Mod comment.
This was split from this topic
The case was resolved.
There were however further general questions asked.
Mod edit ends
It is still very concerning if this was marked as third party and abuse because of the photos being posted here on the forum, especially since we were assured that would not happen. I hope that staff will comment.
And we may not hear back from staff, but the overturning shows that they did review this and made a correction.
But we need to understand how the mistake was made. If people should not be posting their photos on the forum for help, they should know that.
There’s also the concern of staff being zealous in marking something as abuse when this is their system that they can check for user profiles matching.
If this had been somebody who didn’t think to come to the forum because they were worried.
Or it had escalated into a game ban that caused somebody to miss out on an exclusive event.
And most likely, the staff that did this review will be talked to. Having worked in industries where you get regular quality control, there are times that you may get a bad review at work due to not following the guidelines. So, I trust that staff will discuss this outside of the forums with those that review to make sure they are following the same criteria and guidelines as reviewers are.
And isn’t it great that we have a forums to come to and disagree with a staff review decision, be it a regular pulled review or an appeal?
Staff has also told us that these cases are rare, and that when they do happen, they do follow-up on them with staff. We’ll never know the full reason, but maybe this is a new staff member or one that forgot that screenshots of nominations aren’t 3rd party photos. Staff isn’t going to share the full details, or they may not share at all, so asking when we have been told that these things do get followed up on outside of the forums might be pushing it.
As long as we’re following everything correctly and bring up any issues we have with a decision, we should trust that staff will review it. If a rejection gets overturned, that proof enough to me that staff followed up on this.
You may trust, but the rest of us need to know. From staff. Can we assure people they will not get third party and abuse rejection reasons when they post their photos on the forum?
I recently did assure someone they could share photos here safely, because Niantic staff had said so before. So now we learn that this wasnt accurate and you can be accused of abuse for 3rd party photos by posting here.
I would like to get confirmation from staff, and I hope PidgeySlayer gets an apology and an invite to return here as they will be missed.
I think this is a case where the staff that reviewed needed a reminder about screenshots, not that posting screenshots is considered 3rd party, as they aren’t. I think it was a mistake, staff corrected it, and most likely reviewed it with staff to make sure it’s not done again in the future.
I think we are going in circles thinking that things have changed, as they I don’t think they have. If we weren’t allowed to post screenshots of nominations, I think staff would have said that by now. I think it’s still safe to post screenshots of nominations, especially since many that have an initial rejection may need some support, and seeing the nomination is many times the best way to see what needs to be improved upon.
We don’t need to be digging this hole any deeper, as the main issue, the rejection, has been resolved.
The rejection was resolved but it lost us a valued member of the community in the process, so no, the matter is not resolved in my opinion.
Its really sad.
But who is going to volunteer to be the guinea pig?
I don’t understand why you are arguing that there is no need for staff to address this. There clearly is.
yeah… I guess Pidgey was the guinea pig, but didn’t know they’d volunteered. Seems sharing is roulette. Might be fine, might not be.
Happy to be the tester; here’s one still in queue. Besides, if screenshots of nominations weren’t allowed, I think mods would be told to remove them.
I’m not on Discord, but you can tell P1dgey to ask for staff to open up a DM with them. I don’t know if staff will publicly discuss anything like this, due to the abuse flag, but they may send a DM.
I don’t understand the reference to Discord?
I think this has veered wildly from intent and the self interest in getting the last word isn’t helpful.
To be clear, the issue we NEED addressed is this
Part of the whole purpose is this community is to be able to share contributions and sometimes reviews we encounter. Because it has moved so much from categorical eligibility, examples are almost always necessary. New visitors especially may not think about the impact of sharing pictures they’ve taken and then use them for nominations. I’ll be honest, as a reviewer who reverse image searches, I may end up rejecting a nomination where the photo matches a Wayforum post - I don’t know if it was the original person or a copycat with ill intent. Staff can check and verify that accounts match when necessary. It should be part of their quality assurance. It’s also possible that this is an entirely different issue that somehow presented itself this way and we jumped to assumptions.
Staff clarity helps assure their membership and should be the norm.
A screenshot of a contributions page is wildly different than sharing an original image.
Very well said.
I will note that, when I started Wayfarer, one of my first nominations, for a local Thai restaurant, was rejected. When I asked what I could do on the old forums, I posted the actual main photo, not a screenshot, and the advice I received was to either resubmit or appeal. I appealed, and it was rejected for 3rd party photo. I went back to the forums, explained that I took the photo myself from my phone (even sharing this info from my phone), and asked if something could be done. Less than 24 hours later, the rejection was reversed and the nomination was approved. I was thankful for this, and moved on, knowing to post screenshots in the future.
Since I have experienced a rejection for 3rd party photo from staff on appeal, I understand that it can be frustrating, but it’s possible that it can be reversed.
We’ve also seen where submitters have submitted a nomination, only for it to be rejected for 3rd party photo due to them posting the main photo on another website themselves, and they took the photos themselves. While it may be best to hold off uploading main photos to other websites until the nomination has been approved, they still have an option to appeal and note that they took the photos themselves and uploaded them to the other websites.
I also think there is some emotion in some of these posts, due to us losing a member of the community. While it’s unfortunately to lose someone, that isn’t what we are discussing, and the emotion isn’t always helpful in continuing the discussion, as well as looking at what we already know about this topic, that being photos (namely screenshots of nominations) being posted in the forums being flagged as 3rd party by staff. A screenshot is not the actual main photo, is of lower quality, and may contain more info, such as title/description. Some have posted their main photos here in the forums, and, like with happened to me, if rejected by staff may be reversed.
So, let’s look at what we already know about posting photos here in the forums, look at the past events and what had been done. Mistakes can be made, but they can also be corrected, as was the case in my experience.
