Cafes/coffee shops?
GypsyGirl9-PGO
Posts: 13 ✭✭
Just wondering about small local cafes/coffee shops.
The criteria section of Wayfarer has “favourite coffee shop” listed however the one near me keeps getting rejected for being ‘explicit’ and ‘doesn’t meet criteria’. It’s a tiny little cafe that does some food and speciality coffee, it isn’t a chain of restaurants and i even mentioned that in the newest submission but again rejected. My brother has also nominated it and been rejected. We’ve also nominated a small mural it has on the side of the building and that too was rejected.
So are local coffee shops/cafes allowed or not?
thanks!
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You are correct on all counts. Cafes are cited as allowable submissions, but many reviewers seem set against them. You may have better luck nominating the mural on its own merits.
If you do retry the cafe itself, it seems you must thread a needle: demonstrate or prove that the cafe is significant to the community or is world-renowned or Michelin starred, without copying any advertising hype or causing the reviewers to feel coerced or manipulated.
Good luck - or great skill - should see you through.
Thanks for clearing that up. I may try again eventually but it is annoying and off putting to keep having nominations rejected when they clearly meet the criteria. Fingers crossed maybe next time it’ll go through lol.
Although they can be eligible, you still need to provide proof that it meets one of the criteria. Simply existing as a coffee shop is not enough.
Eligibility does mean that reviewers are required to accept it. It only means that they are not required to reject. It is important to understand the difference.
Generally small business’s are one of the hardest things to be accepted. If we see your nomination with description and supporting info we can give some advice. Generally if its “small locally owned coffee shop” is never enough. Need to show how its unique from others or how it is a hotspot compaired to all other coffee shops
When I look at any kind of business nomination, I'm focused on how much the business is a great place for exploration, exercise, or to be social with others - the eligibility criteria - versus just a great place to eat, drink coffee, get a car fixed, etc. I need to be convinced that people visit the business for something beyond the basic primary services it provides.
I look for store events or classes, live music, outdoor eating spaces where people linger, unique local decor or menu items, and Google photospheres or Streetview showing that the place is packed. I want to see that people go for the experience, to hang out with friends or explore local culture.
That's a very great way to put it, in stealing this for the inevitable future questions.
It literally fits all of that criteria you just stated! It’s near a big park, a library, it has a hair salon next to it. There’s walking trails all around this area. A football oval a few minutes away. It’s tucked away in the suburbs so it’s one of the few coffee shops around here, people line up out the door every single day when they are open. It also has quite cute signage on the front of the shop with their name. I figured if that isn’t a coffee shop that can get accepted then what coffee shop is and why is it even listed as acceptable criteria on the main page??
maybe my description isn’t good enough? Maybe the photo?? As I’ve stated it’s always got people lining up out the door so getting a photo without people is rough.
is it worth trying to get through again or should I just not bother?? And if I do try again what should I put as the description instead??
any help is appreciated
unfortunately anything in my state just stays in voting for years so I have to use an upgrade and can’t rely on locals.
Description looks good, what was your supporting info?
Just another photo of the cafe/street explaining it’s a popular hot spot in the area and it’s not a part of a chain of cafes as it’s been denied before I was hoping maybe that was the reason so letting people know might help.
Thats where you would specify what makes it more than a normal coffee shop... from their Facebook insaw that they host "coffee talk" with award winning coffee barista... im notbsurr what else you csn dig up, but i also see its highly rated on google and Facebook
Yeah it’s very popular, I’ll add more info like that in the supporting section and give it a go! It’ll probably get denied again but I’ll try one last time haha!
thank you for the help!
Good luck!
Also things around the cafe doesn not help your nomination what so ever. So all the trails fields parks dont matter to what you are nominating. How ever those would be great spots for nominations if they dont have any yet (ie park, library, football field)
Another thing as well. If its a local shop dont upgrade it. You want your locals to be reviewing this (yes it will take longer). But when you upgrade it it goes way outside your local community and places around it to basically anyone
dude I only mentioned things around the shop because someone further up told me that’s what they look for when it’s coffee shops ^^^^
Citing Google and Yelp reviews help a lot if they are good (4.5 stars or better). I try to highlight that on the submissions for restaurants, cafe's and smoothie bars. If you can find some local awards, local chamber of commerce best of, local magazine awards, etc.
Sadly those types of submission are hard because unlike a gazebo, where you can usually just write "its a Gazebo, people go there" or a trail marker "This is a trail marker for ..... trail, people walk here", local business's seem to require a marketing bio, but don't make it too good or you will make it sounds too advertisie, which is also no no. Its BS but its what the community has decided. If its your go to spot and its popular keep at it. They go through eventually (usually).
I also disagree about the local attractions not mattering. They are good to mention in supporting information. We have a local rail trail that is very popular for runners bikers and walkers. Many of the restaurants that are located adjacent to the trail go through with out much issue (compared to others around town) and the local group that I coordinate submissions with always makes mention of the trail or other local attractions that are within proximity. Don't go overboard but its certainly worth the inclusion in supporting information. It wont carry the submission to approval but antidotal evidence in our area shows that it does make a difference.
Here's a perfect example of where the reviewing community has gone astray. Perfect timing as I literally got these back to back.
The first is a Gazebo, this will go through as an easy 5* submission. Very little went into the submission other then telling us what is it. We all make the assumption that town events happen here, since in our own home towns that's what happens. Very little detail is provided, but we don't need much; we just know.
