I appealed a nomination, and it was rejected incorrectly.
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Wayspot Title: North Pet Area at the I-77 Rest Area
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Location (lat/lon): 35.901681,-80.856759
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City: Statesville, North Carolina
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Country: United States
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Screenshot of the Rejection Email
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Additional Information (if any): This nomination is for a Dog Park/Pet Exercise area at a rest stop on the highway. It encourages exercise for you and your pets. It can also facilitate socialization between different owners and pets. Clearly it follows the wayfarer pillars. By nature of it’s existence, it has safe access, as the Department of Transportation is encouraging people to be here, and the surrounding area is just a parking lot.
I was given this as a response: “Thanks for the appeal, Explorer! The object in question does not meet the Wayfarer criteria as it is a regular signboard which has no significance. If this assessment is not accurate, please resubmit the nomination with additional context. We recommend you review the Wayspot Criteria before submitting your next Wayspot contribution: Wayfarer — Niantic Technical Support and Help Center”
In addition, what is a “regular signboard”? Does that mean that anything “mass produced” is ineligible? This contradicts what we have been told with the inclusion of picnic areas and other such areas that are mass produced, but still encourage the tenants of wayfarer.
If I had submitted this without this signboard, it would’ve been rejected for a “natural area” or being not distinct.
Also, I have around 4 more of these rejected pet areas that I am planning on appealing. Hopefully I don’t have to come here for all of them after they have been decided. The Niantic reviewers need some education about this type of nomination.
Here is the main photo, and supporting:
Niantic reviewers: it has to have a sign
also Niantic reviewers: no not like that
6 Likes
Hello @MRTHEAWESOME
I am going to move this to nomination support as this is not the sort of appeal this area is meant for.
People may be able to give you some feedback about your nomination.
@MRTHEAWESOME Is the rest stop north of i-40 in Olin, NC? FYI I’m in Charlotte.
@MRTHEAWESOME Also, I found the POI nomination in question and there is something already in that cell. So it’s likely not to show up on the map anyway. If you were tryinf to get it on the map for Pokemon Go, but Ingress it would be just fine.
Your POI is where the x is.
@BlameJamal Hey, yeah it’s in your area, I went on a road trip during spring break from Ames Iowa to Savannah Georgia, and then back. My goal was to use all 80 of my nominations on the way. Most of them were approved, but a few got hit by bogus rejection reasons. I’m trying to appeal them since it’s outside of my resubmit range, but hit a hitch on this one with the appeal reviewers.
Thanks to your podcast, I was able to find the wayfarer discussion discord, which has been insanely useful for wayfarer education. Partially due to the podcast I leveled up in Ingress to get my second 40 nominations. Since then, I’ve been less picky about if something goes into pokemon go or not, since I have so many nominations. I just want to get rid of a red “rejected” mark on a valid nomination.
3 Likes
Well, that’s nicest thing someone has said to me in a hot minute. @Glawhantojar and I try to deliver a quality podcast week over week. I’m glad you found the WDD. @tehstone does a fantastic job over there and I tell everyone to check it out. If you want us to talk about a specific subject. Don’t hesitate to reach out.
2 Likes
It has happened again… Same nomination type incorrectly rejected by the appeals team.
- Wayspot Title: Bluestone Travel Plaza Pet Area
- Location (lat/lon): 38.103547,-81.382943
- City: Whittaker, West Virginia
- Country: United States
- Screenshot of the Rejection Email:
Additional Information (if any) :This nomination is for a Dog Park/Pet Exercise area at a rest stop on the highway. It encourages exercise for you and your pets. It can also facilitate socialization between different owners and pets. Clearly it follows the wayfarer pillars. By nature of it’s existence, it has safe access, as the Department of Transportation is encouraging people to be here, and the surrounding area is just a parking lot.
Main Photo:
Supporting Photo:
I was given this as a response: “Thanks for the appeal, Explorer! The object in question does not meet the Wayfarer criteria as it is a normal informational sign board. If this assessment is not accurate, please resubmit the nomination with additional context. We recommend you review the Wayspot Criteria before submitting your next Wayspot contribution: Wayfarer — Niantic Technical Support and Help Center"
This is again, the same type of incorrect decision.
Here is an excerpt from the wayfarer criteria pages: “Larger areas like dog parks or sport fields make great Wayspots, but it is important to choose the right placement of the Wayspot that respects the activity it was designed to support. Instead of placing the Wayspot in the center of an open field, park, or other large area, place it at the entrance or where there is a visible sign or placemarker.”
“place it at the entrance or where there is a visible sign or placemarker”
Okay, I have done that, but the appeal reviewers have decided that these signs are “regular” or “normal.”
Regular reviewers usually love these nominations, as can be seen by my list of approved nominations below of the same type.
Ultimately, I want the appeal reviewers to be educated, and the wrong decisions overturned. I am once again going to be appealing a nomination like the ones above, and we will check back after the appeal reviewers make a decision.
Hey @NianticTintino @NianticAaron @NianticLC
In November of 2023, we were requested to, “Please continue to share your feedback on your experiences (appeals) as we continue improving our performance and hope to reach a good state soon.”
Above, I have two appeals with incorrect reasoning for the denials that I would like to be reversed, and education/training for the reviewers based on this type of nomination to increase accuracy of future appeals, as well as the machine learning algorithm.
1 Like
A pet area at a rest stop is basically pointing people to a place where non-pet owners can avoid stepping in something unpleasant. It’s basically the toilet area for dogs and most definitely nothing like an actual dog park.
People spend as little time at rest stops as possible because they are usually on their way somewhere. The errors were ever having approved any of those to begin with.
Having stopped at hundreds of these over the years, your descriptions are disingenuous at best.
3 Likes
This is something I would have rejected as well. How does it align with any of the eligibility criteria? I consider it similar to the dog poop stations.
2 Likes
