"Generic" Bike Route Signs
TrainerHobo-PGO
Posts: 17 ✭✭
The signs in question are at two trail heads opposite ends of a long 7 mile trail, both with parking and their own little park areas. The only sign indicating a park and biking trail is even there, are these old generic "BIKE ROUTE" signs.
As far as I was aware, right now ANY kind of mile marker, trail marker, pathway sign, etc. along a Biking or Hiking trail could and should be submitted as a waypoint to encourage exploring these pathways. As the start of the trail, would these not be perfect as a POI?
I understand that many would reject this as being "generic" however - Niantic themselves seem encouraging in approving these. In addition, not every community is fortunate enough to have frivolous signage, these are old signs that have been here for many years.
I have made these arguments in the Supplemental Information when submitting, but would like additional feedback from the community.
Pictures and map below. Thank you for your time.
Comments
Those should be fine. Problem is that most reviewers will rate the quality of the marker, instead of the trail itself as they are supposed to do. The concept of an object that placemarks an area is way above many peoples heads. Make sure that you explain well that you are nominating the section of the trail, not the marker. You are only using the marker as a physical, tangible placemarker.
That's very helpful, thank you for the response.
I have nominated similar and had it community rejected but successfully approved on appeal. Same sign, but in my case it even had a trail name it was connecting.
As the advice given above, make sure you focus on this being a trail area. Those signs usually (at least in my area) denote a bike lane on a street rather than any kind of trail and are rarely eligible. Yours may struggle a bit but I would persist.
That's where I believe the rejection comes from, the signs usually denoting a Bike Lane. But that's not that case here, where it's an actual bike route that cuts away from the main road. Thank you for the response!
I recently raised similar ( https://community.wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/discussion/44349/unsigned-trailheads-and-benches-as-placemarkers ) and practically begged for a better clarification on "placemarkers" from Niantic that we could refer reviewers to. It's especially frustrating in rural towns with little to no signage and it burns through submission resources and time 😓
At this point I've decided I'm better off putting them into appeal, but that's a very slow process and the need to do this with so many things that should be easy to clarify is only adding to the backlog 🤷♀️
I do think that removing the word "generic" from criteria would help, as it keeps being taken quite out of context and some people are so fixated on that one word that they put it above all else. It's really only used to suggest the context in which nominations might not meet any criteria (if there's any question), not to say that if you could call something generic it's irrelevant what criteria it does actually meet. People really are most often putting the cart before the horse when processing the mention of the word "generic" in the criteria and Niantic should know by now that wording matters 😅
I think Generic is a good word. As a nominator we know we have to work against the word so we need to work our evidence
I am not saying the nomination is wrong. Just the reviewer sees the photo and goes nothing to see here.
The key here is what is the bike route / trail name. where does it go. What evidence provided.
To me I would be looking for something like this as title and work from there TrainerHobo-PGO - Clio Bike Trail Marker in Jennings Park.
OK now I (and other reviewers) have something to work with.
People read and view images in nano seconds. Whether we like it or not judgement calls are made in that time. If the object looks old and decrepit then you need the Title and description to zing. with good supporting photo and great supporting text.
I don't disagree with that and it can certainly take longer to review things that aren't explained well. However, it's also an unfortunate reality that many reviewers are apathetically plowing through and looking for easy rejections to speed up the process. Those people don't care what's written once they see a photo of something they could describe as "generic" because it's a green light for them to instantly reject without even reading so much as the title 😬
Personally, even when my knee-j3rk reaction is to reject I'll still scroll through the submission to make sure I've got it 100% right and there isn't something mentioned that I might be overlooking (eg: like survey markers actually being legitimately historic or a valid placemarker - I've yet to see one) 🤷♀️