Recently, the results of the stop review that I applied for this spring are showing up. I applied according to Niantic’s standards, and most of them were approved. However, a few stops were rejected by low-quality reviewers, and I have been appealing. Most of them were approved by Niantic and became the stop. However, the appeal that is given every 25 days is too insufficient. In the case of Pokemon Go, the level of review is so low that people who are young or ignorant of the review statem are reviewing it, and stops that have no issues are being rejected. For example, in my case, there are four stops that have been rejected even though there are no issues, and I’ve already used up my appeal rights. So I think I have to wait four months for these stops to appeal. I think this is too much. If a user appeals and gets approval, I think it’s better to immediately enable a new appeal or reduce the waiting time for a new appeal. What do you think? I think we need a more flexible way for users who are passionately submitting for the stop.
Hello!
First of all, just a small annotation, when you are submitting something, independently of the game, you are submitting a wayspot. These wayspots are added to the data base that is used in the different Niantic games.
Nowadays the appeals are every 20 days, so maybe you can appeal sooner as you think.
And related to this, if you are in range of submitting the wayspots, you can always try again to submit them. Not everything gets accepted at the first try and sometimes we need to submit it multiple times, maybe changing the title, photo or description. If you are interested you can share your nominations in Nomination Support so people can have a look and give feedback to try to improve them.
As @MegaTrainerRed says, the cooldown for appeals is 20 days, and you also get two appeals. So if you used one appeal today and the second appeal tomorrow, you’d have another appeal available in 20 days and then another appeal available in 21 days.
I would agree that some appeals should be “refunded” when it’s so obvious that the denial is not legitimate, particularly for edits. The evidence is often provided right in the “Location” map or in the provided images on the reviewing page - the reviewer doesn’t even have to put in additional effort to look anything up!
Examples include:
- Location edit where the update is right where Google Maps also indicates it (I know Maps can be wrong, but the odds of both being wrong at the same place is pretty slim, and unless things have changed, Maps is supposed to be a reference for our reviews)
- Title update for art to match the artist’s title visible/included on a plaque in the provided image(s)
- Title update for a location’s name change that has already been updated in Google Maps (again, same use of Maps as indicated above)
Other easy reviews include:
- Photo update where the same image is matchable via Street View
- Grammar corrections where it not only makes sense, but is also to match what is already in another field (match error in description to correct title, or vice versa).
In such a case of obvious error in rejecting, do the related reviewers get notified or otherwise penalized for poor reviewing?
I think it’s a Niantic reviewer capacity issue. They can only handle 2 per 20 days. If 5000 people had both approved in 2 days, so submitted 2 more, then had those approved, so submitted 2 more, then… pretty soon everyone’s appeals would wait months because of the backlog.
If the appeal reviewers get more bandwidth to review more nominations - I’d rather they give everyone 3 every 20 days, or 2 every 15 days, or some number that the staff can handle with decent turnaround.
Maybe the option to choose between getting a upgrade or extra appeal as reward should be very useful.
If you dont wanna wait 20 days you can play wayfarer to earn the extra appeal.
MD’s explanation applies to that scenario as well
It used to be 1 every 30 days when I started in the summer of 2023, so 2 every 20 days is much better than what it used to be.
I also agree that having too many appeals per user would create a backlog for the appeals team, and it could take longer for them to make decisions. I also think some may need to utilize the help center’s criteria, ask for help in Nomination Support, or on other sites to see what may be improved upon. Sometimes resubmitting with better info may be better than appealing.
You’re right. I’ve reviewed 11,000 pois so far, and I’ve submitted over 100 pois for approval. As a result, I’m well aware of the propensity of reviewers in our local community and the review criteria of Niantic reviewers. I do my best to submit, but the pool of Korean reviewers is quite narrow, and some of them cannot deviate from the stereotypes of the past. They unconditionally reject it, even though it is subject to approval, or require too high quality of photos. They only rely on their regulations, which are interpreted by distorting Niantic’s submission guide. I have been approving those pois that were rejected for that reason by appealing to Niantic. There are cases where I aim for those that are approved by appealing to Niantic from the time I submit. For example, I was rejected photos taken with the latest smartphone as of low quality, rejected objects similar to those approved through wayfarer’s ai as temporary, and rejected as private land. I haven’t been appealing to ridiculous things. Because most of them have been approved. I’m going to appeal again now. Thank you
Can Niantic Improve the Stop Review and Appeal Process?
Many players feel frustrated by Niantic’s stop review system, especially when high-quality submissions are rejected due to inexperienced reviewers. While appeals can fix this, the 25-day wait between appeals feels too restrictive for active contributors. Should Niantic allow immediate appeal resets for successful cases or shorten wait times to better support dedicated users? How can the system balance fairness with efficiency while encouraging quality submissions? I am also frustrated.
We currently have two appeals on a 20 day timer. With ML approving my nominations now, I haven’t used one since July.