Abusive Business Owner Keeps Spamming Nominations
Sunkast-PGO
Posts: 68 ✭✭✭
The owner of this business has been spamming nominations for his antique store/tea room for the past year. Even now that his antique store some how got accepted, there are still noms for the store and tea room (which is in the same store), still in voting. This submitter needs to have their nominations looked into for abuse. I don't even know how his antique store got accepted when the description literally includes "Pokemon stop" in it. Also want to point out the the banner for their shop includes copyright infringement for using a photo of Anakin from the movie Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
Can a Niantic employee please look into this abuse?
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Just let Disney know that someone stole their property to advertise their business in-game (and IRL!). I'm sure the Wayspot will be gone in no time. 😉
If they actually put some effort into it and did it properly it might have been a good waypoint. But why. Just why.
I just got this one today
And this one yesterday
They are in the USA, so they should have applied for a Sponsored Pokestop/Gym, but this way was cheaper.
Who did vote to approve that?
It was only in pokemon go and not ingress so it's most likely already been reviewed by Niantic. The description can edited if it annoys people. It is not unreasonable to submit things more than once to get it approved. It is not unreasonable to submit other objects on business property that might qualify. I've seen people say they submitted things 12+ or 20+ times and people weren't calling for bans of those cases. At what point is it abuse? The e-mails specifically instruct to resubmit. Besides they're getting 40 nominations shortly, so clearly there's not enough nominations.
If Niantic did approve that (as well as other wayspots that we have seen posted as approved by Niantic) it only means that anyone that rejects a nomination is doing it wrong. Approve everything!!!
The description is a bit cringe to me. Nothing in the rules which explicitly states that an antiques should be rejected (they could indeed be places for exploration at least), though I'd be inclined to reject this one. The nominator hasn't really sold it to me, just stated that they'd like a "Pokemon stop". The Ingress Intel Map even shows there are others in the area, so they want a Pokéstop exactly at their workplace.
They do have a pokemon stop at their exact workplace. There is no reason to spam submissions for something already in the system.
The tea room could be considered separate from the antique mall. Think Starbucks inside Target. The lions are also different. You don't know when the nominations were made. They are allowed to nominate stuff that will appear only in Lightship. That's the way the current system is set-up. She is allowed to submit that stuff. The best response you could hope for is a removal of clear duplicates by Niantic from queue but she can submit stuff that's different and won't appear in games. She can use all 40 to submit random posters and call them murals.
You're expecting too much from a casual to know spacing rules and the fact that players are reviewing. That her constant submissions means other players stuff doesn't get looked at because she has priority. It's not abuse but the system doesn't work well.
After each of these Niantic approved POIs, we reviewers feel more and more like clowns.
Keep in mind that if the person isn't using Wayfarer then all they know is that their nomination isn't a wayspot yet... until it is. Then they have no idea how to get rid of the nominations that are still in the system.
You could have a teaching moment and let them know about Wayfarer and that they can withdraw nominations once they join.
Oh, we're allowed to mention specific games in public descriptions now? Let the floodgates open!
I'd love to see a copy of the internal review team's criteria listing. I could use a good chuckle.
The antique shop could be eligible, the tea shop could be eligible, the statues could be eligible.
But it is abuse to spam the system.
https://niantic.helpshift.com/a/wayfarer/?s=other-faq&f=niantic-wayfarer-november-2020-ama&p=all
It defines abuse as spamming something ineligible, and the text alone makes it just that.
The system is set up poorly, and Niantic should be doing better at preventing this.
The nomination with pokemon in the description was determined to be eligible by Niantic reviewers since it showed in pogo only. To say that one is spamming an ineligible nomination is incorrect. Niantic has the final say and they accepted it. Ideally, the description text would be changed and the definite duplicates would be removed. She is allowed to submit other stuff related to business.
The nomination with pokemon in the description was determined to be eligible by Niantic reviewers since it showed in pogo only.
I really wish @NianticDanbocat, @NianticTintino, or @NianticGiffard would finally break silence on the matter, but their bad acceptances do NOT imply eligibility.
