Book stores?
Losifer026-ING
Posts: 198 ✭✭✭✭
In the past I had been advised against nominating or approving book stores since they are businesses. I’ve been seeing them nominated lately. Not really great descriptions, very basic “local book store.” I feel like they do fulfill aspects of criteria. They’re great places to explore, meet people, find information and stories that expand one’s perspectives and abilities, promote education, find and look at a variety of published art(old and new in a variety of formats); and you don’t seem to see them around as often as you used to. Plus a lot of them tend to have sitting areas and/or coffee available if they don’t also have a coffee shop. Some even have events like poetry readings. Also, with the newer additions like dance and martial arts studios, gyms, as well as movie theaters; it seems like they should fit into the current field of acceptable candidates well. I would like to hear what people think about that as well as @NianticGiffard and other admins.
Comments
Like restaurants, cafes, and coffee shops, bookstores have potential, but it is up to the nominator to provide evidence.
@Losifer026-ING Bookstores that serve as a community hub in some way are certainly eligible as unique local businesses. I would probably approve one if it had a storied history, if the local poetry club and science fiction club met there regularly, if they regularly had readings and children's story hours, or if there was something else about it that made it uniquely interesting.
A no-brainer example of a bookstore that would qualify is City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco. A less famous one would be Kepler's in Menlo Park, CA, for their events and active community engagement.
Just about any local business that doesn’t meet rejection criteria could be eligible, but there has to be something remarkable about that business to take it out of the realm of generic submission and bring it up to the level of a worthy waypoint, and it is the nominator’s job to tell that story in their submission.
Would music stores fall under the same category as book stores? I've nominated one now twice that goes back over a century, and has an interesting story, but it's been rejected twice.
A case could be made, the really critical part is to present that case well to be people who are unaware of the shop.
Why don’t you post pictures of your full nominations in the nomination improvement section to see if reviewers can help with how you are making the case.
They weren’t my nominations, just ones I’ve seen while reviewing. I just think they should be acknowledged as an official category because their attributes seem to fit what Niantic wants. They’re great places even if the ones I saw weren’t great nominations.
I actually recently had a local used book store accepted on the first try, much to my great surprise. I stressed that book stores of any kind are increasingly rare and great, culturally-significant places for exploration and mentioned that it hosts readings, etc. for local authors. It wasn't the strongest case, but somehow it worked and it is a place I'd definitely take visitors if they were interested in books.
In the day an age of e books and bookstore chains, if there was a book store that was locally unique, I'd be encouraged to accept it, if only for the rarity of finding one
All the great things you list could be true at any given bookstore. But also there are bookstores that don't do any of those things. You can't assume a nomination does any of that without proof.
The nominator can tell you what happens there, or you could look it up online and see. If you choose to look it up, just realize that (1) most reviewers won't look it up, and (2) the nominator didn't care enough to look it up.
Thanks for reaching out, @Losifer026-ING! I would suggest you go through the generic business section from the content guidelines section.
As stated there, there is no single set of rules or person who can tell a community in black and white what places are important where others are not.
That’s why there will always be some ‘grey area’ in our collective goal to map the most interesting local places. What really influences reviews is how content is presented to convince reviewers that a nomination supports Niantic’s mission and follows the rules around abuse, accuracy, and intent.
Thanks for posting this @NianticGiffard. It would be really great if that article could be incorporated into the Wayfarer Criteria pages somehow so new reviewers (and submitters) see it when they go to take the Wayfarer test. (Since that's the only time many people look at the criteria, it seems.)