In the past week I was adding a few more waypoints, lots of footbridges over creeks on beautiful trails but 2 of them were already declined.
Once without any reason, the other time today with this explanation:
and can’t just choose one or the other. I suspect that they chose not “Distinct” as just infrastructure and nothing significant. In the States, footbridges along a trail are considered destinations, but may be seen differently in other parts of the world.
Footbridges are, like @cyndiepooh says in the US as well as in Germany where I’m from. I added 10+ in the last few years and every time they got instantly accepted and waypoints of them are everywhere.
I see you are from NRW. There was a time where cheaters have managed to take over Wayfarer in that region and the Netherlands, and then ML used to instantly accept some things correctly and incorrectly as well, so your experience of these as easy accepts for this type of objects may have been incorrect from the start.
You can not rely on any acceptance from the last 2-3 years because of this.
Of course you will have success with actually eligible ones because bridges are not absolutely ineligible objects, it’s just that most don’t fulfill any criteria
I disagree with “most don’t fulfill any criteria” however you will need more of a description and probably Support text as to why and how this footbridge meets criteria.
Is it a great place to Socialize, Exercise, or Explore? Can you convey that in an earnest & sincere way that is accurate to this particular footbridge?
Its description does not describe the trail. If it is an important footbridge for an official trail, please include the name of that trail in the description and attach the URL to the supplemental information that proves it.
If it is just used as part of a private residents’ walking trail, I would consider it as infrastructure for traffic and would not approve it. This is just my opinion.
One of my early nominations was a footbridge, just a standard one that was definately in need of a lick of paint and a major cleanup due to fly tipping.
After uploading I later checked the forums and saw that it was unlikely to be succesful.
Surprise, it went through by community vote.
The only reason I could think of was that I stated that it went over a main road and connected 2 halves of the same village. Wasn’t my intention but maybe this painted a better picture than it actually deserved…
I’d vote to reject on the grounds of not being distinct. As it is, it’s just infrastructure and a way to cross the stream without getting your feet wet. Other reviewers may think it’s more notable, which is why sometimes they get through and sometimes they don’t.
A footbridge is more likely to get accepted if it is part of a named walking trail (much more likely if it carries trail markers), if the bridge has a name or plaque (in which case show that in the photo), has some historical interest (explain) or is architecturally interesting (in which case you may need to rely on a good photo).
Well, it seems like that even Niantic themselves are throwing the dice on this. I did an appeal on the two footbridges that got rejected and while one got denied with the following text:
“Anmerkung von Niantic
Thanks for the appeal, Explorer! The nomination in question does not meet the Wayfarer criteria as it is a normal bridge. If this assessment is not accurate, please resubmit the nomination with additional context.”
Yeah they’re not the holy grail of reviewing. Their decisions do not set criteria, sometimes they approve ineligible or questionable stuff, sometimes they reject no brainers. Just like regular reviewers. A consensus driven platform like Wayfarer is never free from genuine errors or misunderstandings
Anyway. You need to accept thats how community review works. Sometimes your nomination is being reviewed by newbie, sometimes by someone who is very strict, or sometimes by someone who is hell bent on rejecting everything. I believe we have review rating to safeguard against such people but sometimes rejection just happen before enough people can accept it. We can improve our photo amd /or supporting information so that more people will be convinced