Here is example two: Local seafood restaurant. A much better write up then the gazebo, far more detail. This has maybe a 50/50 shot at going through first time. If it was upgraded I would bet money it gets rejected with this write up. Now if you look this place up on google is gets 4.6 stars on almost 900 reviews on google, 5 stars on Facebook and is ranked number #1 of 32 restaurants in Yarmouth on TripAdvisor. Could the submitter have added this color commentary, of course, does the lack of it mean that this is not a worthy submission, not one bit. The fact that they didn't add those details doesn't mean that its not a popular restaurant. The submitter supplied every detail that Niantic has asked for, perhaps more, but for many reviewers its not enough. Yet the gazebo, BRAVISSIMO!
These both got excellent reviews from me, and I hope they both go through, but there will be plenty of folks who will 1* reject the second because they weren't sold on the "popularity". "Looks like just another generic seafood joint" 1* rejected. 1* are for obvious No's, this restaurant and those like it are not 1*'s.
@Oakes1923-PGO has a compelling case here. What is more, I'd rather look through restaurants and find potential places to eat than stare at another bench or dog bag station being passed off as trail marker.
That was all really helpful and very well written out to help explain Oakes, thank you for that :)
Definitely agree, I am a foodie and I love trying new places. I've found several places, that are fairly local to me, via new stops in PokeGo. Which goes directly to the criteria of great place for exploration. Its one of the reasons I find it so frustrating that we've created this arbitrary standard.
Man, I really dislike that businesses, such as restaurants and the like are now so common submissions. When I get one of those on review, I tend to either skip or 3* them. It is extremely hard to describe them properly so that they go through, and also very hard to review them. How can I, as a reviewer, make sure that even the best of descriptions are true if the restaurant doesn't have even a FB page? Most Mom and Pop places don't have anything like that.
I get the idea that they should be eligble, but as it is now, it's a roll of the die if they go through or not, and likewise if you vote "right" or not. Either, the demands for descriptions should be lowered, leading to most restaurants aside from chains being accepted, or it should be made clear that businesses are not eligble. Otherwise, it just leads to frustration, both on the nominating and reviewing side.
Meanwhile, any playground or sports field just sail through, but they are not as interesting as a local restaurant.
its up to the nomiantor to convince us, whether thats through articles, awards, pages, photos etc. Simply stating something is not enough sadly. (i have personally used a line wrapped around the building as proof once)
That leads to denying almost every restaurant and café you get, which I think is wrong. It is a conundrum I still don't have any solution to. Having such high demands for proving something is, in reality, a rejection. The guidelines need to be updated.
I strongly disagree, if there is no proof required I can nominate around 1000 small businesses in my small city alone with some BS info.
I rather like to review cafes and restaurants, and I don't need them to have awards to be eligible, but getting some information about this place and why it is popular from submitter should be a must.
I see a lot of nominations where the only thing mentioned about cafe/restaurant is that it's a cafe/restaurant and in support text "popular cafe/restaurant". How can I judge if it's popular if submitter didn't add anything about it and near this place is 10 other cafes/restaurants? I accept many nominations for cafes/restaurants, but I need at least a bit information about it.
I think that at least a bit of work of submitter is needed when they want something added to game, at least writing a short information about it. Here is example of nomination where submitter didn't give anything usefull for reviewer about nominations (I added English translation of description and support text in red text) :
Apart from restaurant name we didn't get any information here (and I know it's the name as it's visible on main photo). Submitter had time to add screenshot from wayfarer as a proof of popular restaurants being eligible (it was submitter who highlighted text on support photo), but he didn't have time to even mention what kind of food you can eat here, or anything else.
And when I looked for some information of this place I found some reviews in Google (only 3, and they differ from 5/5 to 1/5), and I found website of this restaurant and facebook page too - and thanks to that I found that main photo was stolen from facebook page of this place, photos are exactly the same (so third party photo).
I think this nomination might have a chance of being accepted, but without any information about this place (and at least adding some information and link to website in support text) this is another lazy nomination example that was rejected. And there is many of them like that.
So, cafes are definetly eligible, but there are some picky reviewers that required really many information, and there are also lazy submitters that don't give any information about they nominations. I think the best would be getting in the middle of this scale - submitter gave some important information about nominations and why it's eligible, and reviewers judge it based on it and maybe some more information they found :)
Echoing what others have said if a business supporting info/description only says “popular hotspot” and describes a list of what they serve I’m more than likely going to reject it unless it is clearly a unique looking spot (more often than not it isnt). If the submitter can’t find a single thing that makes a certain cafe/restaurant unique from others then they really aren’t worthy of the poi in my mind. If I see someone puts in a decent effort into the description and supporting info I always read through and with the added info I can make an informed decision and I generally will side with them if they put some effort into it. Shows me that its actually worth the acceptance. Vs someone who nominates any business to throw niantic buzzwords into the description to try and get an accepted without any effort.
Not really. Coffee shops are explicitly listed on the acceptance criteria.
The criteria states Favorite Coffee Shops. If Niantic meant for every non chain coffee shop and restaurant to be accepted, they would have left off the words favorite and popular.
Yes, as stuff that CAN be eligible, not explicitly eligible.
"Favorite" coffee shops. That doesn't mean all coffee shops or all locally owned coffee shops. Adjectives matter.