Hello! I am relatively new to Pokemon go and have only played for a few years on and off at this point. Only recently have I started nominating poke-stops around my local community when I have seen something that would work well as one. I have not had any issues with nominating and have only been learning through the different rejections and acceptions because of how vague the guild lines given are. But I have recently received my first warning for “misplacement of wayspot submissions” a little more than a week ago and upon looking into it I cannot find any valid reasons for a full on abuse violation. It for my most recent pokestop nomination (pictures of it are attached)
I have already sent my appeal the same day I got the warning but while I’m waiting I have some questions about the whole thing I’m not sure I will get answered through the appeal response so here they are:
How is it decided through “investigation” that “misplacement of wayspot nominations” actually happened and how do they prove the claim? Because surely you can’t rely on the players reporting it to issue a full on abuse strike.
How can I prevent this from happening in the future, because following the abuse warning I went through and tried to find any resource directly given by the websites affiliated with this stuff and I still have no clue what to do differently.
How often are abuse warnings actually appealed successfully? And am I actually valid for thinking mine is a mistake? I have already submitted an appeal and have no clue how long it will take to get a response. *(I have added pics of the website of my local business giving its address, office number, and showing its lobby with the art piece I was nominating in the picture)
Just a few things I’m wondering about this, why are the guidelines I’ve found so vague? Or am I not reading the right ones or misinterpreting them? I really did
spend like a good 30 minutes trying to read through what I could find and I believe that justifies me coming here for answers after that.
Lastly, how should the average player be able to know what pokestop nominations to avoid? Because what it seems is that it’s recommended to just submit one based off of the in game description and see what happens, but if doing that can cause players to receive abuse warnings is it a problem? This is assuming I was correct that my nomination was a valid one to submit, and wasn’t breaking a rule I wasn’t aware of. Because I genuinely thought it was a decent nomination being a unique art piece in a local business and all.
*also to put it here the resources I mainly looked through but are not limited to were: niantic terms of service, player guidelines, wayfarer criteria, and more.
I still could have easily missed something but this is where I’m confused about where to actually find help on my questions through their resources.
*just to clarify, I’m not here to complain about my situation or throw shade at whoever is in charge of this system, I just genuinely want to learn how to follow guidelines better and avoid breaking rules in the future. I also hope this can help other players to avoid similar situations when submitting wayspot and such.
I must have done something wrong when making it cause now the intro is all hidden , but here it is below:
Hello! I am relatively new to Pokemon go and have only played for a few years on and off at this point. Only recently have I started nominating poke-stops around my local community when I have seen something that would work well as one. I have not had any issues with nominating and have only been learning through the different rejections and acceptions because of how vague the guild lines given are. But I have recently received my first warning for “misplacement of wayspot submissions” a little more than a week ago and upon looking into it I cannot find any valid reasons for a full on abuse violation. It for my most recent pokestop nomination (pictures of it are attached)
I assume you got pop up warning EVERYTIME you login into game and wayfarer for a day. If you want community opinion, please share the screen shot from thank you email. It will show title description, information, foto, location of your nomination
Alternately you can wait for staff to DM you privately
Hello and welcome @HalfDeadFlish
You have come to the correct place to ask these sort of questions. The main active contributors here are fellow wayfinders.
Wayfarer team staff all start with Niantic.
As wayfinders we don’t know how they investigate. I can’t I agi e them revealing that information either.
Most queries of suspensions appear to remain in place - as a community we don’t always know any outcome, but there have been instances of suspensions being overturned.
There is a lot to take on board with Wayfarer, but get it right and it is very satisfying.
The community are very supportive if you want to ask questions and learn. We are happy to offer advice.
I don’t believe that is correct, as their website does give an address that matches where I attempted to pin it. Aswell as the fact that I personally have gone to this local business before. I’m very confident that I pinned the right place. I appreciate you checking though, as I wasn’t aware Google Maps has it listed there. That’s really confusing.
This does not answer your original question but I would not attempt to re-submit. This is not a one-off but a commonly reproduced piece sold in numerous places.
With regard to your questions. Reviewers will see the google map while reviewing, so they probably made the same mistake that I made, they assumed you misplaced the pin. When they reject the nomination for the wrong location, this will trigger the abuse warning.
I do expect staff will have a look at this conversation (as they usually read everything), so I do hope the warning will be revoked. If they don’t reply to this post, you should appeal, as the next warning within 12 months, will mean a 30 day ban for wayfarer and pokemon go.
Oh wow, I had no clue. Thats a good thing to note. Offshoot question, when reviewing, how are you able to know when an art piece like that is a commercially produced one and not a unique and consequently, those that submit. Even when I have been up close irl to it. I could have never guessed.
Yeah, I already have actually submitted an appeal. That’s really interesting that Google Maps has it wrong. I might actually go and report it in Google Maps. While we don’t know what the investigation process is, I would think a person would find that. That does make more sense as why someone reviewing would say it’s the wrong location.
Ok I would like to bring the conversation back to the big thing. Because this seemingly happened due to a Google Maps issue, how is the average player supposed to avoid issues like this in the future? Issues being: non-player error, and knowing if an art installation like the one previously submitted is commercially produced. There isn’t any resource or anything the system offers or recommends that prevents this. They actively tell players to submit the right location, but if Google Maps has it wrong, how does that slip through the “investigation” phase. And how is an average player supposed to check if the artwork is commercial or not, because I don’t know how hard it was to find it but this seems like something that could fool a lot of people.
Generally, almost all art pieces seen in most places will be reproductions. Assume it is a reproduction, probably a mass piece, unless there is evidence otherwise.
It’s not possible to clarify everything. Art is eligible under the Exploration criteria as something that you would enjoy finding and would show to others (or that enough people would enjoy finding and want to show to others). A print that you can find in lots of places simply doesn’t meet this description and it isn’t necessary to clarify that
Something to look for when you are in front of the art is a little tag with the name of the work and the artist’s name. If it has that, it’s typically a unique work. If it doesn’t, it’s usually a mass produced piece.
, but here it is below:
I’m a lil confused, but happy to comply
