30 Days banned for following Niantic Standards

General Discussion
1

Hello everyone, i have been experiencing unfairness from Niantic Support for the past years but this has gone too far. Im here to ask support from the community to appeal and reverse the suspension of my account.

To start my topic, a year ago i was previously warned by niantic support for the way i review nominations. that was my first ever warning. I got warned for rejecting a lot of nominations coz they say it was all random rejection and abusive. Well every single nomination review i did was not just random and not spam reviews, what i did was denying nomination of churches and other government or hospital areas or work areas where it is not proper to have wayspot as it violates the protocol and morals of the areas nominated. but since naintic warned my account i stopped reviewing coz it would be a lost cause for me since niantic did not hear my purpose.

since then i focused on helping our little pokemon go community to grow and enjoy the game by finding more landmarks or items in our area we can nominate. Like any other community of players around the globe we have way more rejections than accepted nominations but it did not stop me from pushing to do more nominations.

i got a second warning for trying to adjust a location on one of our pokemon go gym coz its a little far away and we could not access it properly specially when trying to scan it but again instead of listening niantic support gave me a warning instead. i cannot really understand why niantic blocks community member like me who is just trying to make things better for the sake of our local players. considering the consequences stated by niantic i gave up on it and moved on.

now comes niantic supposedly reason for my 30 day suspension, a nomination i made using the take a photo option but the first time i did it was during night time so the photo i took was not that good, got rejected and i sent an appeal but instead got a earning of suspension.

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so following niantic criteria and standards i re applied the nomination using take a photo option again this time during day time to get a better quality picture but got rejected through automated niantic system again so i tried appealing since i got it right this time following guidelines and stuff but guess what i got, 30days suspension instead. just for abiding community standards and criteria made by niantic. They even added violations i did not even commit just to justify the suspension.

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i tried appealing but to no avail.

now im asking the community for help as i feel that what happened to my account can happen to anyone else. this is a very one sided decision done by niantic support and it is not fair to just openly accept this suspensions just because niantic can do so. please help because if its just me alone i cannot do anything about it but as a community we can help each other make niantic community a better place for everyone. Thank you so very much

Ign: Gundamskie
Loc: Philippines

Mod Edit: Removed PII.

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This seems like it falls under temporary graffiti/vandalism ( Unique Art )

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and maybe even under “Influencing Reviewers” which is a no.

Moving a Wayspot away from its location can be considered abuse if it is already correctly located.

Typically the Niantic staff on this forum will send you a DM with further details on, but it seems clear why you received these warnings/suspensions. I would suggest reading through the Abuse Ladder Policy (Wayfarer Abuse Enforcement Ladder Policy — Wayfarer Help Center) and the Wayfarer Criteria (Wayspot Criteria — Wayfarer Help Center) before the end of your 30 days.

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Hey @Gundamskie ,

Our records tell a completely different story. Let me explain in DM.

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thanks for the email boss, however the suspension does not justify the nomination or the accusations made by niantic support.

take note that the primary reason they have done so is the smile nomination i made, which for a fact if the first one is a poor photo then it just falls to the rejection criteria and not suspension grounds thats why i confidently re applied the same area using a much better photo. it doesn’t make sense giving a 30 day suspension for a nomination made just to correct the error of the first nomination of that same area.

and regarding influencing others, no single specific group or people mentioned in any of my nominations. which also is a false accusation from the support team.

then as i have said in my post in the forum the editing i did of the gym location is needed so we can scan it properly, meaning the accepted current location is not accurate, might be a gps bug or inaccuracy when it was first applied.

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This is not the reason. The candidate in question was blatantly against our criteria.

You don’t have to mention someone/ a group to influence. Either way, that violation did not have any impact as you had a clean slate as explained in my DM.

I don’t see this violation in your records. The other violation has explicitly been mentioned in my DM. Please refer to it.

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I can’t give full comments since I don’t have all the details of this case, but please speak to NianticAaron by the DM there has been iniated with you.

I also suggest reading up on the criteria again as your nomination is clearly temporary

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Hi! Churches are usually very good wayspots, and there are certainly eligible things in hospitals, work, and government buildings. Things need not be accessible by everyone, as long as they do not impact emergency or industrial operations there is no automatic denial for those

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So it ok to disturb churches just so others can play their game? even for non believers we should respect the concept of a church and not make it a playground as it is a place of worship for some.

