Is it just me, or do they just blanket reject everything?
I submitted our local Culver’s restaurant.
Titled “Culver’s”
Description: welcome to delicious ( which is their motto)
Picture is of the Culver’s sign with
Additional pictures of the building and an outdoor seating area.
I get the email stating it doesn’t meet the standards.
I feel customer support is useless.
Hello and welcome @BladeDarksteel
It sounds as though this was rejected the auto screening process as likely to be something that is not acceptable. If you go to the contributions page you will probably see that it says rejected by the auto system. So not humans.
If you would like to share your full nomination here as fellow wayfinders we will be happy to advise further.
Welcome to the forum!
Community reviewers are also directed to reject something like this under “Appropriate” - here is the tool tip describing the options.
Here is a link to the Wayfarer Criteria so you can inform yourself a bit better, and hopefully be less frustrated. Be sure to read all four sections:
Wayspot Criteria — Wayfarer Help Center
Not familiar with Culver’s, but in general franchise chains are difficult to get accepted. It would have to be a locally important restaurant to be an exception.
Doesn’t that bother you?
It should be humans, not some auto reject bot.
The machine learning model has been very helpful. It has reduced wait times from years to months at the most. If the “automated process” rejects something incorrectly, you can appeal the rejection. (Humans review the appeals.) We get two appeals, each on a 15 day counter before it can be used again. In this case, the rejection seems to have been correct.
Under this guide line logic, there should be zero points of interest at any Chain stores. Such as Walmart, McDonald’s….or Starbucks.
With that said, those locations ARE an integral part of the community.
I have had perfectly good nominations rejected by the auto bot ( nickname Emily)
When it is off line you notice the difference as there are more poor quality nominations that get to the part that is human review.
So Emily seems to do a good but not as you might expect not perfect task of screening.
We have appeals that we can use to ask that it is reviewed by a human.
The locations for these are mostly sponsored locations that pay to have Pokestops and gyms put there.
Welcome to the forum 
Restaurants are not automatic wayspots, especially chain restaurants.
This means if you want to submit one, you have to put some effort in. Give the submission a unique name (e.g. Culvers in Jonestown). Write a proper description, not just one line and not just three words. Use the supporting text to explain why this restaurant is special.
This holds for a lot of submissions, not just restaurants - make the effort if you want it to be accepted.
I am pretty sure I recently rejected a Culver’s as being generic.
Maybe this was it, or it learned from me and other humans?
Sometimes you will see that chains have unique or interesting features like art that gets accepted rather than being accepted as the business.
When i go restaurant, i usually submit its playground. A lot of bigger restaurant have playground or art for people to take selfie
Try AI it can help with nominations
Don’t try AI, as it can also add junk text to nominations and you get assumptions that are invalid. AI has no knowledge [of anything, not just wayfarer].
AI-generated text can be extremely off-putting to reviewers
Personally I would not use AI but the only way I would suggest it is if you…
- Used AI to get some “facts”.
- Confirm those facts elsewhere official.
- Re-write in your own words.
The danger here is that AI models are designed to agree with you. So if you ask it to help you prove something is a good wayspot or pokestop, it will come up with some kind of logic. But that logic probably is not based on the actual Wayfarer criteria.
I’m not sure if you use AI, or which one you’ve tried, but it can help a lot. AI can learn and check every Wayfarer criterion, and it can really improve nominations. Of course, people still need to know what they’re submitting, verify the information, and stay in control of the process.
Anything that helps players, I support — I wish all good nominations could be approved. Some areas really lack PokéStops, and players are struggling.
I believe the Pokémon community is built on friendship and support, and that’s what it’s all about.
I use AI a lot in my life. But i don’t give a blanket endorsement to use it for Wayfarer because too many people do not understand how to use it thoughtfully. They are looking for a quick answer that they can copy and paste.
I agree, AI shouldn’t replace human judgment. But it’s a great tool for learning criteria, improving clarity, and avoiding common mistakes. It isn’t meant to be a shortcut. If someone isn’t willing to put in any effort, no tool will magically fix their nomination. But when players actually engage with the process, AI can refine and clarify things in a way that really strengthens the final submission.