I received a warning issued for my Wayspot nomination ‘Stormtrooper’ for ‘Misplacement of wayspot submissions’. It ended up about 170 metres away from the location. I have no idea how this could have happened, I submitted it through the web page and am very familiar with the area, I have submitted Wayspots in this particular location (it’s a local pop culture store) before and I even included the address the store moved to 10 months ago in my supplemental info, to have it as accurate as possible.
Maybe there was a fluctuation in my internet connection while submitting, or perhaps it got moved during the reviewing process.
What confuses me as well is that my submission was initially denied based on it possibly not being permanent or distinct. I appealed this, explained how, according to me, it was permanent and distinct.
The appeal reply noted the incorrect location, I was surprised to read this, as far as I knew I did submit it in the correct location, and that rejection reason was also not given to me before my appeal.
Then on my appeal it got flagged as “The text or photo contains abuse, ridicule, or harassment of a specific person or group”
The warning I got issued states the location as the violation
I appealed the warning, but in the response I was given the information I received prior, no content-related responses to my appeal.
I am very saddened and discouraged from all this. I put a lot of time and effort into making the Niantic map as accurate as possible, I would never willingly submit a Wayspot with an inaccurate location and I believe my account will reflect that, based on the work I have done.
I respectfully hope someone is willing to review this.
You can see the submission location in your initial submission receipt email. You will find it underneath the two photos, looking something like 36.28931, -20.21341
Community reviewers cannot move a wayspot very far, possibly 10m at most and it requires more than just one reviewer for this to happen.
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Appeal reviewers would not move a wayspot to the wrong location and then penalise you for
where they have moved it to.
The abuse narrative comes up for lots of reasons, one of which is a location error, so it has no meaning beyond that. It’s (very) badly worded.
Oh indeed, the coordinates in the initial email would show me that, thank you, I hadn’t thought of that.
They were indeed the incorrect coordinates from the get go. The top of the buildings look similar, perhaps it was an honest error from me rather than a connection failure, I’m not sure, I find it odd I would put it in that location since I know the area very well, but accidents can happen.
I wonder if a violation warning would still be warranted for an honest mistake on an account with hundreds of accepted submissions and edits.
If you get a DM from a staff member, you will be able to make your case. Honest mistakes do happen and the quantity of accepted submissions might be taken into account.
However, as a general rule, a single clear location error is sufficient to get a warning, which is just one step on the abuse ladder. This can be enough for people to realise what they are doing and correct their actions, or sometimes people get scared and stop submitting completely.
A location error is made worse when it would put the wayspot into an empty cell while its true location is in an occupied cell, but a warning can still be issued without this.
Remember the warning will be there on your account for a year, if you don’t get any additional warnings within one year, you will have a clean sheet again.
But if you do get an additional warning, this usually means a 30 day ban from wayfarer but also the game.
So either be very careful, or just keep wait one year. I recommend the first, just check and double check.
