Hi I have a question and would SO much appreciate your help to make me understand this.
I had a wayspot “Gulspurv” accepted in march 2025.
After some days it came up as a Gym. I was very happy.
Then after a few days I got an email saying that this wayspot “does not meet our eligibility criteria as it does not exist at this location”.
The wayspot do exist and I and others had also scanned it a few times to prove that this wayspot did exist and was on that location. Stil it was removed.
Same thing happens to a lot of wayspot created, accepted and installed in this area. After days it will be removed. I heard from other players (not me) that some had also got a ban for abuse.
My question is that why does our wayspot being accepted and installed and then a few days later removed?
The wayspot is there and it is in a forrest along a hiking trail and it has public access and is used a lot by the community nearby also by scouts. The place is perfectly safe. Correct that those nominated wayspots is relative new established. The location is in a rual place and the google streetview does not get by that area that often. And to be honest I actually do not think it would even capture our wayspots (nature signs + trail markers) since they have been placed very closed to trees. At least I have not been able to see the wayspots on google maps, but google maps only allow us to go along larger roads in my area. But in real life they are there, and location is right.
Could you please help me out to understand why wayspots will appear in the game just to be removed a few days later? Is there anything I can do to prevent this from happening again?
Could it be because the wayspots was nominated shortly after the markers had been put up and before googlemap had detected it? Could I speed up whatever process it is to show signs really exist in whatever maps the game is using? That way Niantic could see they exist even if they once had installed them.
The hiking trails with nature signs does not exist in any website since it is a real area and budget is low.
I would so much appreciate if anyone is able to explain this to me. That location has been used so much to socialize with other players while enjoying the nature. I fear the pogo community here will end if we all have to get in the car and drive to a town to play on the streets. Most players are scouts or nature lovers so we don’t enjoy playing on streets in town.
I have attached some photos of that specific wayspots but basically the same goes for everything else nominated and installed in this area.
Judging by the picture alone these look like self made posts. You will need to back up with evidence that those have not been solely built to make Wayspots, for example with internet links, newspaper articles to the project, anything that can confirm it being legit.
The information you researched can also be used in the penalty appeals of any banned person
The scouts around here makes lots of those nature signs informing people of the wildlife living in this forest. So yes they are not nice expensive signs, but they are made to be water and weather resistance and has great information about whatever animal on those signs.
Anyway they were accepted, approved and installed. Just to disappear a few days later. I don’t understand why the game accept and install them as a wayspot and then a few days later remove them?
That is very frustrating to me. I would have understood if they wasn’t approved in the first place all though the wayfarer program writes they understand that some of the stuff from rual areas might not be as cool looking as things in cities do to much lower or no budget. But when they were approved and even installed like this one it is frustrating to see an email sent that it doesn’t exist. That should be checked before they install them to the game, right?
This nature sign is not the only one around here that was installed and removed a few days later with the argument they don’t exist. So I do not think it is the quality of the sign that did it. It has to be something else and I would like to know what that could be and how to prevent it in the future.
Hi and welcome @VickyMis
Just because something get s approved it does not mean that it can’t be removed. This most frequently happens because someone reports a wayspot for investigation. The team may decide to look wider than that 1 wayspot or the report might be about the a number of wayspots in an area.
What can you do?
First if these are made by scouts as part of a local project do they have any online article about this - an article showing them being installed or something showing the route they cover for example. This all goes to prove the project and the information boards are genuine.
Second you can make a case for reinstatement in Wayspot Appeals. You should focus solely on the eligilibilty of the wayspots and provide evidence about the project and that each is there. You could do GPS tagged photos or scaniverse splats. Staff will then review the evidence and give a decision.
Thank you very much for your very useful answer. I did also suspect that someone has been reporting them as part of harassment toward people in my village. Everything here started to disappear after a group here went to a town for the articuno dynamax and had some few unpleasant experiences with a few town people. Most things people here nominate will be approved and installed just to be removed again in a few days saying they do not exist. Some even with a ban. (not me)
I am not sure if I can find any online articles about this project or about the trails. But I could for sure make a GPS tagged photo and make the appeal.
Just by looking at the laminated poster and how it is taped with what looks like paper tape on the simple stand, it is not particularly permanent, regardless of whether it is made by scouts or not.
What gives me bad vibes about this is the taping, as the stand can be easily moved and a new poster can be easily applied.
I have searched for scout activities in the area, and yes, the scout center is about 4km away. If you look at the pictures that they have posted on their website and Facebook, or that are visible at the scout hut via Google Street View, they have marked almost everything with the FDF logo (the scout organization is called FDF in Denmark).
In addition, I think it would be remarkable to see these signs so far away from their scout center, which is located next to a large hiking area, and would most likely be where they would place for signs created by them. The location for this sign indicated by you @VickyMis, is really not a natural place for the scouts to place such a sign, rather for the person who lives on the farm there.
As you also mentioned it could be tricky to find the evidence, and I tried searching for this via the scouts own sites and I couldn’t find anything about it on the internet either.
But as in the post above, if you find evidence that justifies it, I don’t mind being wrong stating this sign are fake.
