Other Rejection Criteria

My very first pokestop submission was rejected very quickly with this particular message, "Other Rejection Criteria", and no other information! My location is spot on and this feels like a perfect pokestop as it is a place sign at the entrance to a large scale operation that has been in business for over 100 years and has historical significance for this rural area and provides an education resource. It is easily reached and safe, I provided a larger photo in the additional photos section, but you can see part of the expansive business behind the sign in this picture on the right, they have their own road that this sign sits next to.

Does anyone have any more information regarding why this would potentially be rejected? Certainly feels bad to have a rejection for something that I felt very certain would easily pass, so any information someone can supply that would help me figure out what I did wrong would be appreciated. This would be the first and only stop within miles in this rural area!

Description: Potter Lumber has been serving the needs of the hardwood lumber industry since 1910. What started out as a water powered sawmill in the early days evolved to a steam powered sawmill in the 1940's to today's advanced double cut bandsaw operation!

Comments

  • disc0rdance-PGOdisc0rdance-PGO Posts: 4 ✭✭
    1. There is a publicly accessible large field that kids play in and folks have picnics in that spans about an acre behind the sign.
    2. The business is historical originating over 100 years ago.
    3. The business is huge, has it's own road that connects to a major roadway.
    4. They offer tours and visits to provide education for anyone that wants to learn about their history and the history of hardwood processing.


  • sogNinjaman-INGsogNinjaman-ING Posts: 3,313 ✭✭✭✭✭

    A Generic businesssign - not eligible.

  • TheFarix-PGOTheFarix-PGO Posts: 5,063 ✭✭✭✭✭

    This doesn't meet the eligibility criteria. Just because a business as been around for a long time doesn't mean it is meets the criteria for great places to explore, exercise, or socialize.

  • X0bai-PGOX0bai-PGO Posts: 1,667 ✭✭✭✭✭

    “Other rejection criteria” usually means it doesn’t meet criteria, Niantic is just really, really awful at communicating (and they took rejection reasons out of the e-mails, demonstrating an effort towards getting worse at communicating). Most business signs do not meet criteria, and I would agree with your reviewers that this does not appear to be a great place to explore, exercise, or socialize.

  • disc0rdance-PGOdisc0rdance-PGO Posts: 4 ✭✭

    Thanks everyone for the feedback! What would be the best way to revise this submission to be more geared towards the three criteria? Should I withdraw it and re-submit or go through the appeals process?

  • sogNinjaman-INGsogNinjaman-ING Posts: 3,313 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Withdraw it. As it stands, this nomination of a generic business sign is not eligible.

  • flatmatt-PGOflatmatt-PGO Posts: 2,141 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think the best way to improve the submission is to do some research beyond just knowing that it's old and that they give tours. Is the business actually significant to local history? Has it been something more than just a longstanding link in the supply chain? Did the town form around the mill? Is the original mill still standing (in which case the building itself might be the best nomination)? Are there any physical exhibits on the grounds that you could nominate (historical signs, decommissioned machinery on display, etc.)? That sort of thing.

    In the end, I don't know if you can necessarily improve this specific nomination--it really depends on whether the business is "worthy" of a wayspot in the first place, which isn't something you can necessarily control.

  • Gazzas89-PGOGazzas89-PGO Posts: 2,619 ✭✭✭✭✭

    From what you've said, it will he an extremely hard sell but an old business that does tours, that mught be eligible as an interesting place to visit. That being said, I'd submit the main entrance, not the sign, unless the sign is next to the main entrance and you use it as a proxy, but you jeed to play up the impact it has on the area

  • Other Rejection Criteria isn’t a great way to communicate to the submitter why it was rejected. Every time I get that and I know 100% for sure it met the criteria I appeal it. Sometimes people miss a detail or two while skimming through reviews. Some people tend to do to it as a troll as well. I don’t know why but it’s really just a lazy way to explain why it is rejected and Niantic needs to fix that ASAP.

  • Elijustrying-INGElijustrying-ING Posts: 5,483 Ambassador

    When I first started I was not aware of how far away some of the reviewers might be and took for granted that they would know more about the context. They were probably a bit scant. So I started stating points which to me were obvious and this really hit home when I did reviewing.

    So in your local context this is an important place to others it is a generic business. As others have said focus on the tours and social aspects - is there any play equipment in that fields? Is there a sign about tours?

    Its a learning process.

  • Okay, so any playground with a swing and a sandpit is a good wayspot, because it meets the social/sport criteria, but an important, 100-years-old lumbermill that gives tours and therefore is far more interesting place to visit than a houndred playgrounds is rejected, because you're not convinced it's "historically important"....?

  • HankWolfman-PGOHankWolfman-PGO Posts: 4,857 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Well yes, because the onus is on the submitter to sell the nomination to the reviewer if it's not something that's a slam dunk (like a playground). If you genuinely believe your nomination has merit, then you have a description and a supporting statement to use to tell everyone why you think it's important.

    Currently, all we really have to go on is OP saying it's 100 years old (which, whilst old, it doesn't necessarily equal historic) and it offers tours. That information by itself isn't making me want to go to this place, and it's not making me believe that it's a place that you'd actively take someone who was visiting from out of town. At the moment it just seems like it's a generic lumber company, and as a reviewer, I'd be skeptical that a generic lumber company would make for a good wayspot.

  • flatmatt-PGOflatmatt-PGO Posts: 2,141 ✭✭✭✭✭

    That's basically correct. "Old" is not the same thing as "historically important." That they give tours is a good start, but you still need to do something to demonstrate that this is a historically important business. Simply telling reviewers that it's important and that it's old is not enough to establish that.

  • You are right about old not necessarily equals historical (although if it comes to architecture, there are laws, at least in my country, that 100+ years old is automatically treated as historical, but it's due to fact, that most of our old architecture was wiped out during WWII).

    But I think the giving tours aspect is precisely a selling point here - if OP has included that info in nomination, of course. An interesting POI does not have to be historical. It has to be a good visiting place, and a tour to a lumbermill is very educating and interesting, even if it's 1-year-old.

    What I'm trying to communicate is the discrepancy here. Any playground and basketball court is eligible POI, and something like this gets rejected, even if it gives tours and is a part of history (a century old business just must be at least somehow locally important - it is part of their world from great grandparents to grandchildren).

  • sogNinjaman-INGsogNinjaman-ING Posts: 3,313 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Basketball courts and playgrounds get accepted because Niantic say they should be accepted, just like Post Offices, Zoos or Public Libraries. You can't try to apply the criteria for "historic sites" to Post Offices because they are two different things - you are trying to have the rules for apples apply to oranges.

    All we know of the OP nomination is a the photo, which is one for a "generic business". To fully judge and comment on the nomination we need to see the full nomination. If this place does tours etc then we need to see how the person nominating this presented the info or not.

  • mortuus-INGmortuus-ING Posts: 213 ✭✭✭
    edited January 2022

    exactly this, many mistake any random business is eligable... which is not true it needs a reason why it should be approved reason just its been there for x years doesnt mean its something interesting...

    I dont see how the OPs submission meets any critera othen then a random business sorry

  • ElwynGreygoose-INGElwynGreygoose-ING Posts: 244 ✭✭✭✭

    History tours would convince me. Are they official tours? Featured on their web site? Guided?

    Think about whether you would take a visitor to this place - to see the sign, no. To go on a tour - surely that would be a Yes.

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