A few months back, I submitted a POI and it was approved. Then suddenly removed. After an appeal, it came back.
A week later it was removed again, and when appealed and checking this forum for a reason, it was rejected and removed.
Am I missing something? This is the stop in question.
I am a Canadian living in Japan, and there are a few English pokestops in my city, but all my Japanese POIs have been not approved. Should I try again using Japanese?
I am not seeing whole picture here. While i think the manhole seems artistic, clearly someone report it, which bring the next question. Is it possible that the manhole is not unique to this place? That could be one reason why it repeatedly reported.
Language itself is not problem for wayfarer. Its just maybe more of convenient for local people. There is no guarantee that changing language will make it less likely to get reported.
Considering your appeal got rejected , there might be information we are not seeing here.
I agree that more information is needed. Is this manhole on the sidewalk or on the street itself? If the latter, that would definitely be a valid report reason (not safe for pedestrians), but not knowing anything more about the location I’m purely speculating here.
It’s on a sidewalk, and can be seen on Street View on said sidewalk.
@xenofirex Just wondering if the city has these all over, not just in this area. If they use them all over the city, they could be seen as indistinct. Doing a Google Lens search of the cover does come up with results of people saying they have seen them all over the city; here’s one example:
This website alos notes that these are “manholes,” implying more than one in the city:
Thanks for the reply,
There are a few of these around the city. However, they are not everywhere. There are two on this walkway, one here and one at the station it leads to. The others are plain with the city emblem on it.
While it is not as unique as the fully coloured one at the station, it is the only one like it on the pathway in this area.
I guess it may be possible that there are others further along the path, but it is 10+ km long.
If I were to review that manhole cover, I would reject it as a mass-produced product unless I had information to back it up.
In Japan, each municipality mass-produces and uses manhole covers with designs of objects that have become symbols of that town.
For example, Osaka City has Osaka Castle, Nagoya City has a water strider, Kumamoto City has a higo camellia, Funabashi City has a Godaeriki Boat, Yokohama City has the Bay Bridge incorporated into its design, and covers are used everywhere.
One example of a manhole with a Tsukuba City rocket design at a special location is shown below. In Japan, manhole cards are distributed in each municipality as an educational activity for sewerage projects. The location is also designated and many are custom-made. (In rare cases, mass-produced manhole cards are also made into cards.) These can be special places for manhole card collectors to visit. In the case of uniquely designed municipal covers, this kind of supporting information is essential.
As a supplement, As many of you know, there are also covers designed with anime, comic, movie, or other character designs in Japan. They can be reviewed without supporting information because their appearance alone is sufficient to determine their value.
Glad you weighed in, as I was hoping someone from Japan would have a little more info.
@xenofirex There may not be more along the path, but there may be many more throughout the city, making them indistinct for being mass produced. To me, they are similar to the neighborhood signs we have in different parts of where I live, marking the different historic areas. These are all mass produced with the same imagary, and almost every block in said neighborhood has one. Being they’re all over the neighborhood, I consider them indistinct and ineligible to be Wayspots.
この交差点付近にある地方政府「つくば市」が設置するこの汚水/雨水「マンホール蓋」をGoogleMapsで見てみました。
36.040566,140.056241
36.040616,140.056185
36.040664,140.056139
他に小さなハンドホール蓋（ 36.040539,140.056174 / 36.040672,140.056184 ）が歩道にありますが、「水」と記されておりデザイン/カラー/用途が異なるので無関係でしょう。
GoogleMapsでは、この交差点付近で明確に分離された歩道には作業員が地下へ進入する為のマンホール蓋を見つける事ができませんでした。
また、周辺の道路の各交差点にも同デザインのマンホール蓋が確認できます。
マンホール蓋ファンのサイト「路上の美術館」「つくば市 - デザインマンホール」（ つくば市のマンホール ）のページでも、これが特別なデザインではなく「つくば市」で最もポピュラーなデザイン（カラー/ノンカラー）のマンホール蓋だと強く推認されます。
日本在住ではなくてもご存知の方はいらっしゃると思いますが、日本の地域事情としてレビュアーを悩ませ続けている対象物の１つとして「日本のデザインマンホール蓋」があります。
レビューの際には、画像検索やマンホール蓋ファンのサイトのチェック、GoogleMapsで周辺の道路上のマンホール蓋チェック等、とても時間がかかるハードな作業になります。
現地で撮影し申請する人は、周辺のマンホール蓋をチェックすることは難しいことではないと思います。作業をするレビュー達の為にも、日本のマンホール蓋をノミネーションする際には、探索に最適な場所である「特別な理由」を証拠として提出されることを切に願います。
ノミネーターとレビュアーは敵ではなく仲間のはずです。基準に従い、マッピングコミュニティの一員として正直な行動でWayfarerを楽しめる環境になることを願います。
【参考】
Wikipedia日本語「マンホールの蓋（manhole cover）」
日本グラウンドマンホール工業会「下水マンホールふたの豆知識」（日本語）
