The 2025 Review Challenge offered the possibility to review anywhere to receive rewards. This, in my opinion, caused many players to review very incorrectly just to receive those rewards.
This kind of behavior should not be rewarded and needs to be addressed. The problem is that many people are doing it in my area causing overall incorrect decisions about POIs. I believe this aspect of Wayfarer challenges should be reviewed and fixed. A lot of people who have no clue what they are doing are jumping in to review solely for the promise of a lucky trinket and other in-game rewards.
This causes people who actually spend time on Wayfarer to submit and/or review more trouble than good, especially in my area. This morning, I woke up with 30 decisions about my nominations, something Iâd never experienced before. However, my excitement quickly faded when I started opening the emails. About 12 POIs were not accepted, and at least 8-9 of them were rejected completely unfairly. I will post some pictures below this post just to prove the point.
#1: Eligible named trailmarker âGapersrouteâ
- Rejection criteria: doesnât match the pictures or the map and misses originality/cultural meaning
This is just plain nonsense. The pictures were taken on site and submitted immediatly. Also these kind of trailmarkers have been confirmed multiple times as eligible POI.
#2: Eligible named trailmarker âWesttoerâ
- Rejection criteria: Faces/Body parts and nominator is identifiable
A part of my shadow is visible? This has never caused any rejections before. This is a perfect example of reviewers looking for a reason to reject as opposed to looking for a reason to accept.
#3: Eligible named trailmarker âBiking Westtoerâ
- Rejection criteria: spelling mistake and missed originality/cultural meaning.
No spelling mistakes were made when submitting, I double and triple checked because I was so confused. And again: this is an eligible POI so second rejection criteria is incorrect also.
#4: Eligible named trailmarker âTiegembergâ
- Rejection criteria: doesnât match the pictures or the map and misses originality/cultural meaning
Already covered this with #1, but this is just plain wrong.
#5: Eligible named trailmarker âGapersrouteâ
- Rejection criteria: temporary and missed originality and cultural meaning
This a official biking/walking route of the city (so not temporary) it is in and again an eligible POI.
#6: Eligible named trailmaker âVlaamse Ardennenâ
- Rejection criteria: spelling mistake and misses originality /cultural meaning
Again a rejection for spelling mistake, without any present. And again this is an eligible POIâŠ
#7: Soccer field (just to prove it isnât just trailmarker haters)
- Rejection criteria: Multiple ones (?!) but the community didnât decide for the main reason.
This one blew my mind. A brand new soccer field around me and it wasnât accepted? CrazyâŠ
#8: Eligible named trailmarker âMountainbikeâ
- Rejection criteria: temporary and doesnât match the pictures and/or map.
I understand that the colors are a bit faded, but doesnât this just go to prove that it isnât temporary? And again: submitted at the moment itself on the correct location with the right photo.
I donât want to just make a post complaining about my rejected stops, rather I want to bring attention to a problem that is rampant with these wayfarer challenges: people reviewing as quickly as possible i.e. rejecting POIs for incorrect reasons just for in game rewards.
I personally preferred the lack of in game rewards and just having extra upgrades. This caused only actual reviewers to review more as opposed to randoms who donât have a clue about what they are doing.
I donât want to just make a post complaining about my rejected stops; rather, I want to bring attention to a problem that is rampant with these Wayfarer challenges: people reviewing as quickly as possible, i.e., rejecting POIs for incorrect reasons just for in-game rewards.
I personally preferred the lack of in-game rewards and just having extra upgrades. This caused only actual reviewers to review more, as opposed to randoms who donât have a clue about what they are doing.
I am a loyal Wayfarer contributor with close to 15,000 reviews and over 1,000 nominations. This, however, just gives me, as a Wayfarer contributor, more work. I will have to drive/bike back to all of these locations often to just submit one stop out of 20 that were regularly approved.
And I do not have the appeals to contest every stop that was rejected, lol. These were just a couple of the 12 rejections I received this morning due to the Wayfarer challenge. All the people who didnât review according to the criteria should simply not receive any in-game rewards and should have restricted access to Wayfarer. This is basically abuse. Please bring attention to this!
My apologies for my English, as you can see from my submissions, it isnât my first language.
TLDR: People are purposfully rejecting eligible POIs just to get the in game rewards for the wayfarer challenge. In my opinion the wayfarer challenge concept with in game rewards should be revisited and tweaked to prevent this behavior.