These 3 nominations keep getting rejected by the auto rejection process. The benches look good from a standpoint that from the criteria of the Benches topic in the criteria topic. Three other benches were approved in the same neighborhood and have the same orientation and descriptions (which I have shared the approved screenshots).
As for the rock garden, it seems like it should be at lease sent to voting. It is a legit rock garden in this neighborhood. If someone can please review and let me provide any additional insight that would be great.
Benches are not definites. They need to be either dedicated to a “notable person”, artistic design or an anchor for a viewpoint. It is down to the submitter to show evidence of this.
Personally I would struggle with Bench 1, Bench 2 looks more likely. It is believed that the “automated process” does not like a lot of “green”, Maybe get closer so image shows just the bench and the view without as much grass at the bottom of the image. You could crop the image to a square which will also remove some of the grass. If that doesn’t work I suggest using an appeal.
The “Rock Garden” just looks like a path, trees and some plants. The “automated process” is not seeing anything eligible (and neither am I ).
I’m going to say that those are most likely retention ponds, not lakes, especially since I can see an aerator in the one for the Wilson Preserve (yes, that is an aerator, not a fountain, meant to help control water build-up such as algae). There’s even clarification on these:
Being that these are most likely man-made retention ponds and not lakes, they may not be seen as scenic viewpoints, like in the examples below:
As for the rock garden, that just looks like some landscaping; I don’t even see anything that looks like a rock garden in the photos. I don’t know if this is the correct location, but there appears to be something that could be described as such around 27.848528385949372, -82.33071985669426, but it’s in the middle of the road and doesn’t appear to have safe pedestrian access, as well as just appearing to be a bit of landscaping for the area.
I think the rock garden picture doesn’t do it justice - most of the image is path, grass and hedge. Maybe there is a way to frame the image better to get it past the ML and in front of regular reviewers. I do think a rock garden sounds like an interesting place to visit (I love gardening and looking at different kinds of planting at parks) and I’d be inclined to vote positively on this kind of location
I think your scenic bench picture is very pretty! I don’tthink the average person minds if a lake/pondis artificial or natural, so the comments above about that side of it aren’t what I’d say. I think a pretty view is nice regardless and I wpuld definitely pick this bench to sit at rather than another. Is that enough to meet criteria? Unsure. I don’t think its ineligible. But these are pretty hard to get approved. I haven’t had alot of luck with scenic benches - 1 approved and 1 rejected by the ML and then on appeal, which was a view of my town from up on a hill in a park. It’s not a given that any pretty view gets accepted, much as we might like for that to happen.
I don’t think the other bench looks very convincing as its not artistic, not at a particular scenic lookout, and doesn’t have any particular features related to socialising or explore. So I wouldn’t expect that to be accepted.
I don’t think it helps your case when you use a phrase such as “1 of many”. Along with numbering of benches 1, 2 etc.
This all serves to reinforce that this is not something special or distinctive. If there are several benches that are looking out over the same body of water then the view is essentially the same, so again not distinctive.
Try to review and reflect on your submissions. Perhaps go and sit on one of the benches. The normal mindset is maybe this could go into the game. Try to be critical why would you pick to sit on this bench as opposed to another. That should help you create a submission that is about that specific bench. Having that mindset will help make it distinctive. That is what wayfarer wants to see submitted. It is then up to reviewers to decide if you have made a case that is good enough.
).