So I live in a village in Switzlerland. Very small (1800 people or so). We do have a couple of Stops down in the center (about 1mile from here). Some so close to each other that you don’t even have to walk between them).
I live a bit further out and there’s nothing here but there are some great places. Some of which have similar stops in the village itself. In Switzerland (for those who don’t know) in particular small fountains are everywhere and a great opportunity for a spot. So I took it upon me, to nominate one:
Looks pretty cool, hm? Also it’s on a trail, that everyone can walk on (it’s not an actual road but that should not matter. It’s a trail. It’s on the map.
It’s not removable having been there prob. for 30+ years or so.
The Nomination feedback was:
“water fountain without any notable significance”
NONE of any Swiss fountains have a significance anymore. It’s culture. We do have these and a LOT of these are actual pokestop. This one even DOES have benches and stuff so it classifies as a resting place for hikers or farmers.
I don’t understand the reasoning and I’d like to check before I resubmit the thing.
Hey stordyr,
would you like to attach screenshots of the decision, and in addition please locate the exact location of the proposal you submitted? Then we can get a better overview and find out together where a possible problem could be.
Greets from Dresden
Hi, welcome to the forum! I did not understand if the text you cite was an appeal response? Can we please see the full nomination and the feedback received?
In this particular instance (but seeing only the main photo) I would tend to agree with you and suggest resubmitting. (I haven’t seen the rest of your nomination nor reviewed the location so this is just going off the type of object.) However I would caution against reasoning in terms of “there are already Pokéstops of this type”. Instead I would try reasoning in terms of Wayfarer criteria and explain to the (community or appeal) reviewers that historically those stone water basins used to be primary water sources that connected communities together, that currently having one on the trail allows you to continue on the hiking or biking trail, including evidence that a trail goes through here (I happen to know Switzerland has great online trail maps). These are example arguments, but you get the idea - you need to show that this thing is important in its context, not that “there are many other wayspots like this one so why not mine too”, which diminishes the importance of what you are nominating.
Note that remote wooded areas are tricky in confirming location, so think carefully about what you can include to confirm its presence if it is not immediately obvious from Google Street View and satellite.
Also, note that you are not nominating Pokéstops but wayspots, to a database used by multiple game products. Depending on inclusion rules, it is not guaranteed to be necessarily eligible for Pokémon GO.
Good luck - please feel free to post your next draft here for us to review the full nomination.
2 Likes
Google Maps gives this location:
47.32558176704235, 8.135808556676249
Was the original rejection reason you got “Wayfarer Criteria”, and did your first rejection email say “our team decided…”?
My guess is that’s a ML automated rejection followed by an (imo, not very correct as it is a rest area on a trail) appeal rejection. I would work on the main photo to center it around the fountain/rest area and exclude the forest and ground as much as possible. That’s probably the first hurdle you have to clear.
I will be back later today with some suggestions regarding text and location proof.
2 Likes
I would say that it’s potentially a valid wayspot, there are several things that could do done to improve its chances.
Concentrate more on the proposed wayspot in the photo and have less grass and trees in it. This might help with auto-rejections, for example:
Find out the history about it. When was it built? What’s the name of the area? If it’s on a walking trail, which one? I can’t see the title, but that’s one of the most important things - if the spot has an official name then use it, else make a short description of what it is and where.
The description is the place you can add more colour, describe the wayspot, its history and significance. For example, this rest area was built in [year] for the benefit of walkers exploring [area], it sits alongside [track] and offers views over the [whatever].
Remember, in the supporting text you can add URLs to supporting information, so if there’s a page describing the proposed wayspot or the route then use that.
In addition… looking at the area, it looks like you have the potential for a lot of trailmarkers - named walking trails are excellent candidates but remember to give each one a unique title if you can, for example:
Good luck, I think with some work you can get this one in.
4 Likes
(back, sorry)
Again I believe this is very much eligible, but you didn’t give reviewers much to work with in your text so I would use some capitalization and more detailed writing about the location and what this is for. I don’t see your title, but same, don’t make it just “Fountain” or similar.
In terms of location proof, you have the usual problem of the object not being visible on satellite or for that matter better local satellite. This means you have to take a good supporting photo. On local satellite I see some kind of structure in the forest, is this something that can be included in the photo to prove location? Include the better local satellite in the supplemental text field, for example.
