please advise to improve my nomination. unknown reason for rejection.

Greetings to followers of this thread.

First time posting here. I should note, I appealed this rejection*, and can't withdraw the appeal at this time. Had I known this board existed before I appealed, I probably would have withdrawn the nomination entirely first before I appealed and fixed whatever the board recommends first, or whatever Niantic suggested as wrong with the nomination. I find the explanation a bit lacking in specific details that I can decipher however. So maybe you all can figure out for me what Niantic meant. See below:

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EDIT: I got an email from Niantic on the subject, and it said this:

"Dear _____, Thank you for submitting your appeal for your nomination: Sunset Ridge Park Northwest Parking Lot, originally submitted on Aug 3, 2022. You worked hard on your nomination and appeals give Niantic the chance to carefully review the validity of the community’s decision if it has been rejected.

Rejection reason: The real-world location of the nomination appears to have explicit or inappropriate activity, Nomination does not meet acceptance criteria, Nomination appears to be a natural feature (waterfall, mountain, lake, etc.) that is not connected to a man-made object.

Your appeal will be reviewed in the order it was received. You’ll receive an email notification when the appeal has been reviewed. You may also check the status of your appeal on your Contribution Management page.

Thank you for your dedication to Wayfarer!

The Wayfarer Team

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This is in reference to the dot I marked on the Northwest side of the map below circle in orange bordering the road.

I recently submitted a pokestop nomination in an attempt to improve the distribution/number of stops we have at a local park. Since in the past, lure placement here has resulted in some proverbial "stepping on peoples toes" since there are more active players in the area than the park's pokestops could comfortably accomodate in this community for medal purposes and variation. And also alot of empty space in the park without pokestops currently.

In general, players have a tendency to walk around the park on a sidwalk that circumnavigates the park on all four corners. Or otherwise stay near the only cluster of pokestops on the East side. Thus, having a dead zone on the west side of the park without stops seems an oversight and interferes with the flow of walking traffic in game (meaning if you walk around the park there is only one place to spin on the west side instead of three like on the East side.) In that West area of the park however, there are only so many objects I can feasibly nominate without stretching the credulity of the criteria.

I plan to nominate the pavilion I marked below as an entirely separate nomination. Since it is the location most likely in my opinion to get approved. But for now, I wanted to get some input on how to improve the parking lot nomination I made below, since it got rejected for unknown reasons (it just said 'inappropriate location' and 'other criteria') without additional explanation. I would like to have three pokestops on the west side of the park eventually, so if the park doesn't work, maybe I can nominate an old tree, or a city electrical box or a small sign or fire hydrant or something since theres not much else there. If I add the picnic pavillion as a separate nomination, plus this one, and one that already exists in the game, that would be three on the west side. Please advise how best to accomplish this. Or if you can spot what might have resulted in the initial rejection of the nomination. The map below shows a small structure (where I wrote old trees) to the west of the pavilion that may not be there in real life. I'll have to look again at that area. It may have existed in the past i do not know, or it may be an electrical box or something thats hidden by bushes.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.


Comments

  • Farbsturm-PGOFarbsturm-PGO Posts: 22 ✭✭

    As said before, a place to park your car is in no way a wayspot. Unless it is a really really really unique and awesome looking one with historical background and maybe a sign but this is just a casual parking lot, no wayspot at all

  • JillJilyJabadoo-PGOJillJilyJabadoo-PGO Posts: 1,082 ✭✭✭✭✭

    What you wrote in your Description is the kind of thing that goes in Supplemental Information. Description should be something like you'd write in a guidebook.

    Unfortunately, of the things you listed, only the pavilion sounds likely to be accepted. The others will be firm rejections for most reviewers. "Other Rejection Criteria" means reviewers don't think the nomination is "a great place to explore/exercise/socialize". You will need to find things that meet at least one of those criteria, old tree, fire hydrant, and electrical box don't sound like it.

    You don't say what things in the park are already wayspots. While the car lot isn't a great place to explore, is there a sign at the entrance? A sign for the park acts as a proxy for the park itself and would almost certainly be accepted. If there isn't one, and you're really determined, perhaps you could work with park authorities to have one added.

    One final thing to keep in mind is the inclusion rules for the games, if you aren't already familiar. Not everything accepted will become a pokestop or a portal. You should google those rules if you haven't (Niantic doesn't advertise them) to avoid disappointment.

  • Keybrdkid09-PGOKeybrdkid09-PGO Posts: 6 ✭✭
    edited August 2022

    ***Edit See below post for more information; as I was partially wrong in what I listed here as our current waypoints. I am correcting what I typed as we speak. The red markers in the photo are not waypoints, just some sort of in app cursor.

    Sorry if I didn't mention what we already had as way points. On the East side of the park (where most of the waypoints are,) there are no parking lots except on street parking. A significant portion of that land is taken up by various sports fields and other recreation activities, or is otherwise empty land with more 'old trees' (some people use these trees to rope climb in with carabiners and such, as they are large banyan trees that can support weight and create a shade canopy. Would be a nice place to walk your dog, but unfortunately mostly grass under the trees and not much else. But unless you can stretch the definition of a historical object, not sure how to nominate those trees-impressive as they are.

