Hey guys, I’ve got a really odd situation and would love to understand how this even happens!
Short version:
Back in 2020, I submitted two POIs at our local Historical Society. Both were approved but never appeared in Go due to cell conflicts. Fast forward four years; I just discovered two different trainers have those exact same POIs live in game. The titles, text, and photos are all new, and they’re even misplaced on the map. How is that possible?
Long version:
I’ve been submitting POIs for years and I always put extra effort into historical ones because they’re my favorite! I rarely play that area now, but when I visited recently, I noticed a weird cluster of stops and a gym. I recognized my submissions instantly but when I opened them, the photos and text weren’t mine.
I checked Wayfarer, and sure enough, my original 2020 submissions are still there. Both approved, same location (minus misplacement), but totally different text and photos now showing in Go from one year ago, each by a local trainer. (They’re a couple)
If mine were already approved, shouldn’t theirs have shown as duplicates during voting? How can someone basically “overwrite” or “steal” existing approved POIs? I’m completely stumped!
Oh yeah, the misplacement was 100% intentional. I placed them in their exact location as I always do regardless of cell placement.
I didn’t think of my nemesis Emily as the culprit (the # of appeals I need to use to correct her errors is silly) but I find both being automatically approved highly unlikely but I could be totally incorrect!
Wayfarer will always show your nominations even if the wayspots have since been moved or removed. It does not show you the current situation.
To find out the current situation, you have to be there in person, go to the wayspot submission map and see what active wayspots there are. This will show you if your wayspots were somehow removed in order that new wayspots could be created at the wrong locations, or if your wayspots are still there and these are ineligible duplicates.
This information should help you decide whether and how to report them.
I absolutely used the upload feature to check for my originals which should have been there in cells with the existing POI’s. They simply don’t exist any longer. The 2 new ones do of course but are in game due to the new ones being misplaced.
There was a period where the Machine Learning model could accept nominations. This feature was turned off, and we have had no notice of it being turned back on. But depending on the age of the Wayspot, that could be what happened.
I would definitely report these. I think the “Reporting Abuse” form linked at the top here would be easier to use in this case since there are multiple issues:
That would explain it perfectly actually! Now I understand what the previous comment meant!! Thank you.
Sadly, multiple reports of abuse have been made on these guys & rejected even though they blatantly abuse the locations of POI’s (most recently as this week actually on 2 new misplaced stops by the same person) & not once has it been addressed. Always rejected even though the POI’s are 100% being placed in empty cells away from actual locations.
Maybe the best thing is to submit location edit requests directly to niantic help, NOT using in-game wayspot edit as that would go to reviewers. You want to bypass reviewers, since reviewers accepted wrong locations.
This way you should get the wayspots to the correct positions and return the game board to the right state. Your specific wayspots would have been replaced, but that’s harder to resolve.
My approved originals literally no longer exist. (When using the map feature in uploads) They were in the correct location so they didn’t appear in game due to cell conflicts.
So the new misplaced ones can’t be reported as duplicates since mine are literally gone even though they were approved 4 years before these ones.
It’s the location abuse that’s been reported & rejected on a bunch of their nominations on stops live in game.
Okay, you said they did not go live in GO. I forget the date when all accepted nominations started going to Lightship. If this predates that, then there was no stealing of your nomination. Just follow the advice for location edits.
As @cyndiepooh says - the nomination dates you show are definitely in the range where if it was closer than 20m to something live in Ingress, it just wouldn’t have appeared in any game database whatsoever, including what later became Wayfarer/Lightship etc. Now we don’t have your approval date, but it certainly could be the explanation.
Check the acceptance email, if the message is something like this, that’s old ingress message from 2020,
Your Portal submission has been reviewed and the community agrees that it meets the Candidate Portal criteria. However, we are unable to bring it online at this time since this candidate is too close to an existing Portal.
and the portal might be in lightship as “denied by games”, i.e. not “live” on wayfarer map, with no chance for appearing in any game, not visible on submitter’s map, so new submitter could not even know it was accepted there.
I think we settled that these were not “stolen” nominations, and that a location edit was appropriate. I haven’t seen the locations, so I don’t even know if that is called for, and am just going on what you both have said.
Do be careful with your pins going forward, as we are seeing bans issued for misplacement.
Thanks for the warm welcome! I’m glad a conclusion was reached by the community, the harassment has been rough. And I’ll be sure to be more careful! I always try but I’m not great with maps so I might be a few inches off here or there usually just place it where I’m standing when I’m right on top of the waypoint and it usually works! And thanks for being so kind and informing!
I mean this sincerely, earnestly, and without casting blame: be careful with placement of your nominations. Often, maybe even weekly, people come to the Wayforum seeking advice on bans and in-game sanctions. They claim that their nominations are accurate, which turns into “maybe just a few feet” which then turns out to be dozens of meters mislocated.
Staff has means to know where a nomination was submitted and will take into account if it’s a one-off situation or ongoing trend and also may consider if it appears to be intentional misplacement for game manipulation.
You don’t have to answer to me or anyone in here. Just want to offer genuine advice to always double check placement of your nominations.
Thank you for the advice! I’ve since gotten better at nominations, these nominations were a year ago so I wasn’t fully aware with how it worked but I’m always willing to learn & change! My main issue with this is how it was handled on the harassment/stalking end of things, I’m all for being called out for mistakes but that was overkill lol. I’ll certainly be double- even triple- checking nominations! Thanks for your kindness!
usually just place it where I’m standing when I’m right on top of the waypoint and it usually works! And thanks for being so kind and informing! 
