Hi and welcome, and yes, this community is pretty real, didn’t reject your nomination and doesn’t really deserve your wrath, but is trying to help instead.
“Benches along trails” have been mentioned in a now defunct clarification, if memory serves, and in my view can potentially be made a case for in terms of helping you explore along the trail. I would try it again while 1. including evidence of the trail being there (a link or a map will do), 2. leaning more into the scenic angle as @frealafgb suggested, probably taking a different photo from behind with the bench well centered.
On a more general note, a rejection (especially from ML) isn’t a personal judgement, isn’t an evaluation of you as a Wayfinder and isn’t always the end of a conversation. As you progress in Wayfarer there will be many more nominations available and a single attempt will start to matter less. There are also opportunities to appeal nominations. I know some people take it very personally, but if that’s the case Wayfarer is probably not a good hobby.
This is not to say that it’s okay to spam ineligible or otherwise incorrect things, but there is no shame in resubmitting something after checking with the community and incorporating suggestions. I have had tons, tons, tons of rejections over the past years and still get them regularly and move on
For you to be this horribly frustrated it must have been multiple of them, not just this bench? We are happy to look at the other ones and try to advise how to go forward.
I want to add another piece of advice. You claim that this bench was made to resemble Stonehenge. As a reviewer, i look at where the park is located (nowhere near Stonehenge) and the name of the park (nothing to do with Stonehenge) and at the design of the bench (looks like a standard stone masonry bench) and that claim does not appear to be true. So, if i see that the submitter has included one false claim, that makes me suspicious of the entire submission. I’d caution you to be very careful about making these kinds of creative claims.
If the claim is true, it’s always best to include a link to a website or news article that proves the claim.
Hello seaprincesshnb , can you please help me understand your advice/position with this? Who is served when you would call my title false and misleading, and reject a submission like this. I can assure you, I had no misleading intent here. I made no claim the the bench was Stonehenge , I made no claim the location the bench was near Stonehenge, only that in an otherwise un-noteworthy half mile stretch of nature path, void of any current POI , this bench to me looked interesting and a little like Stonehenge. I would also submit this is the practice that causes much of the frustration you will find dominating the forum posts. Again, who is served by defaulting toward rejection of a submission the appears to meet the stated criteria; would add a POI to a location currently void of any in Wayfarer, and If you were from the area, one might consider this is an interesting point of interest for this area. While both of our positions are admittedly subjective, we don’t all live in the Swiss Alps, sometimes in the city this is what a POI looks like. I also add , I completely understand blocking POI that violated well stated safety legal standards, but that not the case here. You just stated you would reject this submission because you added interpretation it’s misleading because you interpreted my statement the bench looks a bit like Stonehenge to mean it is either built from Stonehenge or being located near Stonehenge? That does not seem like a fair or community building posture.
You have shared example of your nomination in public forum and people here have shared their opinion. You dont have to reply to every post, and just take the advice in order to improve your nomination.In regard of your bench nonination, because it seems rejected by AI, you can either appeal or resubmit. If you want to try resubmit try getting multiple foto from multiple angle so you can resubmit from home if it got rejected by AI again. While its frustrating that AI blocked your nomination, its still necesary to filter a lot of bad nomination out there. Try getting photo of the bench without too much scenery. Alternately you can appeal and get niantic staff to review your nomination.
This is my current favourite bench I’ve submitted. I was there for ages taking pictures trying to get the best angle, especially as there is a rubbish bin next to it that I did not want in shot!
Hello. Perhaps English is not your primary language? I don’t know. Please read what i wrote carefully. I never said i would reject this. I said i would be suspicious of this submission. That would lead me to give it extra scrutiny.
What it boils down to is that you wrote it as a fact that the bench was made to look like Stonehenge. You didn’t say it reminded you of Stonehenge or you thought it resembled Stongehenge. Facts need to be backed up with proof. Since there is no proof that it was intentionally designed to look like Stonehenge, as a reviewer, i see that the submitter has written something that is not true.
That may sound harsh to you, but you don’t see the crazy things people write in their nominations. I once saw someone claim that a tree in front of their house on just a regular neighborhood street had been planted by George Washington, the first President of the United States. That was blantantly false. There have been plenty of other false claims made through Wayfarer that we have seen in the many, many years we’ve been doing reviews. Accuracy of the submission is one of the things we are asked to evaluate.
Don’t feel to bad. You are not alone in this issue. I’m 3 for 3 on rejections! I submitted this new statue of James Madison and included the detail that he’s a founding father of America. I thought this would be a guaranteed approval. My first approval! I get back it doesn’t meet the criteria. I did go through the appeal process on my first two proposals. They were in an area where there’s nothing in 2 miles or more and both were rejected. So when this statue was rejected I just tossed in the towel. I see no reason to try and submit any more. I have seen hundreds of points that make no sense. There is a subdivision I was in and every single street corner was approved. I think the system has been set to reject to many locations. I don’t live in a city where every other building has something of interest. I live in the country and find natural thing more interesting than a painting on a building. So when ever there is a special event I need to travel into town to participate. I can’t go for a walk in my area and participate because they restrict what they consider to be of interest. I find your bench in nature better than a painting of trees on a building in the middle of a city. As time has gone by I find myself wanting to walk away from the game because of the troubles I have participating. I go into town and there are hundreds of characters but I can walk a mile in the country and only find a few dozen. Exception should be made for areas that a more rural and don’t have all the clutter of a city that they call places of interest.
It sounds like a very frustrating experience, which is not good.
I wonder if your nominations are being rejected by the automatic check ( nickname Emily). When this happens the rejection email is sent about 22-24 hours after submission and says rejected by “our team” ?
The bench nomination with James Madison looks a good submission. Was it rejected in that way?
If you would like to provide the full submission and location we will give advice.
You get two appeal slots and once you have submitted an appeal you need to wait 14 days, then you will find that slot refreshed.
The street corners is an experiment explained in this post.
These are not accepted wayspots but pokestops created for the game board.
The community here are always happy to help people with nominations so do feel free to post in Nomination Support
Yes, I thought I would put it in and get an approval under my belt and I got the message it didn’t meet the criteria. Biggest problem is the fact that I live in country areas and I put in a street corner and talked about the view from that spot. It’s a really nice place to stop and take in the view but it was rejected. I think it possible to be more selective in areas with large concentrations of stuff, but a little more over looking in areas that are more remote. I tried to do a sign for an old family farm and same results.
