Niantic starting to ramp up reviewing edits?
HaramDingo-ING
Posts: 1,707 ✭✭✭✭✭
I know when something in the process changes or when something external is starting to meddle with the queues or the edit submissions that I make. For some reason, I've been getting a rather uncomfortable amount of edit rejections that are barely a day old. Things such as capitalisation for title case, when the word is clearly on the said geodetic disc (it says State Survey Mark, not Survey Marker), or even animal species that are generally capitalised.
Even another phenomenon I've noticed, when you randomly pick out edits to action, you don't do them bundled up, you just action one part of it (i.e. if a title, description and location edit is submitted, you in your infinite suppository of wisdom think it's okay to just do one of them). I try to put succinct and nice descriptions in a few edits but they are also being rejected (from blank even)!
Niantic, instead of actioning edits that are only a day (or rather a few months old in Sydney), how about you actually focus your efforts on other places that are extremely backlogged? Like a lot of the US or the year-long edits in the UK? Or better yet, the never-ending queue of edits submitted in regional WA? Or just focus on cleaning up the trash you've scattered across India.
Stop trying to confirm edits that you don't have local knowledge (or proper spelling) of.
Comments
Edits that are only one year long? A man can dream.
We recently noticed a quick denial that felt automated (no proof of that). Between the two people who know they both submitted title edits for the POI in question, they believe their edits were identical, or nearly so.
IF (and that's a big if) Niantic has applied some kind of automated system to edits to look for identical entries, I think that's a good thing. If both of those identical title suggestions were presented to voters, it would potentially split the vote which would keep the edit floating around for longer. By reducing down to a single version of the suggestion, hopefully the edits can finish faster.
I hope this is what is happening. But it may not be.
I'd wager 90% of my edits have never had a decision made over the last 2 years. I'm guessing all those edits are now lost with the reset which is rather unfortunate but also not worth my time to travel to each one and re-do the edit.
I had one edit I submitted 4 or 5 times and was denied very quickly every time (a week or so). A local soccer field was renamed to Weed Man Field 7 (local business sponsor had changed) but I know people who did review the edit so I doubt it was caught by AI and auto-rejected. For the record, that's a local business that provides a lawn care service and this was the new sponsor for the athletic field. So yeah, they **** weeds growing in your yard but reviewers must of thought it was offensive. Although I understand why, it doesn't change the fact it's a legitimate business with no adult content. They see the word and auto-deny. Plus, the sign matched all the other signs I had updated with photo edits but this was the only one denied.
Something is very broken with edits. Many people are reporting obvious improvements to titles or descriptions are coming back as rejected. Some from months or years ago and some so quickly it seems inconceivable that they have been reviewed fully in the normal manner. Very frustrating for those of us that aim to improve the POIs.
I just got an edit back for a rather recent title edit that I know shouldn't have gone through without others also being completed. They left a fullstop at the end of the title. So Niantic thinks titles should be sentences.
Received a title edit accept from March.
I know I have at least 10 title/description edits from way before then in and around the same area.
It would be great if there was actually a focus on clearing the backlog of edits.
I'm still waiting on a decision for a couple of edits from as far back as January 2023, not to mention additional photo submissions where I have around 100 photos outstanding from as far back as March 2021.
My question is has anyone had an edit submitted before the reset be accepted or rejected yet? I have a bad feeling all the edits were deleted when they reset nominations? I asked this question earlier in the week and no one responded yes I have.
Yes. In the past two days, I've received the results of two edit requests which were submitted in 2021 and 2022.
Realistically, shouldn't Niantic have a team and AI correcting most titles?
It seems like only certain strange ones require local knowledge beyond a quick Google search.
They should be able to handle conversion to title-case and deal with extraneous punctuation.
This seems like a foolish thing to try to crowd-source....
Niantic's AI is pretty awful, I certainly wouldn't trust it to do a good job.
Niantic, like so many submitters, does not know what a title even is. If books could be Wayspots, nominators around here would give it the title "A book that is about a boy who learns he is a wizard and goes to wizard school." and not "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" because proper titling in title case and with a bit of creativity means naught.
I wish Niantic would have used the WDD infographics instead of their strange mascot showing interest at a car.
Also I really hope Niantic can directly educate the 3
stubborndiligent wayfinders who indeed find generally good nominations, but just keep on placing full-stops at the end of each title. Looking at you Cherrybrook submitter!WAYSPOT can be said to be in the MORE WAYSPOT phase for low-density areas such as Africa, but it is correct to steer toward GOOD WAYSPOT for high-density countries and regions.
The addition of correct titles, detailed descriptions, accurate location information, and appealing photos are necessary not only for current applications, but also for new applications that are expected to be added in the future.
I think this is the first issue that the Wayfarer team should consider.
And it would be good if the challenges involved in EDIT were held in conjunction with new wayspots in low-density countries and regions.
High-density countries/regions already have enough Wayfinders to solve the problem on their own, but low-density countries/regions are difficult to solve the problem on their own.
Well, it would be most correct if the wayspot nominations for low-density countries and regions are automatically pushed to Wayfinder reviews around the world at all times.
(If there are language issues, it might also be a good idea to have a form where you check the languages you understand and the reviews will be passed around. This is unfortunate considering the past history of Africa, but each African country whose official language is English or French should have a much faster review speed).
To be fair many reviewers have nitpicked over the tiniest details like a picture being at an angle they don't like, an accidental misspelling, a person in the support etc etc
The prevailing ethos is/was that reviewers would crush your submission if it wasn't 100% correct and deemed worthy of their exalted position.
I can't really blame submitters for being stringent and wary of doing anything creative.
I also had one of my locals that would always put a . at the end of every title. I asked them to stop and they have.
I am not sure I should talk about titles though. Some people don’t seem to like some of mine even though they’re accurate.
I also had one of my locals that would always put a . at the end of every title. I asked them to stop and they have.
That is a good outcome. I need to figure out how to reach out to these locals without offending them. I gave feedback to someone about putting the pin in the middle of the road and they responded extremely rudely, telling me to f off because their nominations were getting approved anyway.
Had another edit come through from March.
Rejected incorrectly.
It doesn't actually change anything. It's still in the same cell and still within 20m of another Wayspot. I just thought I'd put it in its correct position 🤷♂️
Another photo addition went through the system when I have others in the same area that are much older.
I'm getting a LOT of edits back (this is just a subset of the long list of stupid decisions (that although while some do get accepted, the rejections are the biggest stingers).
The most appalling one is "Dragon Mural" when I tried to use it's official name and attempt to honour the original artists by including them in the description. It's in a pending appeal.
To Niantic:
Stop processing my day-old edits and leave them alone! Get your grubby deformed hands away and actually prioritise those who have been waiting for more than a year! Some are even waiting for more than five! Sydney does NOT need your lousy, crippled intervention.