I would like to appeal the rejection of several of my PokéStop nominations. The locations I submitted are real, publicly accessible, and represent genuine local points of interest within our village.
The nominations include:
Village signs and local identity landmarks.
Visible and permanent public installations.
Well-known places frequently used by residents.
These submissions meet the accessibility and safety criteria, while also helping improve the gameplay experience in a rural area where there are currently very few PokéStops or activities available in Pokémon GO.
Unlike large cities that already have many Wayspots, our village has very limited in-game content despite having eligible locations. Adding these PokéStops would genuinely help the local community and encourage players to explore the village on foot.
Every PokéStop truly matters in rural areas like ours, and I kindly ask you to reconsider these nominations.
Criteria does not change because you do not have a lot of Pokestops. Are you making a case that these are great places for exercise, exploration, or being social? It would help us advise you to see screenshots from your contributions page.
This post will most likely be moved to Nomination Support where you would have seen this prompt:
Please provide:
A screenshot of your nomination, including rejection reasons if it has already been rejected
Include the title, description, both photos, and supplemental information
Copy and paste the title, description and supplemental so others can translate them
If you feel comfortable please share the location, as it is helpful (i.e. hidden duplicates), but you can mask it if you wish.
(It is easier for me to help with one nomination at a time, if you would like to start with the one that you are most confused about not being accepted and work from there.)
All of these are potentially eligible, but it depends what they are. A village entrance sign would be a village sign/local identify landmark, but would be a difficult submission. A waste-bin would be a visible and permanent public installation, but would be ineligible. A local shop could be a well-known place frequently used by residents, but would be a difficult submission.
Here are the photos of the locations. These are all easily accessible spots (with sidewalks or walking paths) while also fitting the exploration criteria.
This is especially true for the waterway location, which is right next to a bridge, close to the small castle/building in the village
Photo 1 - electrical box; not remotely eligible
Photo 2 - pond/river; potentially eligible, an anchor is helpful (why this spot not a different one?), difficult to convince reviewers
Photo 3 - door; not eligible
Photo 4 - poster; not eligible
Photo 5 - river; as above
Photo 6 - street name sign, not eligible
If you want assistance with finding eligible things, you can post the location. Once you find some, it will help you understand better what things are eligible to be wayspots.
How does a blue double door “fit the exploration criteria”? That usually means something that is either historically significant, or a work of art. A solid colored set of doors doesn’t seem to be either of those things.
I wanted to see screenshots from your contributions page at https://wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/new/nominations to see how you are presenting the nominations and what the rejection reasons are for. Some things can be ruled out from just the photo of the object, but others depend on the presentation.
The building is currently an electrical utility structure, but it was renovated and actually has a real local history behind it, even if only the residents of our village really know it (and I doubt explaining the full story would even matter here).
Meanwhile, there are literally PokéStops in nearby villages based on random objects or things with no real history at all including a pigeon and even obvious AI generated images that still got accepted.
But a bridge located in front of a castle, along with an accessible utility electrical small building that genuinely has local history behind it, gets rejected.. seriously?
Also, here are the nomations descriptions (in french) but i can translate if you prefer for each one.
Some wayspots are accepted that should not have been. These can be reported in Pokemon Go or using Niantic Wayfarer.
Some wayspots are accepted because they meet criteria even though this is not obvious to the casual observer.
Sometimes, a wayspot meet exercise/social criteria, but is being compared to something that is potentially a point of exploration, which is a false comparison.
For me, even just the water spots with small spots to sit around or, or the one with the bridge right next to it are areas where people often walk, especially walking their dogs, so that could meet the social criteria.
As for the blue door, I understand it may seem unclear, but there is a real story behind it, just only at a local level, there is no social criteria for this one, but more about history inside the village
If that building with the blue door is not single-family private residential property (SFPRP), has a history and is a point of exploration (something that you would show a visitor and discuss the history), then it has validity as a wayspot.
In that case, I would use a photo of the building, not just the door, as the main photo, since it is the building that has the history not the door
The problem is that it can’t just be opened like that. It’s only opened occasionally, but not by just anyone randomly (I don’t know enough about it, and I don’t know the people who manage the place either, but it is public even if it’s very small inside).
Now I don’t know if it has to be a place accessible 24/7 to everyone, or if it can still be approved even though it’s only open sometimes.
If you don’t know enough about it perhaps find out more so that the nomination can be bolstered for another go around. If it is, say, a space where clubs are run then that fits social criteria. EDIT: or it may just be a space in which equipment is kept? EDIT again sorry I see you have excluded Social criteria for this one already.
Yes, from what I was able to see, there are also a few pieces of equipment related to all of that, but I’m really not an expert. In short, it used to be considered somewhat “heritage of the village” in the past, there are still a few remaining elements, but there’s practically nothing left.
The point of my question was not to criticize the submission, but to ask the question reviewers would ask. If you’re saying it’s important, explain that. If there is some sort of a sign, include it.
I do have a little French (three years in school foreign language classes in the 1990s) but I’m just not seeing something there where you have really made a case for why the doorway (or its building) is important. Your text seems to be arguing for artistic merit, but… it’s a solid colored door. Not a painting.
And if, as you say here, it is actually a historic site, your submission text doesn’t even try to make that point.
As for accessibility - getting inside the building is not necessary, and in fact, I have done several approved nominations of businesses by going when they are closed (since they want no people in the pictures).