Places you mentioned may be good for players like us but having so many by standers playing a game in those area disturbs the very purpose of such places.

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Most religious places are major parts of the community and their buildings can be significant and being part of a religious community is a social activity. All of these make them eligible and acceptable. That is all we are asked to assess based on facts.

However some religious buildings may not want to be part of a game. These can simply use the owner request form to have any wayspots removed.

This combination allows for assessment of locations based on facts and individual adjustments to take into account a particular churches preference without making assumptions.

This form can be passed on to owners

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11

This is a generic message included with every rejection. The second line even says “If you feel like this rejection is an error.”

Each rejection should be treated as a learning experience, to review the criteria and apply them to your rejected nomination to learn how you can improve and perhaps let go of certain nominations that might not meet criteria.

Just because you don’t like that churches are eligible, doesn’t make them any less eligible. This is Niantic Scopely’s map, we’re just curators of the map. As curators, we need to abide by the rules for adding to the map that they’ve laid out, whether we like it or not.

I don’t think this is the reality of the majority of Wayfarers. Most have more accepted than rejected. It sounds like you need to take some time to thoroughly review the criteria before attempting Wayfarer again.

Aaron has stated this isn’t on their records. Which is probably lucky for you because this, again, is a violation of Wayfarer’s rules.

You received a warning stating that the submission you made was of poor quality, and decided to take a better picture and resubmit it?

Honestly, this is one of the most slam dunk suspensions I’ve come across.

You’ve listed several violations in your post alone, let alone any that you didn’t list.

You submitted something blatantly against the guidelines, received a warning for it, and decided to resubmit it anyway.

I recommend that you take the 30 days away from Wayfarer to put some serious thought into whether or not Wayfarer is something you should be participating in. If you do decide that you want to come back, I strongly recommend that you take some time to go through the criteria very carefully to really understand what’s eligible and what’s not.

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I don’t see how you would automatically disturb the church by playing a game, since you could just stand outside. Many churches are beautiful landmarks for their unique architecture and even tourist attractions. Perhaps you should revisit the acceptance and rejection criteria :slight_smile:

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hello boss, do you even understand what churches are for? it’s because of people like you in this community who openly accepts nominations of churches that is the root of this very problem.

and yes niantic is 100% responsible to limit places that should not be used in their games which definitely includes churches and others.

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Another person who doesn’t know why churches are built. definitely not for you to play niantic games.

This is why niantic should review their criteria now.

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[quote=“Glawhantojar, post:11, topic:110886”]
Aaron has stated this isn’t on their records. Which is probably lucky for you because this, again, is a violation of

you might be a lucky dude who gets their nomination accepted. but a lot is not as lucky as you sir.

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I do, actually, having attended one for several years.

I don’t think being rude to the folks here who are trying to help you understand why you got suspended (rightfully) is going to help your case.

At the end of the day your personal feelings on Churches is irrelevant. Niantic says that they’re eligible, so they are. If you want to participate in Wayfarer you’ll need to accept that as fact.

I have personally spoken with many clergy members from many churches and not a single one of them had an issue with Pokémon GO players gathering outside of their place of worship so long as we were respectful of their property and their parishioners.

If you have experienced something different with the churches in your area I suggest you direct them to the Wayspot removal form and have the church members contact Niantic directly about adjusting/removing the Wayspot at their church.

Otherwise, you’re just screaming into the void at a bunch of people who are going to disagree with you vehemently on the subject of churches.

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Please respect everybody and speak in a friendly tone. we are only trying to help you understand and help

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I mean… maybe if you tried submitting stuff that was eligible it wouldn’t get rejected…

You’re welcome.

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I would assume that almost nothing in the real world is built for Niantic games, it’s Wayfarer’s mission to find unique things that already exist. Most churches are perfectly okay with people being there, in fact that’s actually what churches are for, places for the community to gather. I would love for you to try and explain how a smiley painted on a random wall is a better place to explore than a church

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for one im not gonna face that smiley face and worship it. most importantly churches are built as sacred ground for believers not just for gathering people but a symbol of their beliefs. and niantic wayspot is not in any religious scripture is it?