I am writing to respectfully appeal the suspension of my account MC0204/Emcee020420 under the email add I received notice that my account was flagged for a “malicious image submission” or “abuse” related to a recent Wayspot/photo contribution.
I would like to clarify that there was no malicious intent behind this submission. I submitted a photo that was sourced from Google Search because I wanted to provide a clearer view of the Iglesia ni Cristo, Panay - Lokal ng Panay and I was unable to take a photo at that exact moment my older brother was in emergency and rushed in the hospital due to heat.
I now realize that using third-party imagery is a violation of Niantic’s Terms of Service and Wayfarer criteria regarding copyright and authenticity. At the time, I mistakenly believed I was helping to improve the map, but I now understand that only original photos taken in person are permitted.
The location itself is real and meets eligibility criteria. Attached herewith is the new photo I have taken.
I value my account and the Niantic community. And pokemon go I one of the game my brother and I enjoy with, sharing experiences, catch of the day, new friends and othe stuufs. I have reviewed the Wayfarer Photo Guidelines and commit to only submitting original, personal photos in the future. I kindly ask for a re-review of my case and for the suspension to be overturned or reduced to a warning.
Thank you for your time and for the work you do to keep the game safe.
Sincerely,
MC0204/Emcee020420
A Loyal Niantic Player, A Child That Enjoy
Exactly, thats why i did it and honestly done it for a reason. My brother was confined and we need to transfer from iloilo st pauls hospital for medication from capiz doctors hospital. thats happened. Pasensya po if nagkamali po ako, bata eh maraming pang dapat matutunan at intindihin sa mundo.
Please po help me for this suspension, if it can be reduced or warning po kung pwd. I wont do it again po, im simply helping the community there with no intention to by pass or violate Niantics policies.
Please forgive me, please allow me to play again with your game, and enjoy and have fun. 30days it too long, i already invested much. Hoping for your understanding and positive response with this matter.
This is unfortunate, but it’s unlikely your account will be reopened unless it was a mistake on Wayfarer’s part. The best course of action is to avoid submitting further nominations after your first violation.
or not submit further nominations anymore. that will be safe. or stop playing.
Sometimes we just look favorable things for us but we dont see the effect later on.
Lesson learned, no pokemon go for 30 days or for life. I am very regretful for this mistake, just started playing couple of months. And just excited to contribute to help the community. and thats it end for me now. let see if i can come back or play something else.
as they say ignorance of the law excuses no one. there is no good intention if it breaks rules.
It would be great to play or submit with knowledge on how to properly interact with the any endeavor beforehand or risk restrictions. Hopefully, this experience would be a learning moment. You are allowed to enjoy but note the boundaries we can behave in.
To give an example to back up what @RoIi112 said, I have over 2000 wayspot submissions without a single warning/suspension/flag, even though nearly 1/4 were rejected. They all had photos I took, words that I wrote and were all correctly located (except for a handful in a nature reserve with no signal, no wayspots and dodgy GPS, which were rejected for incorrect location because they were indeed incorrectly located, so I went back and got it right the second time).
While that sounds good in theory, we have to remember that this game is for all ages and not everyone is tech-savvy. What happens if someone submits hundreds of nominations and makes a mistake on just one or two?
Many people here are experts at this, but can we really guarantee that no player will ever make a mistake with a location? Even if it’s a genuine oversight, who’s going to believe them? They’ll still get penalized regardless. In my view, if you don’t submit, you can’t make a mistake. I still stand by my point: once you’ve received a warning, it’s better to stop nominating altogether
I didn’t have a clue what I was doing when I started and had to hand my first find onto someone else to submit. It took me a while to get the hang of it, but I simply never cheated and never tried to.
Sure, if you have received a warning, think carefully about your submissions. Stopping for a while is a fairly normal response, and the suspension period is there partly for this reason, but never submitting anything ever again is an overreaction.
The best analogy I can find is if you walk into a road while staring at your phone and not looking at the traffic, and finding you nearly get hit. If your reaction is never to cross a road anywhere ever again, this is one way to respond, but it would be better to learn how to cross roads without staring at your phone.
Your analogy about crossing the road is interesting, but there’s a huge difference. Crossing the road is a necessity of life; submitting Waypoints is just an optional feature in a game. If I fail to cross the road, I can’t go to work or live my life. If I stop submitting PokeStops, I can still enjoy the game perfectly fine.
Why should I risk a permanent ban on an account I’ve spent years building just for a feature that is clearly prone to errors? The ‘learning’ process you mentioned is fine, but in Niantic’s system, you don’t always get a second chance to learn from your ‘accidents’ before your account is gone forever
I have stopped submitting nominations since receiving my 30-day warning, and I plan to keep it that way until the warning clears (which takes a year). This isn’t about ‘never doing it again’ forever—it’s about being smart. Why risk a high-level account for a few Waypoints?
To me, the risk-reward ratio just doesn’t add up. I bet 80-90% of players would react exactly like I did to protect their accounts. If a location really needs a PokeStop, the best and safest way is to suggest it to your local community. Let others handle the nominations. That way, the community still gets new stops, and your account stays 100% safe. It’s a win-win without the unnecessary risk
I understand individuals deciding to stop submitting. I don’t agree with advising other people to stop submitting.
For some people, wayfaring is a game, not just an optional extra feature in Pokemon Go. Going out and finding interesting things to submit is interesting to many wayfarers.
@Youtubervn93 that is a fairly rational response. When you do start again, hopefully you’ve learnt what you did wrong.
You can’t generalize that type of advice based on your assumption that people may not know what they are doing. Penalties don’t happen out of the blue. A warning is meant to remind you to be careful about your contributions, not stop them.
You are right that I cannot generalize my advice to everyone, but by the same logic, you cannot generalize that everyone ‘should’ keep submitting either. Each player must weigh the risks and make their own decision based on how much they value their account.
A warning is a serious matter, and for some, the safest path is to pause. It seems the owner of this thread has already found my perspective practical and decided to follow it.
I feel like the conservation is getting derailed but I want to put some “hot-take” insight in here.
Reading both side statement and I believe both can stand true:
Read the criteria more carefully. Yes a warning is not the end of the world, we have some person in this forum who are still continuing posting quality wayspot. A warning is a reminder that: “hey you made this mistake which is really really heavy, and you should not do it again if you want continue”. Most warning is usually are “you are intentionally doing this” like 3rd party photo or very bad misplacement.
It is ok to take a break from posting. I got 1 warning email and 2 education email before, understanding all 3 email I got later on are appealed successfully but every time I got one my motivation to post drop to zero. Most people will value not getting their account being banned at the end of the day, and the feeling of making another mistake => ban is really scary.
Obvious, an opinion from a newer Wayfarer like me, is gonna be less important for like someone who is long-time Wayfinder and have been always careful by year of posting. But I believe both can stand true.
