Have you ever been salted at your nominations being rejected as 'Generic Business'?
Or, when you nominate a local popular business near you, are you got mad because it got rejected with nonsensical reasons i.e. PRP, location inappropriate/sensitive, or even fake?
Then come to Manado, a big city and one of popular tourist destinations at Eastern Indonesia..., with generic stores and restaurants as Wayspots.
We have (from nearby Wayspots photo):
1. A local Padang restaurant and a chain hospital;
2. A chain bookstore and a chain commercial bank;
3. A McDonald's restaurant and a chain coffeeshop;
4. A Wayspot without any photos? And a KFC restaurant;
5. A chain restaurant, that should be permanently closed now due to the owner was involved into a case, and an insurance office;
6. Another McDonald's restaurant;
7. And another chain commercial bank.
And it's just a part of this city, but with that many Wayspots I'm not telling that they're all generic business, as there are many other kind of Wayspots like churches in the city.
P.S: I'm not reporting Wayspots this time, as they all won't ever meet removal criteria except maybe that permanently closed restaurant. Anyway congratulations to Niantic to keep such Schrödinger Wayspots into Lightship database.
Comments
I've always joked about how some people have enough accounts to get a KFC through if they tried, guess that happens at your local.
As for the wayspot without a photo, it's a Niantic imported one - guessing it's a basketball court or a skate park.
A month ago, chain stores were removed from the rejection criteria on the help and became a hot topic of discussion. Since then, nominations for chain restaurants have increased in Japan. I don't know about review trends in Indonesia, but in Japan, those nominations are approved by Niantic review, not by us.
Guess you're right about Niantic imported Wayspot XD
Situation might be different—and also complicated—here. I assume that everyone know that currently ~60% population of Indonesia resides at Java Island. Hence the majority of Wayfinders of my country are from Java, and I know that most of them won't approve generic business like McDonald's, Starbucks etc.
However things went differently outside of Java Island especially regions outside of most reviewers' current location or home location coverage area. Simply putting it short, those generic business Wayspots from Manado were made by no other than local cabals.
Also Niantic reviews are questionable, I've complained to them for approving a generic building material store months ago.
I once had a rental lodge in a town park denied for "Private Residence or Farm" AND "Generic Business."
I had linked the official town Parks Department page in the supporting info, and that page showed locations and rates for the rental lodges available in this town-owned park, along with a few photos. These lodges are used for parties, meetings, and get-togethers of all types.
After multiple other rejections (Temporary or Seasonal, K-12 School, Other Rejection...) I just gave up. This park has four lodges: two went through immediately, one was rejected thrice and then approved on appeal, and this one - which will eventually use up anappeal, because apparently I can't rely on accurate local voting.
It would be interesting to know exactly what it takes to get something through.
I recently had 5 memorial benches, the bog standard in Loving memory of John Smith etc, all appear on the same night within a 10 minute walk of each other. That would take a lot of effort by an individual I think.
I submitted a local (non chain) restaurant which is very well known in the community. I provided: a detailed description, including a brief history of the place; in the second info box, a detailed description of how the place impacts the community and how the owners are locals; a link to the restaurant's own website detailing its history; a link to the Wayfarer forum post where Niantic staff confirms local restaurants are valid.
Result: Rejected for being Location Inappropriate and Other Rejection Criteria
I just appealed it, recently a June 9, 2020 appeal for a nearby location has come through, so I'll keep you guys posted in 2024
Good luck!
By the time it is accepted they will probably have had a redesign on the front so you'll have to submit a photo edit. I look forward to seeing it in 2025.
2020 is the year when you nominated it, appeals where introduced in December 2021
Revisiting this thread after the introduction of Wayfarer app. The number of generic business Wayspots across the entire city is damn high. Try to spot how many generic business Wayspots from this image below, or try to count them for the entire city via the app.
@NianticTintino-ING one again I won't ask to do anything with those many Schrödinger Wayspots, but for app functionality please display the list of all Wayspots spotted after clicking "Load Nearby Wayspots". This should become more handy in loading Wayspots for larger area (that would usually display "Area too large, please zoom in" message).
Back in OPR times everything was marked as “Generic Business”.
A statue? Sorry, reviewers rejected that as generic business.
A playground? Sorry, someone thought that was a generic business.
Apparently Niantic's appeal reviewers are still rejecting appeal for "generic business" reasons.
Even in the Japanese community, chain stores are generally not accepted.
Universal businesses such as chain stores do not meet the approval criteria.
I think the rejection is justified.
However, the current situation is that it has been approved at some point, and it is under the illusion that it has been accepted by the community.
Niantic should set clear standards and educate low-level explorers.
Since there are no clear standards, the current situation is that judges are divided on whether or not general business should be accepted.
I think that approval should be promoted for unique stores that do not have affiliated stores.
When submitting, you must clearly indicate that you are not a unique store.