Could you please help me understand.
I have nominated a wayspot. A green trail marker with a dog beneath and a text of how to handle dogs. (photo attached)
The trail marker is placed in a Dog park with public access. The dog park is listed on Google Maps and even has its own small facebook group. On google maps the specific trail marker that I nominated is shown as some of the photos for the dog park. And because of the season with no leaf on the trees the nominated wayspot is visible from the street next to the dog park.
Today I got an email given me a warning. It said my wayspot was:
2025-03-31
The submission is believed to be fake
The text or photo contains abuse, ridicule, or harassment of a specific person or group
There is still at this point a poke stop at that location, but I fear it will be removed since it is now listed as not accepted in my status and I got a warning from niantic.
I have written Niantic saying that there was no way I have tried to cheat. I see a trail marker in a dog park with public access and I nominate it because I honestly believe that a Dog park with public access containing a rute/trail ( actually 3 trails but I only nominated this one) should meet all the criterias. A dog park with public access at a place with beautiful nature is great for exploration, exercise, socializing. The nominated trail marker leads people up in the woods and to a lake with lots of wildlife.
I have not yet heard from Niantic when I wrote them because of the warning. But I see that in the wayfarer there is an option to put up an appeal of this nominated wayspot. I haven’t done so yet since the wayspot is still a poke stop, but not sure if I should do so to set an appeal for it in case it gets removed? I am not interested in further ban.
however I honestly believe it should be approved like it was in the first place but I have also heard from others that their nominated/accepted stuff had been removed lately especially in this area. How is this possible when there is proof that this place actually does exist and it should meet the wayfarer criteria. I fell that a person or group might report everything here to herrasment of the group who is playing in this area. We are quite a lot of people who plays here considering it is in general a very rual area.
I hope you can help me understand.
The coordination for this wayspot is:
The green icon is listed as dog park in my language. If you click on the green icon “Hundeskov” you will see a few photos of the dog park.
The google street view is recorded doing summertime and at that season the trees has leaf and you can’t look inside. But at the season now the trees are still partly naked so it is possible to have a look from the street
Just for info… if you feel more comfortable typing in your native language, please feel free to do so. There is a function on this site that translates what has been said, and generally does a great job.
Take a video of the location and the surrounding area.
If you have the email, you should have a link to appeal it. Appeal it there first, and if that fails, post the image and video to this thread and we will see if the Niantic Staff can help.
Ok, so Wayfarer was trying out some different rejection reasons a few weeks ago, and one that was being used to represent anything rejected for inaccurate photo/title/description/location was getting “The text or photo contains abuse, ridicule, or harassment of a specific person or group.”
The rejection reasons has been updated to say what the actual rejection reason is if rejected for Accuracy, such as blurry photo, inaccurate location, low quality title/description, etc. Most likely, this was voted on first when these rejection reasons were still in place, hence why they were received.
I would be interested to see the supporting info and photo you provided for this, as If it doesn’t show the marker with the surrounding area, just the surrounding area, I could see how some may think this is fake and/or inaccurately located.
Also, staff do monitor the forums and may send you a DM with more info about the warning.
The supporting photo I would have taken in landscape, not portrait, as it would have shown more of the surrounding area. Not saying that you provided a bad supporting photo, but a landscape photo might have been better at showing the POI with the surrounding area.
I heard from Niantic and they asked me to scan the nomination which I did
They accept the nomination was not fake, but told me it was a low quality nomination so they keep the ban. I am not sure if they mean the shadow for me holding the phone? I have asked them and hope they will reply. But honestly in their criteria over trail markers they show a photo with same shadow of someone holding their phone. So it is all a bit strange to me.
You would need to share screenshots of the nomination in full for us to see if there any any issues that may have caused it to be rejected in the first place. This includes all info: title, description, main photo, supporting photo/info, and location. Just the screenshot showing the rejection reasons and the main photo isn’t enough for us to figure out what may have been the issue, as shadows are allowed in photos, just not peoples’ faces and/or body parts.
This is my entire nomination.
First it got accepted with no issue. Then removed and I got the warning ban notification. And I see on the status that it is believed to be fake.
After I provided the scaniverse they acknowledge it is not a fake nomination but their ban still stands because of low quality.
There is really not anything in the text that is abuse or herrasment.
Right now I just fell so depressed. It is like it is not allowed for rual players to play this game. We don’t have much in rual areas and the things we have that is accepted elsewhere gets removed and I don’t get any clear and specific reason for it. If I only did I could do better in the future.
It is a shame because this place is used a lot by locals and many adults and children likes to play this game, and we had been meeting at this location for a while to socialize partly because many started to play but also because we have great nature here and a good social community.
Sorry for my bad hiccups as we say in my country but I am just very depressed and frustrated not knowing exactly what is wrong with my nomination and why the wayspot got removed. I fell like giving up on those games… But maybe it gets better in the morning. things usually does.
I really appreciate you taking the time to reply on my many posts
I do think the shadow could have been cropped out of the main photo. Cropping of main photos is allowed, and I do it with almost every nomination or photo edit I submit. Other than that, I don’t really seen anything that bad or low quality. Something like this might have been better.
I do find it hard to see how this was marked as fake, especially with the shadow of your hands/phone at the bottom of the main photo. There have been issues in some areas with fake trail markers being submitted and approved, and staff having to remove them from the map. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some removed from Denmark, as some nearby countries have had fake trail marker Wayspots removed, such as Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
Still it is a bit hard to give a ban and remove the poi. The original photo with its shadow is not that different from the photo with the shadow shown at the trail criteria site. But I could try to renominate the cropped photo
It’s just like first they give one reason and then when I make prove the nomination was not fake I get another reason.
I have read about fake trails in other countries but not in my country. I suspect someone from a nearby town might have reported it as fake since I have heard rumors of someone saying he wanted to harm players from my village and he had been quite aggressive to some of the children here. Not sure if it’s true or not but in that case Niantic would probably be able to see that and it is all just speculations from people in my village.
I will go to sleep now and hopefully I will not fell as depressed in the morning. Enjoy your evening
but I am just very depressed and frustrated not knowing exactly what is wrong with my nomination and why the wayspot got removed. I fell like giving up on those games… But maybe it gets better in the morning. things usually does.
