledging the work done by 2 local councillors to protect rights of way. It was difficult as there was no supplementary photo so the first was a close showing plaque. Attempt 2 about a month later (happy days for turn round time) I showed the context so now you couldn’t read the plaque. I licked my wounds for a awhile and submitted 6 months later as I had discovered photosphere and it went through.
My first one submitted which was accepted was part of a project to get a little park in a Pokémon desert turned into an interesting place. The very first one became a gym - I was there to welcome it into the world 🤪
I never could hold any portals for long and it’s offender a sheet of blue. But the PoGo spawns are very good and there is a healthy number of players around the park. I sometimes walk there and remind myself it is worth it.
In my case, you nominated a train station in December 2014, the day after I started the game.
This was a duplication.
My first rejection was for a highway service area building.
In hindsight, this is a convincing rejection.
At this time Niantic had not indicated any eligible specific nominations, so everyone was looking for eligible ones with blinders on.
The first approval was for a mural. Well, I'd say it's a very respectable score.
There were a few unconvincing rejections at the time, but in hindsight, most of them were not on street view.
So I am looking forward to being able to experiment and see if Seer counts up when I am approved on appeal.
I started trying to get two pokestops in the small village my husband comes from. An old common Fishing pier and a navigational sign (I don't know how that should be actually called, not even in Finnish, even less English). A large painted board towards sea (area cleaned in front) that can be used to check where you are exactly --- to help mark the Russian frontier, it's not ON the frontier.
Several times. I went there, spent a few days, submitted. Back home: both rejected. For the sea-sign it was usually "bad photo" (OK I made the mistake of going in the evening and the board faced east). For the pier: "general business" (it is a village pier), "temporary structure" (oh it hasn't been there a 100 years yet), "natural structure" (it is a pier).
Frustrating. It was months between visits, and that village is 6 km away from any point with stops.
Now I tried again (and noticed that system has changed, hopefully for the better, now I at least found this forum). Haven't heard anything yet, but hope for the best
Ah, this is a good story.
Where I work, we have an outdoor park area with a path that teaches people who are new users of wheelchairs how to navigate in difficult terrain. The path looks like curved sidewalk but then sections are missing. In one section, the concrete has been replaced with gravel, another with sand, and the third with ... I don't remember the material but something hard to "push" through.
I thought that was a really interesting thing to make a POI. So I took a photo of the gravel section with the sand section in the background and named it Wheelchair Terrain Training Course. I explained what it was in the supplemental. I thought I was golden.
Then I got a ping from a local friend saying "they're talking about your nomination on the Wayfarer discord." I was not on the Wayfarer discord yet so I joined. Sure enough, they were talking about it in the Coal channel. They thought I had just taken a photo of torn up sidewalk (with the gravel base showing) and made up a story about it. I entered into a discussion with them about it and how it was legit. I was able to convince the people over there that I wasn't lying but obviously it had gone out to more than just those reviewers.
It was rejected.
After all this discussion, I did some research and figured out that we had not built this training course from our own funds. We'd been given a grant to build it. The same organization had given out a few grants for similar training courses around the nation. Well, since it was grant funded, I realized there must be a dedication plaque or sign somewhere for it. In all my years of working there, I'd simply never approached it from the side where the plaque could be seen.
A few months ago I finally took a photo of the plaque for the "park." I submitted it but since it won't give me a new gym in GO, I have not used an upgrade on it. I'm just waiting out the 12 months it will probably take for it to go through as a natural.
Anyway, that submission is what got me connected to the larger WF community. I've since used that discord many times to refine my submissions. I don't care how long you've been doing this, you can always benefit from another (many other) pair of eyes.
Simple story: there was a minimalistic mural on a building which I thought could be a nice Wayspot. Nothing too big, but you would notice it from afar and it added a bit of flair to the place. Did a submission, was not sure about the whole process and naming at all, and then proceeded to be patient. A few months later the rejection came in flying. I was confused, since it was better looking than a lot of the Wayspots I had seen up until then. It was art in the public space. A bit furious I thought to myself "I'll just try it a second time, maybe the wrong people got to vote on the nomination". A few months later, another rejection. At this point I had nominated a few more Wayspots which got accepted, so I was even more confused. It was not that bad of a nomination. So for the first time I asked some other Ingress players what they would think about it. And I received a hint: "It is hard to see the small mural from satellite, so just push the pin 4 meter on top of that one tree. The pin is on top of a tree, so they have to rate it 3 stars". So I did nominate it a third time, the pin on top of a random tree and it got accepted. The wonders of Wayfarer...
You are lucky. In my area the reviewers wrongly assume everything is fake so would 1* something under a tree instead of 3*'ing like they should.