Mountain Summit Sign Rejection & Denied Appeal

[schmmidtty]

In May of 2023, I did a hike to the top of a mountain in the ADK park of NY. I found the summit sign was not a pokestop and submitted it.

After being rejected, I supported my submission with articles and official websites confirming that it is real. Its like none of my input was looked into and taken seriously.

  I really want this peak to have a pokestop, and don’t have the time to go and hike that mountain again with the risk of not being taken seriously.

I get that its hard to check the location but with all the evidence I provided someone should have looked into it.

MacNaughton Mountain

https://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=6017

MacNaughton Mountain

[schmmidtty]

Adding photo that included original coordinates

One of the more bothering aspects is that the supporting image shows the summit sign in respect to the background as requested in the denial.

Any quick goolge search of this peak and the summit sign will show its existence.

It is a notable sign and is well know among the ADK 46er community and those in the area.

I was so excited and hopeful that on my ascent I could be the one to claim to have submitted the sign.

[cyndiepooh]

Hmm. I would love for this to be a Wayspot. Do you still have the original photos that you took, and are they geo tagged?

[schmmidtty]

Mod note: removed personally identifying material.

Here are some of the photos from that day. I even took a screenshot of the submission. The photos likely don’t have a Geo Tag as I turn it off if I can, but I was using a lot of GPS tech that day, a Garmin, All Trails, and Apple Compass to get the GPS coordinates

[cyndiepooh]

I hope that Niantic will look at this again. That looks like proof it is there to me.

[schmmidtty]

I really hope so too. Its for the good of the map, and a unique and fun pokestop to go and get. After becoming a 46er I set a challenge to make sure each of the peaks has its summit sign or survey dial submitted so that one could visit each peak. The lower elevations have no signal so only at the peaks can you play. I’m still holding the gym on one of the peaks

[frealafgb]

This is so super cool! I hope Niantic reconsider

[Xenopus]

Just a note that I removed pictures with personal identifying information from this post, out of an abundance of caution.

[cyndiepooh]

I don’t think this was a “wrong” appeal decision based on the information they had, but we have mentioned before that there isn’t an easy option to add geotagged photos to an appeal. The submitter can’t appeal this rejection a second time with links to an external site containing this photographic evidence. I don’t want to start tagging staff to reconsider this rejection, but did want to comment again to keep this post from getting buried.

Mountain summits seem like fantastic Wayspots for exploration and exercise! Especially documented ones like this. It isn’t something I will ever visit personally, but I know there are some serious hikers like @Trollfarer

[Linewalker]

The mountain exists, thats not the problem. I would have also rejected this, because, you can’t see the sign in the surrounding image. The sign is the spot, not the mountain. You need to help everyone with some clear markers, that the sign is at the location. Otherwise it’ll be rejected.
The other question to solve with information is: is IT savely reachable?

[Trollfarer]

On top of a mountain while reading this, not something to submit on the peak though

[Trollfarer]

Try to have the sign centered in the photo if you ever get in range to resubmit, you could crop it from that main image. Pokemon GO has a 10km submit radius, so no need to get all the way up. I can see the sign in the supporting image, thats good.

[Trollfarer]

The sign is visible in the supporting photo, middle area top left.
It might not be accessible for everyone, but its definitely safely accessible and you can stand next to the sign on the trail.