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Description Edits Getting Disentangled From Location Edits
kn1ghtman-PGO
Posts: 7 ✭✭
In the past, when you needed to submit a location edit, you would also submit a description edit that would say, "pick the one on the right" or "pick the one closer to the parking lot" or whatever, so when the reviewer reviews it, they know which one to pick. Both decisions would be made at the same time, and you'd get emails about both, ideally an approval for the location edit, and a denial for the description edit.
Since the change in the review process, I've noticed description edits getting denied very quickly (the ones I submitted yesterday were denied today), so now my location edits are just out there dangling in the wind with no way for the reviewer to know which one is the right one, other than the map view, and many/most of them can't be determined from the map view, which is why I submitted the edits in the first place. When you've got a wayspot in the middle of a park, and all you can see from the map is a bunch of treetops, or maybe it's a basketball court and both locations are actually on the basketball court, how is the reviewer supposed to know which wayspot is the right one?
Comments
Submitting description edits like that to influence reviewers on location edits is considered wayfarer abuse and should not be done.
Reviewers are meant to use the data they can see (the map) to determine the correct location. If the location edit gets rejected because it's not obvious which is the correct location, then you are meant to appeal it in the Location Edit Appeals section of the forum, where you can then submit additional evidence, such as geotagged photos, to help support the validity of your edit.
You are very lucky that that Niantic have not sent you a warning email or worse for trying to influence reviewers like you have been.
That may even be why the edits are no longer processed together, or it might be that they are processed together, but your description edit got reported for abuse and was quickly removed from the system.
"Submitting description edits like that to influence reviewers on location edits is considered wayfarer abuse and should not be done."
How exactly are we supposed to know that? There's no documentation on that in the tutorial. The submission process says no such thing. And you might want to tell everybody who's ever submitted a location edit about that. Cuz that's the accepted practice. There's no point to submitting a location edit if you can't say which one is right.
"If the location edit gets rejected because it's not obvious which is the correct location, then you are meant to appeal it in the Location Edit Appeals section of the forum, where you can then submit additional evidence, such as geotagged photos, to help support the validity of your edit."
And how are we supposed to know that? The rejection email says no such thing. The training cartoons mention nothing about it. Not everybody finds it enjoyable to rummage through forum posts. I didn't even know this forum existed for years, and it certainly doesn't seem useful for anything more than, "oh, that's why everything I'm reviewing is in Malaysia". And what's the point of going through all that extra effort, when it makes so much more sense to just submit a description edit at the same time?
"It's abuse to give people helpful information." ...makes perfect sense.
How exactly are we supposed to know that? There's no documentation on that in the tutorial. The submission process says no such thing.
It's quite clearly written on the Rejection Criteria page, under section 12:
Influencing reviewers
Nominations with content that tries to sway and influence votes, such as dropping a codename or codewords in the title, description, or photo. Or making voting requests in the title, description, supporting information, or photo.
https://wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/new/help/rejection-criteria
What you're doing is making a voting request in the description, which is against that rule.
And how are we supposed to know that? The rejection email says no such thing. The training cartoons mention nothing about it.
This I can agree is not made entirely clear. The closest I can find is that on the FAQ page of the wayfarer website, it says "If you have any further questions, please join the discussion on our forums!" with a link to these forums.
To me, if an edit is rejected, the rejection email should include instructions on what to do if you think the rejection was wrong, with a link to the relevant appeal section of the forum. Maybe that's something @PkmnTrainerJ-ING can suggest to the team to implement at some point, as rejected nominations do tell you that you can appeal.
And you might want to tell everybody who's ever submitted a location edit about that. Cuz that's the accepted practice.
It really isn't the accepted practice. It used to be more widespread a few years back, but even then it still wasn't within the guidelines of wayfarer. Every time you or anyone else submits a description edit of this manner, you run the potential risk of having your account suspended. To me, that's not worth the risk.
"It's abuse to give people helpful information." ...makes perfect sense.
Maybe you are only doing this in situations where the location edit you're submitting is genuinely intended to improve the accuracy of the location, but a lot of people were using it to attempt to manipulate the game board of Pokémon Go by moving things to less accurate locations to get other things to appear. That's precisely why you're not meant to have any influence over it.
I think all I can say is that we are pushing for *more things* with regards to Edits. So any further feedback is appreciated
So, if we have a location edit that's not obvious from the map, should we even bother with submitting it through the game, where we have no way of tracking its movement through the system (I still can't understand why that is. Our submissions are visible. Why aren't our edits?), waiting the 3-6 months, or longer, for it to fail, then appealing it? Or should we just move straight to the Location Edit Appeals section of the forum? Or is that breaking some unspoken rule, as well?
If it's something you can submit in game, you're meant to do that as the first port of call.
If the edit can't be done in game though (because the wayspot doesn't appear, or because it's an edit of over 10 metres), then generally it's fine to ask on the forum or through the support chat.
Sometimes they'll entertain requests made without submitting through the game first, but other times they'll refuse to take action without a rejection email first.
@kn1ghtman-PGO being able to see edits and additional photo submissions under the contributions page is a "coming soon" feature.
Reviewers are supposed to use their best judgement to review location edits. If new location is obvious then that's it, you don't need to tell reviewers to pick a location you want the Wayspot be moved into.
Because this practice are very common where most Pokemon GO players need to move Wayspot into free L17 cell so that they can "free" another Wayspot that was blocked by previous Wayspot (you do know the procedure, don't you), which are considered as abuse as well.