Niantic has shown many times in the past that it doesn’t seem to know exactly what it wants. I understand that many people work in support and there may be differences in the understanding of regulations and guidelines, but recently Niantic support seems to be taking alcohol or drugs when setting waystops.
A few days ago, niantic itself reviewed my nomination, accepted it, and happily sent me an email telling me what a great discoverer I am for adding new POIs. Unfortunately, after 3 or 4 days, the poi disappeared from the map… I had this type of situation before, and Niantic threatened to ban me for “adding bad nominations” (which in fact was accepted by Niantic himself, not the reviewers).
It is known that not every country is Japan, not every country is Korea, not every country is the United States. However, in some countries there are specific objects that are not found in other parts of the world, or are important for local communities, tourism, etc. Unfortunately, niantic support does not fully understand this. It’s very sad.
Recently I added the nomination of a certain landmark and signpost, which is a specific point for larger road traffic intersections in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, it was rejected as “temporary” (congratulations here to the reviewers for the level of the block…), and then I decided to write a reference to niantic, due to the fact that it is a sign at the crossroads of communication routes connecting several cities and it is a characteristic point in area. Niantic dismissed my nomination as “mere road sign” and let’s just say I would wave my hand as they have proven time and time again that they “can’t see beyond their bowl of rice” - as the old Chinese proverb goes. However, after the next click, the recommended nomination appears on the main page, which is… THE SAME TYPE OF SIGN!! - which proved that they had no idea what an “ordinary road sign” was.
So niantic, it’s sad because you mislead players and then you spin texts scaring players by suspending their accounts.
FIRST:
THAN:
the same story goes on with “insect hotels” or urban “mini libraries”, on the one hand it is every now and then a facility recommended on the main website. In Europe, it has become quite a popular trend, it is used in parks and even gardens in city centers and is a specific element of urban architecture and culture. Except that acceptance by niantic is… random. Sometimes they accept, sometimes they don’t accept, and sometimes they contradict themselves…
First do recommendation:
later, rejecting the nomination and writing threats in emails for “improper nominations”
I have even more examples, I can post them if the topic finds interest and/or is not “swept under the carpet”