@Gendgi-PGO They're attempting to compete with Google Maps Platform Gaming Services. If you take a look at what Google Maps you'll get an idea of what they're doing. It's trying to get most of what's on Google maps plus the random other stuff we're already approving. Hopefully, this gives a wee bit of insight to the love of all businesses right now.
Plus, I prefer cleaning up and warnings to bans for abuse. Clean up text and remove duplicates.
To clarify, all of these nominations are in voting after the owner knew his shop was already accepted as a stop. They clearly have spammed Wayfarer with so many nominations for the same shop that there are still multiples of the shop still in voting, or they have continued to submit multiples of the same nomination since getting their shop accepted.
@Gendgi-PGO Agreed. As well as getting the new abuse reporting tool finished. I really dislike reporting abuse here on the forum. As anyone can see, it just devolves into an open discussion of others arguing criteria and what is abuse. Yes I know there is a Google form for reporting abuse, but cases like this don't really work with the form. Every abuse report I have ever made on this forum has devolved into arguing what constitutes abuse with nary a word from Niantic. This serves no one any good. Abuse reports like this should not have an open discussion.
This really looks like people are angry that a business got accepted and are looking to have it removed when the easier solution is to change the text and remove the duplicates. Casuals submitting again after not hearing back must be very common. People not be familiar with withdrawing options are also I expect very common. I'm not excited to submit shops like this but the constant want to punish instead of just solving the issue is dissappointing.
Did I ask for it to be removed? No. I asked that Niantic look into the spamming of the same nominations over and over again.
It's OK to submit things that meet the eligibility criteria, but in this case the description and supporting info, everything that they claim is "We want a pokestop".
The rejection mails tell the people to improve the title, description, photo, and I don't see any improvement in the nominations that have been pasted in this thread.
But in the end, if Niantic's reviewers approve this, why should the rest of wayfarers reject any nomination even if we have been told that the title and description must not make reference to any game?
OP did not tell Niantic to ban them, revoke their Wayfarer privileges, or even say a warning was needed.
This submitter needs to have their nominations looked into for abuse.
Can a Niantic employee please look into this abuse?
It's a simple call for Niantic to investigate it, to see if there are dozens more submitted that can/should be removed from the system to prevent wasting further time. It's up to Niantic after that to investigate and decide what, if any, action is needed. That's indeed what they've asked us to do in the past.
Like @Sunkast-PGO's last post, these unfortunately do devolve quickly. I'm very glad most of mine have been possible to be handled directly through Niantic rather than publicly in here.
The word "abuse" in the title is suggestive of punishment rather than problem solving. I find hard core reviewers to be unforgiving of casuals. It is important to remember that most are casual and don't understand what goes on after they submit. As frustrated as we get, let's focus on solving issues rather than raging against "abuse".
Even if a submitter has no idea about Wayfarer, the submission confirmation email says the following:
Your nomination will be reviewed for eligibility according to the PokéStop criteria. If there are any updates to this process, you will receive an email notification. We appreciate your patience, Trainer!
So submitting the same thing before receiving an update email notification would be spamming.
A process of ‘Nomination -> rejection -> refinement -> renomination’ is one thing.
Nominating the same thing 2 or 3 or 5 or 10 times simultaneously is overtly abusive, and it’s not that hard to figure that out. Nominating the same 3 things 2 or 3 or 5 or 10 times simultaneously… awful.
How many people stand at a lift / elevator repeatedly pressing the button because it hasn’t arrived yet.
Its essentially the same.
I actually can't remember the last time I saw an adult do that
Most modern elevator buttons provide immediate feedback. You press it, it lights up.
Wayfarer doesn't do any such thing. At best we can manually log in to the website and check if it is still "In Voting" or is lingering in the "In Queue" state. And if you don't get all the wayfarer emails because they get dumped into your spam folder, that is possibly your ONLY feedback.
I really do not appreciate your interpretation of my post even after several clarifications to your very illogical reasons.