Incorrect Appeal Rejection: "Third Party Photo"
FellowWayfarer-PGO
Posts: 12 ✭✭✭
I recently received a rejection for an appeal where the stated rejection reason is blatantly incorrect, and I would appreciate it if Niantic staff would take a second look at the appeal in question.
The photo used for this nomination is NOT a third-party photo.
I will admit that it is also not a great photo of the nomination, and that the lighting was weird. But the image was not produced by a third party, no filters were used... I am the one that took this photo, for better or for worse.
I can produce additional information, including the original image file from my phone, the supporting photo and the original file for that image as well, etc. as needed.
Honestly, I'm less bothered by the rejection itself than by the stated rejection reason, because said reason is so blatantly false. It makes me wonder how the appeal reviewers supposedly were able to "confirm" that this was a third-party image when... it isn't, and while I'm sure it's boilerplate, the information about third-party photos being a violation of Niantic policy, while accurate in the abstract, could needlessly scare off well-meaning nominators when applied to images that are not third-party in origin such as this one.
Getting this nomination approved would be nice, sure, but more than that, I'm hoping that higher-ups in Niantic staff will take a look at how appeal reviews are working and take steps to ensure that such blatantly incorrect rejection reasons, particularly ones which falsely claim the nomination to be a violation of Niantic policies, do not happen again.
Comments
Hey there,
The decision on this appeal is final and we are unable to review it any further.
Thanks,
Even if appeal decision is "final" (which Niantic has been very inconsistent about), at the very least, could Niantic train reviewers not to use incorrect rejection reasons? I feel like that is the take-home message of the original post of this thread. This is not the first time that Niantic reviewers have "confirmed" that a photo was third party when such a confirmation is impossible because the photo is not third party in the first place.
Or you could just take better photos, problem solved.
how would that solve Niantic incorrectly rejecting it for third-party? I've seen people say that photos that look too good make them suspicious of being third-party because they don't realize that there are some people who submit things who try to make their photos look as good as possible and actually have professional experience. I'm not saying this is an amazing photo, I don't think anyone in this conversation would, but it is one that the OP took themselves.
If the Wayfarer community rejects the photo, the only solution is to take a better one. Leaving complaints here is not only the wrong place, but the community decision is also final, no matter how much you disagree. Why is the thing so greenish anyway?
You seem to be misinformed about several key points here.
The very existence of appeals means community decisions are *not* final.
If the appeal was rejected for being a low-quality photo, I would accept that outcome, and I certainly wouldn't be posting here about it. But it wasn't rejected for being a low-quality photo, it was rejected for being a third-party photo specifically, when it isn't. It's that incorrect rejection reason I'm complaining about here, not the rejection itself.
As for the origin of the greenish tint in the photo, I think I took the photo through a window, and I didn't realize the weird tinting that was caused by it until after the nomination had already been submitted, and it was too late to go back and take better photos for the nomination. In hindsight, maybe I shouldn't have bothered at all, but this was one of my older nominations back when I was a little more lax about photo quality than I try to be these days.
I can actually see how a filter could be used to remove that greenish tint, and wonder if such a filtered photo with more natural-looking coloring would still be flagged as "third-party". I suspect that it wouldn't be, even though such filters are more "third-party" in origin than the picture as taken. I think the appeal reviewers are using "third-party photo" as a rejection reason where they should be using "low quality photo", and that's just not how it should be.
There's a difference between low quality photos and third-party photos, that's what I'm really arguing here. One is a violation of Niantic policies and potentially outright abuse, and the other is just... reason for rejection, sure, but that's it, better luck next time. Conflating the two just seems like it's bound to lead to trouble.
What resolution are you seeking? It clearly is a bad photo with a green filter applied to it and was correctly rejected for it. Niantic has confirmed the community's rejection, though their reasons are different. Niantic isn't going to overturn the rejection at this point.
No filter was applied to it, not by the usual meaning of "filter". It was a window, a physical object that made the lighting weird. No filter, no third-party tools.
I'm not asking for the rejection to be overturned, necessarily, but it would be nice for Niantic to acknowledge that the stated rejection reason as given was incorrect, and ideally I would like to hear that they'll take steps to prevent that same mistake from happening in the future.
This is the sort of mistake that can stop well-meaning Wayfarers from nominating things, getting told that your nomination is against Niantic policies because it wasn't a great photo. I would imagine Niantic would want to prevent such discouragement from continuing to happen.
The issue is that Niantic stated they rejected this as a third-party photo when it is not. Whatever method they used to determine that this was a third-party photo gave a false result. Either that, or an incorrect reason for rejection was sent to the nominator. Either is unacceptable.
I applaud FellowWayfarer for posting this. I would hope that Niantic would acknowledge the error.
I remember an ambassador whose nomination was rejected by Niantic for third party photo and they were absolutely livid and they posted in the forums demanding an overturn of the decision.
And I just looked it up. Niantic overturned their decision.
@NianticAaron @NianThib @FellowWayfarer-PGO
I was similarly improperly disavowed on a third party photo.
I can't seem to upload images to comments, so I share them on Google Drive.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WSSvTgcL6Ib6aDkUUTt3Wz7zN6dI8mqr/view?usp=sharing
Since the photo is of the store's logo, at first glance it may seem as if you have used an image of the logo from the official website.
However, as you can see from the surrounding scenery at the left and right edges, the photo was taken by myself so that the store's signage fills the photo.
You can also tell that the sign was installed at that store by the fact that there are streaks on the sign and a little reflection from the telephone pole behind it.
I would like you to review these denials to see if they are based on a thorough review.
This forum is specifically not for nomination appeals