Not Accepted Idiocy
MSUjohn-PGO
Posts: 6 ✭✭
Backstory;
i just hit level 40 (i did not know that the level was lowered to 38) and i dropped my first 7 suggestions.
Being a good natured fellow i traveled deep into the rural hinterlands to suggest waypoints in a pair of VERY rural townships to share the joy of pogo with the people that live there. well there are not a lot of things to tag in the deep countryside, save churches (the the only one in one township was pokestopped) cemeteries, and township halls.
i have seen many small countryside cemeteries with a pokestop in them (like i said not much to tag in cornfield and state game reserve land) so besides a township hall and a church i suggested several cemeteries. three of the five have already been rejected and the reasons are beyond asinine.
"offensive" is the universal reason, and one was aslo "tagging a person or group of persons".
offensive? it is a cemetery. group of people? its a headstone (which is a taggable location option). if they didn't like the suggestion just give it a low rating. i mean look at these.
Comments
While some of those rejection reasons are untrue (and Niantic should do something about people selecting those), a headstone of a 16 year old and a cemetery are probably not good wayspot candidates. Headstones are only eligible if they are for people who have been important to the community. And a cemetery is only a good candidate if it has some touristic value, like a war cemetery.
It is pretty well known that rejection reasons are not entirely accurate. When you get weird rejection reasons they usually boil down to "doesn't meet acceptance criteria." In fact, for both of your rejections that was one of the reasons given.
It looks like you submitted a cemetery. Cemeteries are generally not eligible, though there are occasional exceptions. The other one looks like it's a grave marker or a memorial bench/plaque. Those are not eligible submissions either unless the person is famous or especially significant to the local community. (You can dig out the exact wording for that if you want.) Niantic's rules have changed over the years, and there are plenty of things in the games right now that would not qualify under the current criteria. Cemeteries, grave markers, and memorial benches/plaques are some of the most common. If you want to create high quality submissions please study and understand the current criteria-- you can't use existing wayspots as a guideline.
In summary: It looks like you submitted two things that didn't meet eligibility criteria. They were correctly rejected, and at least one of the reasons given for each was accurate.
From the criteria.
"Sensitive Locations
Sensitive locations such as funeral homes, burial grounds, cemeteries, and graveyards should generally be avoided out of respect, but gravestones are eligible for consideration if it is publicly accessible and it belongs to a historical figure or significant community figure."
Criteria has changed over the years, some existing locations wouldn't be accepted nowadays. Cemeteries being one example.
To avoid similar disappointments I'd recommend checking the current criteria before your next batch of nominations.
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The offensive content rejection reason is propably some reviewers consider nominating a cemetery disrespectful (and with some exceptions against the guidelines). Cemeteries as POI locations cause very different reactions and opinions.
Note, that above is specilation as I don't have the context (your actual nomination) available.
Hello @MSUjohn-PGO ,
In future discussions of your rejected submissions, it is helpful to post screenshots of the actual submission: pictures, title, description, map, and supporting information.
You cannot appeal a wayspot rejection; you can only resubmit. It's a good idea to run the above information through the "Nomination Improvement" sub-forum to get community feedback.
But as others have said, New Criteria seems to state that cemeteries, and everything within, are not eligible unless there is some significant historical or community importance.
here is ONE major thing. i live in a small city of 30,000+ stops and gyms are everywhere. i can remote raid from my living room.
in said countryside townships there might be a church or two, a township hall, and several small township or "old" independent cemeteries. that's about all there is to tag.
in the one township i selected to "seed" , there was one church (already had a gym), 4 small township cemeteries; one of which has a stop (across the road from the church thus the gym) the other three do not have a waypoint, and the township hall (which i recommended) and that is it. in other countryside/ rural townships the cemeteries have stops.
same could be said about the tiny tiny village (think 100 people) that had no stops or gyms for miles. i "seeded" the church, which was accepted (yeah) but the only other feature in this tiny economically depressed village was the cemetery which was rejected. no fire department, village hall (it is unincorporated), community center, no post office not even a generic business.
people do live in these places though, and i see them out for their daily constitutional very frequently. the cemetery change HURTS rural players.
i mean look at the village Prattville - Google Maps
Unfortunately not everywhere is going to have lots of POI. It’s understandable that you thought cemeteries were okay as several are in the games.
However, don’t take what is a POI now as still being acceptable. Lots of scout huts are POI in the UK, but due to the intended use mainly for young kids, new ones aren’t eligible and other ones are being removed.
@MSUjohn-PGO The cemetery change was made years ago. OTOH, playgrounds and spots fields got explicitly added to the list partially as a way to help smaller areas. It's always been the case that Niantic's games play better in denser areas and that has to do with some fundamental design decisions made early on by Niantic.
most of the rural township cemeteries around me have a stop.
And? As mentioned multiple times, they are no longer eligible for poi submissions. My subs for cemeteries were approved waaaaay back in 2013 in Ingress. Maybe one or two in 2014. Sometime in 2014 or 2015 they changed the guidelines, and they were no longer accepted. Those in queue were denied.
Life goes on. Find something else to submit. With all the updated rules on what can be submitted, there is sooo many things you can submit in small towns there weren't even options before. Lucky that the criteria is so lax now to what it once way. Use that thing between your ears and find something unique to submit.
honestly, this town is at the far side of a neighboring county, i just drove down there to try to populate a the VERY VERY rural, sparsely populated and poor (extreme southern) part of said county. i can use the thing between my ears all i want (that's what is driving me nuts, its like a nut to crack) but the only thing to tag would be one of the few lamp posts.
there is NO fire department, village hall (it is unincorporated), community center, post office, playground, park, baseball diamond, library; heck not even a generic business.
Prattville - Google Maps
@MSUjohn-PGO Yeah, I get it.
Your beef is with Niantic's rules, though, not with the reviewers. The reviewers did the right thing.
A fire department wouldn't be eligible anyway.
If they don't have anything at all, then probably there's no one playing Pokemon Go there and they spend the time with other games or activities that fit better their environment. So you spend the time to go there, try to add things and they remain unused as they did check once and found Pokemon Go useless.
Then there is simply nothing to submit end of story.