Hi! I’m new to submitting nominations and my town has very few pokestops. In the neighborhood there are no signs or names of the lakes but they are extremely relevant POIs to the community. I’d like some help and advice. This lake also is bordered by a paved walking trail.
Title: Renaissance Community Lake #1
Description: Stunning peaceful open space area in the rural manchester area, and popular walking spot and picture destination within the community.
Supplemental: Excellent place to promote activity and exercise. Beautiful views of ducks, fish, turtles, and other wildlife, as well as meeting spot for neighbors, their dogs, and visitors alike to socialize. Borders a parkland and golf course walking circuit. There is no signage anywhere in the neighborhood, but it is extremely significant to our small and isolated community!! This area is mostly inhabited by older adults, and is well-frequented by those with even limited mobility.
Welcome @LiquidCeil - we are glad you have joined us on the forum.
That “Wayfarer Criteria” rejection indicates that this was probably a rejection by the ML (machine learning ai) model. The email you received indicates the decision was by “our team” instead of the community, and it probably came about 20-24 hours after you submitted - unless you used upload later.
I love the ML accepts, but when it doesn’t see anything that it has been taught to be eligible, it is hard to get around a rejection from it. Is there anything manmade nearby that could act as an anchor for the Wayspot to be pinned to that it could recognize? I know you said there is no sign, but is there a bench?
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Welcome to the community… hope you will become a regular poster on this forum.
Regarding your submission, it would be considered a natural feature and doesn’t fall into Niantic’s acceptance criteria. Some old submissions with lakes may have been accepted previously, but they haven’t been accepted for as long as I have been submitting them.
Are there any sinages, playgrounds, interesting artefacts that could be nominated in the area that isn’t in the game?
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Actually there is no “Natural Feature” rejection anymore. But it is very hard to find a place to pin a natural feature.
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Fair enough… Didn’t realise that.
Unfortunately there are no signs or distinctive features and while there are “markers” around golf course pars, there is not an actual distinctive golf course sign. No par signs have been submitted. This lake is highly trafficked and significant to the community despite not having a name. The rule sign doesn’t seem distinctive enough. The only other area is a pergola but it’s over porta potties and that’s just… not okay.
Edit: I also submitted a birdhouse by the lake and that was also rejected.
First and / or last hole / tee?
Does the last hole or tee count? I’ve seen some people reject pars but there is no poke stop for the golf course as a whole. I think this lake is the biggest and most central area within the course as well but idk if it fits as a description or title for the golf course.
I vaguely remember seeing something (not sure where) where people nominate a tee off as a possible nomination. I don’t know if this is an acceptable idea or not.
There is a clarification for this: Golf & Disc Golf Courses
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When I look closer, you do have a rules sign in the photo that could be an anchor for the Wayspot. I can’t think of a way to frame this photo to get it past the ML filter, but you could try appealing. I am not saying that they will approve it, but you have a lot of reasons why it is important to the community in the supporting, so 
If you appeal, a human will look at it. You get two appeals, each on a 20 day timer before you can use it again. If you can include any more information proving the importance of this lake to the community, you can add that in the appeal. Like if there is a link to a lake stroll walking group, a catch and release fishing tournament, anything like that to make it more than just a body of water that exists in the neighborhood.
The only lakes I have had accepted were ones with signs showing they were designated fishing spots, and those were accepted on appeal. This is going to be a hard sell and I don’t want to get your hopes up. But you did take a great photo and you are on the right track with explaining how this meets criteria in your supporting. It is just a really difficult nomination.
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Interesting! So with this in mind, since the lake is a separate feature that is distinctive within the course, could I submit ‘Par XYZ Lake’ as the name with the par sign as the lake name?
wow i missed a lot while i was typing.
Sorry, I should have waited for the better suggestion to be posted. 
You can nominate the golf course. But avoid the field of play. I would not recommend nominating par signage.
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Not necessarily better lol and if you wait for me to finish typing, you will be waiting a long time.
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What should I do to further contribute to my reasoning if I decide to appeal? Should I mention that the course has no designated poke stop and this is centralized?
The par 1 is over 2 miles away.
Also wanted to say thank you for appreciating my photo. I thought it was insanely cool how the water becomes a perfect mirror.
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Mentioning a need for game locations is exactly what you should NOT do, and did not do in your nomination.
The appeal should give further evidence how this does meet criteria as a great place of exercise, exploration, or being social. You might also point out the sign to show that it does have a physical anchor to a specific location around the lake. Great evidence would be any links you could give to community newsletters, official websites, etc. that mention the lake as a destination.
They do not give us any guide on how to appeal, but addressing the reason it was rejected and giving more evidence usually works for me. But not always. And the appeals team has a cut and paste answer ready that “a signboard would increase the chance of this being accepted” that they use quite often, even when you say there is no sign to start with. So I really don’t know about this, but at least a human would look at it.
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Quick update and my appeal was denied under a “natural feature” rejection criteria, which, according to the chain, WAS grounds for rejection but it’s NO LONGER rejection criteria according to the link listed in the rejection notice of the appeal which makes no sense to me. What should I do now? Is there any way to get Niantic to read this?
Edit: Also, Wayfarer lists gardens, forests, and water features to be “excellent” places for spots, which are all natural features.
This is a man made lake. Nothing natural about it. If I wanted to be creative I could say it’s a public work of landscaping art (jk but I’m a little salty).