    But since you asked, the three waypoints I marked on the map above to the east (the right side of the map), that currently exist in the game are a City Park sign, a tennis court (which is actually in the middle of three tennis courts,) and a basketball court. There are two other tennis courts next to the ones mentioned above in the same area that don't have a waypoint associated with them. So perhaps someone could nominate them as 'Tennis Courts #2' or something. There is also a playground, a little Free Library, a set of restrooms, and a small covered pavilion on the east side. The playground I incorrectly assumed was already a waypoint. But that was actually the basketball court directly adjacent to it instead. So in summation, there are a few theoretical objects that could meet the criteria on the East Side of the park that are not currently in the game as way points. However, even if one were to nominate them, there isn't (to my knowledge) a true complete sidewalk bisecting the East area of the park intended for walking north to south. There is space between the sports fields used for that purpose, but its mostly grass I think. I would have to ask Parks and Recreation to perhaps consider installing a complete sidewalk as a walking path. In any event, these things are great for the East Side of the Park, but again does little to solve the West side of the park issue. I think the best avenue of exploration on that side is to find a new Little Free library sponsor and attempt to convince the City to allow a second library on the West side, and also to see if Parks and Recreation will install an entrance sign in the North Lot if one does not currently exist (I'll look again in case I missed something.)

    There are two parking lots on the West side, one on the north side, and one on the south side. The one I nominated here that failed was on the north side--an attempt to close the sidewalk walking loop. The idea being that you can walk around the entire park without ever going out of range of a waypoint.

    Off the top of my head, there are no other buildings or historical objects on the West side, save for perhaps the lone unpainted fire hydrant (painted ones are common in my city as artistic pieces), and a few miscellaneous odds and ends like a electrical box or meter of some kind.

    Most of the middle of the park is a soccer/sports/event field surrounded by fences and a gate. The west side has no such fence, but again it is only mostly used for parking lots and with the addition of a small grassy area and picnic pavilion is (see below aerial photos.)

    I could try to get a little free library installed on the west side. I'm not sure who coordinates their installation in my city, or who potential sponsors might be for ones on city land. I'll have to investigate.

    I intend to make a separate nomination for the pavilion. So even if the parking lot doesn't pass muster, hopefully I can get at least one waypoint added on the West Side, and then work with the City to add 'something else' (sign/free library/art piece/painted firehydrant) that can be nominated as waypoint in the future.

    I do understand that not all nominations are used in game. But seeing as I have little to work with as it is, I feel I have to start somewhere-since every successful nomination has a purpose in this case.

    And forgive my improper terminology use. I am not yet up to speed on the common use language you all are more familiar with. When I look at my phone, I see pokestops, not waypoints. But again, I'm still getting up to speed. I seem to have had more success on the reviewing side, as I have had several accepteds already.

    Maybe reviewing is more my calling. But I do like to improve what I can.

    Post edited by Keybrdkid09-PGO on
  • Keybrdkid09-PGOKeybrdkid09-PGO Posts: 6 ✭✭

    here are some aerial shots of the park as it currently is. The tennis court picture is the east side, the grassy field/soccer field one is the middle of the park, and the one with parking lots is the west side. The park is basically a giant rectangle with a sidewalk on all four sides of the park boundaries. I was concerned mostly with the West side area. But perhaps if that is not a complete solution until someone can work with the City to get more added there, I can also explore untapped areas in the East Side-which there seem to be at least a few, and ways to make the East side more user friendly.


  • JillJilyJabadoo-PGOJillJilyJabadoo-PGO Posts: 1,082 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Getting a sign or an LFL on the west side sounds like your best bet for over there to me. Especially since the park has no existing sign, from what you've described.

    The text in the apps is misleading. We don't actually nominate pokestops or portals, we nominate wayspots. Those go into Niantic's Lightship database. From there, the games use different inclusion rules to decide which wayspots become pokestops or portals (or whatever their other games use). I highly recommend you google about Pokémon Go's pokestop inclusion rules before proceeding, whatever you decide to do.

  • WheelTrekker-INGWheelTrekker-ING Posts: 3,388 ✭✭✭✭✭

    You won't be able to add new pokestops on the east side of the park. Pokemon Go uses "S2 cells" and the ones at that side already have one wayspot so even if you add new ones, they won't show up in pokemon.

    In this picture, the yellow lines mark those S2 cells


  • Keybrdkid09-PGOKeybrdkid09-PGO Posts: 6 ✭✭

    That is very informative! Thank you! I knew cells existed, but my apparently incorrect impression of a cell was that it covered a much larger area, say a 1 sq. kilometer or 1/2 mile. apparently it is much smaller than I thought. curious as to where you got this graphic? or is this from an internal niantic employee? I would like to explore my community more using the cell graphic to see if I can identify any areas I might have overlooked.

  • Keybrdkid09-PGOKeybrdkid09-PGO Posts: 6 ✭✭

    I am in talks with my LFL locally to see about that. I want to hear from them first before I comment about feasilibity since this LFL would be on city land--which I imagine requires permitting and approval. something way above my pay grade so to speak. But interestingly, apparently according to a friend of mine who also plays pokemon go, there is a local LFL that was moved quite recently from its physical location. And there was a waypoint tied to it. But I doubt anyone has even notified Niantic of the change since it was so recently moved. I wonder if coordinators of LFL locally are looking for a new location for that box, and whether it could be installed on the west side of sunset park. That and the addition of a welcome sign would help. I know some friends of mine would appreciate as many more stops as we can get here. Its basically a medium to higih density residential suburb.

  • WheelTrekker-INGWheelTrekker-ING Posts: 3,388 ✭✭✭✭✭

    There are different levels of S2 cells, each level split the previous cell level in four new sub-cells (half the width and half the height). So they go from level 1 (I think that just 6 cells to cover the whole world) to maybe level 32 that can be a few centimeters, Pokemon Go uses level 14 and 17 (other levels for other game stuff).

    The screenshot is Ingress' Intel map (another game from Niantic) with an overlay.

    I don't want to talk too much about that because there are some persons that will hurry to report the post and request to close the thread as they claim that "this is not wayfarer related", so please, use your google powers as this is properly explained in reddit, youtube, etc..

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