I was recently given a 30-day suspension for two Wayfarer contributions: one involving a third-party photo and another involving an incorrectly placed Wayspot. Both were honest mistakes, and I have already submitted an appeal to Niantic.
I’m an active Campfire group admin and regularly organize local meetups, so I would really like to continue contributing to the community.
I’ve also recently supported the game by purchasing Glimmers of Gratitude, attending GO Fest Copenhagen, and buying the 5,000 PokéCoin bundle.
Has anyone had a similar experience, or know of any other way to have the suspension reviewed? I would really appreciate any advice.
If you already appealed, that was the right course of action.
What you hopefully included in the appeal was an explanation for your actions - for example - why was the photo flagged as third party? If it was not your photo, and you submitted by taking someone else’s photos you found online, then the suspension is to be expected. If however, it was your own photo that you also shared online, then proving that would be relevent to the appeal.
After 30 days you’ll be able to play again and can use the meantime to refresh your knowledge of the rules so this doesn’t happen again.
Thank you for the advice. The photo was a third-party aerial image of a building I was submitting as a Wayspot. I chose it because the building is shown much more clearly from above, whereas a photo taken with my phone would not show the same thing. I genuinely did not know that using a third-party image was against the guidelines. After understanding the rule, I resubmitted the Wayspot using my own photo, and it was accepted.
I’m genuinely trying to contribute to the community through Wayfarer and help improve the game, as well as organizing local meetups through Campfire. That’s why getting a 30-day Pokémon GO suspension over these mistakes feels a bit unfair, especially since there was no intention to abuse or manipulate the system. I’ve learned from the mistakes and will definitely be more careful with future submissions.
The submission process actually warns you not to use photos you found online - highlighted below. The criteria are pretty clear. This is because Scopely cannot be seen to be “stealing” third party photos for use on their platform, and they are trusting us not to expose them to that risk.
I can see why you thought that getting the best image to submit was the best way to create a wayspot. I am glad to hear that you now understand the need for it to be your own photo that you are handing over to Wayfarer to use.
Could you tell us a little bit more about the misplaced location please?
I didn’t see this message when submitting through the Wayfarer website, and I also didn’t properly read through the guidelines at the time. I was simply trying to help the community by adding useful Wayspots, without realizing I was doing something against the rules.
I completely understand and accept the Wayfarer ban, where I only spend a very small amount of my time. What feels unfair to me is that the same enforcement also results in a 30-day suspension from Pokémon GO, where I spend the vast majority of my time and actively participate in the community. I was genuinely trying to contribute by adding Wayspots, not cheat or abuse the system.
Regarding the misplaced location, it was simply an honest mistake. I confused the two sides/parts of the highway when placing the Wayspot and accidentally marked the wrong location. The difference was only a few tens of meters. There was absolutely no intention to manipulate the location or gain any advantage from it; I simply misidentified which side of the road the Wayspot was on.
We have seen more 30 day bans at the forum. The bans are always also for the game, as most people that try to get pokestops at incorrect places have the intention to influence game play.
We have seen that bans are revoked, but only when it is clear that, based upon new evidence, the warning/ban was incorrect.
In this situation, as you did misplace it, and did use a 3rd party picture, it is highly unlikely that the ban will be revoked.
Please be extremely careful the next 12 months, as the next ban will most likely be a 10 year ban.
To be honest, the misplacement was very significant, at the opposite side of a major road, so it was not a small error.
Thanks for the explanation. Regarding the location, I understand your point. I normally don’t check the exact position too carefully because Wayfarer already suggests a location, which in general is correct, so I assumed the suggested position was accurate. In this case, I confused the two sides of the major road and didn’t check the satellite view, where the mistake would have been much more obvious.
It was genuinely an oversight rather than an attempt to influence gameplay or place the Wayspot somewhere advantageous. I understand now that I need to verify the exact location myself, and I will definitely do so for every future submission.
One of our current ambassadors has been very open about their story, which started off similarly to you with a suspension, but they learned from it and have now become a very successful, brilliant wayfarer so please do come back after the suspension and feel free to ask us for any clarifications or assistance you need to be able to contine to engage with wayfarer going forward.
I still feel that receiving a 30-day suspension from Pokémon GO for an honest Wayfarer mistake is a bit unfair, especially when I was trying to contribute to the community rather than influence gameplay.
This is the picture I actually took, together with the location where my phone automatically placed it. i believe I was sharing data from another phone and didn’t have a reliable GPS signal at the time, the phone may have relied on Wi-Fi-based location services instead. This could explain why the location attached to the photo ended up in the middle of the building and on the wrong side of the road. I had no reason to suspect that the recorded location was inaccurate at the time.
Are you saying that the GPS location saved for the photo was incorrect? When you use the website to submit a wayspot nomination it will automatically choose the coords attached to the photo as where to place the location. You of course are expected to adjust the pin to where it should be - this is often required since a photo taken of a POI is almost never where the thing is, no matter how close you are standing to it.
Yes, that’s what I mean. I don’t normally upload Wayspots, so I wasn’t aware that the GPS coordinates attached to the photo could be that far apart from the actual location where the pin should be placed. I assumed the coordinates would be reasonably close to the POI, so I didn’t realize I needed to adjust the pin manually by that much.
Clearly, using the web submit method and going by the (complete lack of) information presented means it is possible to use a third-party photo and you get no indication that this will be a problem.
I think since you used the web submit method, being penalised for something that was not shown at any stage in the process is a little harsh (regarding the photo).
You know now
Regarding GPS location, I have been sat in a nearby leisure centre without being connected to their wifi and my phone has jumped between that location and a leisure centre four miles away (which I now assume is managed by the same organisation). Use your GPS but never trust it without verifying.
I 100% agree that the web submit should make it clear but does anybody seriously believe that taking someone else’s photo and uploading it to be used in a commercial product would be OK???
I completely agree that the web submission should make this clearer. I understand now that using someone else’s photo as the main image for a commercial product would obviously not be OK.
At the time, however, I believed the photo I uploaded was only going to be used as a supplementary/reference picture. I had never had a Wayspot accepted before, so I didn’t understand that this would become the image displayed for the Wayspot. If I had known that, I would absolutely have used my own photo instead.
It’s possible to honestly misunderstand the process. I strongly suspect @xai1998 made an honest mistake here and the web submit could have had more (some!) information.
Obviously, people also don’t read text on screens (this is a problem with human nature, not individuals), but the information should be there before you get can suspended for not reading it.
so please do come back after the suspension and feel free to ask us for any clarifications or assistance you need to be able to contine to engage with wayfarer going forward.
