Today I received two back to back violation emails regarding corrections I tried to submit for a Wayspot local to me; my submitted corrections were flagged as incorrect/ spam. More than anything I was startled to have been penalized for trying to help keep the map up to date. And as a lifelong rule-follower I’m upset by the idea of having a violation flag on my account. Was there a different process by which I should have tried to submit the corrections?
The church featured in the photo, title, and description of the Wayspot is no longer there. The building is now is a fitness gym, and the new photo, title and description I submitted are all accurate to the updated location.
I didn’t want to submit an appeal via the official appeal form, because my account wasn’t suspended, only warned. I just want to correct the miscommunication and violation error. Any advice is appreciated. Many thanks.
Hi @ProfCase2493
Welcome to the forum. I’m sorry you got tripped up with these warnings. I myself do try and keep the map up to date.
In this instance Niantic considers this ‘repurposing’. They want us to request removal of the Church and then nominate the Gym (using your example). They want to make sure the new wayspot meets current eligibility.
Did you report the church for removal, or try to repurpose the existing Wayspot? We might only see game locations as spinners, but Niantic considers what they represent. If you are trying to change an existing Wayspot to something other than what was approved, Niantic considers this abuse. Staff may start a DM with you to discuss this misunderstanding, but I would submit an official appeal if I got that notice, and explain you did not realize this was not the correct way to do an update.
This is super helpful, thank you for the insight. Of course ‘repurposing’ wasn’t my intention at all. But I absolutely see the logic here. Thank you for your response!
Thank you so much for this response, that definitely seems to have been the misunderstanding. I was not familiar with ‘repurposing’ but fully understand the concept and the harm it could cause following explanation.
The appeal link in the email takes me to a “suspension appeal” form - as my account was not suspended, and only warned, I didn’t want to make a mountain out of a molehill and submit the wrong form. Still I would love to not have a strike against my account either. What would you suggest in this case?
I would still want it on record that I was only trying to update the map location and have now learned the correct way is to report for removal. If you don’t want to submit a formal appeal, sometimes I will just reply to that email.
Or you could just hold off and see if staff replies to this tomorrow.
A lot of people don’t even understand the repurposing side because you only really seem to hear about it when something happens or you stumble upon it in a thread.
I understand what you were tryin to do as I would have thought the same only that I came across a the mention of repurposing in a thread I was reading a good while back and had an “Ah ha” moment.
Only for that I would probably have ran into the same problem myself.
Thank you very much for your advice - your helpfulness has alleviated a lot of my anxiety. Much appreciated!
