So that image is the rejection email for one of my very close friends business. She sells crystals and knifes, guns you name it. But on Pokémon Go, it is listed as the wrong business. I even provided my friends business email so they could contact her. But they rejected immediately. The business is Handled Healing, Bismarck ND. But the old building they are selling out of, says “Idea Center”. They don’t have thousands of dollars to remove just 3 letters. So they do not have the funds to remove the letters. Just because it says Idea Center, does not mean it still is the former. Please appeal this Pokéstop change
The name change has been rejected because this is repurposing, which is not allowed.
The existing wayspot is for Idea Centre, which was an entertainment centre. Handled Healing is a different business on that premises and is not just a rebranding.
The correct process is to report the existing wayspot for removal and submit a wayspot for Handled Healing if you feel it is eligible.
Correction: Idea Centre was not an entertainment centre, it was just labelled as that on google maps.
Walmart has a sponsorship deal, meaning they pay for their locations to be in games. Additionally, they’re a supermarket, and the vast majority of supermarkets on planet earth don’t typically exist to sell firearms. The US is a very weird place in that regard.
Well, to be fair, Walmart don’t exist in order to sell firearms specifically, they just sell them because they make money selling them along with (almost) everything else in existence.
@QtheClown adult-oriented locations and services are explicitly not eligible.
“Location is an adult-oriented store or service, such as a liquor store, shooting range, [pencil] store, or provides sexual and/or adult content”
A store that only sells [pencils] is obviously not eligible. Somewhere that also sells [pencils] will be in a grey area, if it is even eligible in the first place (needing to meet Exercise, Exploration or Social criteria).
[I had to edit the narrative from the Niantic rejection page as it contains a forbidden word, for which I have substituted “pencil”. Every other relevant word I tried was also forbidden.]
Handled Healing, IS the crystal store. Tango Fox Tactical, which my friend also owns, is a separate business. TFT runs out of Handled Healing, it’s a very very small room with a few guns and knifes in it, none that are for sale. They only get the guns and knifes when someone orders them from them. It is a separate business, but is in the same building and owned by the same person. And my friend has ALSO paid to have her store on Pokémon Go. They just won’t change it. I realize I should’ve clarified that earlier.
But also, half of Walmart is; knifes, guns, katanas, fishing equipment, and various adult “sections”. If a business can pay to have the same stuff promoted, I don’t see why my friends can’t.
A: As the current business is different from the one that was Accepted you should not be attempting a “Title Change”. It should be a “Removal” then a new nomination.
Your friends business has not been voted on by Reviewers, only the previous business was.
B: We are giving our opinions on whether your friends business would be accepted if and when it went to a vote.
I am not local (UK based) so I can only state that it would never get Accepted here but I wouldn’t be the one voting on it, that would be local reviewers.
Ignoring the items being sold, which of the main 3 criteria should it pass on…
Socialise: Does it hold events that bring people together?
Exercise: Is it a place that people go to exercise?
Explore: Is it somewhere that fits the explore criteria such as an historic building or a nature trail?
IMO: This would be a “Generic Business” if locals did not believe it should be rejected as “Adult Location”.
We host many many events almost every other week. And we don’t do traditional exercises. We work on mind health. Mental health and addiction is a big thing here in North Dakota, we pride ourselves in helping people slide into the right state of mind.
And no, we aren’t a nature trail, but there is plenty of nature trails and clearings around us. ND has so much clear acres it’s ridiculous.
And there are so many businesses in Bismarck that don’t pay to be sponsored, but still are allowed on Pokémon Go.
We already made a separate claim for removal of the Idea Centre, and a new Pokéstop.
We understand the whole repurposing thing, that’s not what we care about. We care about the unfair treatment. Our request didn’t even make it to the locals. They shot it down immediately.
This is what you should be pushing as this will be “Social”. Do you have the events listed on a website that you can add to the supplemental info?
Remember that you only have to prove that it is a “Great Place to” one of the 3 main criteria,
Being near to something eligible does not make the nomination eligible.
Being a business does not make it ineligible, as long as you can prove that it matches at least 1 of the big three criteria and doesn’t match any of the big No criteria (SFPRP, School Property, No Safe Pedestrian access etc).
Unfortunately, things have got through that shouldn’t and Niantic will not always remove them when reported (they seem to stick with removing the big No criteria and proof that they no longer exist).
Good luck, hopefully it will get through the AI and will go to local reviewers that will understand the cultural aspect of the items that are sold.
You should care, sticking to the rules is what will get you success.
It sounds like the AI did an excellent job of detecting “repurposing” on that occasion, with a new nomination, good images and text hopefully it will get past the AI this time.
My only recommendation would have been to wait for the removal to complete before nominating. if the nomination goes through 1st reviewers may vote it as a Duplicate.
”. They don’t have thousands of dollars to remove just 3 letters. So they do not have the funds to remove the letters. Just because it says Idea Center, does not mean it still is the former. Please appeal this Pokéstop change
