Today I got a rejection on the appeal for rejecting my pokestop. Ok I guess, can’t do anything about that. But, I used a hard earned upgrade on this pokestop. Shouldn’t I get that upgrade back? It’s just a clean motivation killer, getting my upgrade voided like that, after doing around 250 reviews to get it.
Please help.
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Welcome to the forum @M1kkelangelo
Sadly that’s not how upgrades work. The purpose of an upgrade is to get your nomination seen by a wider range of reviewers, which in turn should lead to a faster decision being made on it. There is no guarantee that this decision will be an acceptance. Your upgrade did exactly what it was meant to do.
If you feel your nomination was incorrectly rejected, you can appeal it within wayfarer by tapping on the nomination in your contributions tab, and then pressing the appeal button:
That being said, you can also share screenshots of your nomination in the Nomination Support section if you don’t understand why it was rejected and want advice on it. It might be the case that what you’ve submitted is indeed not eligible, and that using an appeal on it would not be the best course of action as a result of that.
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Hello and welcome @M1kkelangelo
It’s not always easy or obvious to understand what the various sections of this forum are for.
I am going to move this to nomination support which is the most appropriate place.
It would be really helpful to see your nomination in, full photos and preferably paste in the text so anyone can translate. Along with location.
We can then see what the issue may be and support you.
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Hi and thx for replying.
As he writes in the rejection, they are in fact just rocks, but they were placed there as a sign of peace after a long period of gang activity and trouble in the neighborhood. Also, it’s not like they were randomly put there. They are aligned in a pattern marking a junction of neighborhoods and biking paths. Kids play on these rocks and me and other parents meet there on the way to or from school.
Taking into account what else I’ve seen in regards to pokestops around the cities/countries and how many barely live up to even 1 of the requirements Niantic writes, I don’t understand why this nomination didn’t make that cut.
And to top it off I’m not getting my upgrade refunded… What a waste of time, doing 250+ reviews to get that upgrade.
Cheers, Mikkel
What evidence did you have that these rocks were installed for this purpose? If you have a news article or something like that, it would be much more convincing. I am not accusing you, but some people will submit fake nominations, so the appeals team has to be really convinced on something that appears just to be a measure to prevent traffic from veering onto the grass area or from parking there.
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To give you the perspective of an outsider, those rocks look like they are acting as bollards. They are meant to keep cars from parking on the grass or even swerving to drive on it. If they are more than that, like Cyndie said, you need to provide some very good proof.
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Yeah, you’re right - they do just look exactly what you are saying. And I have no proof supporting my story. Nevertheless the space is used as I wrote - I just feel stupid for not being more clever in creating this pokestop. I could just have photoshopped some sculpture in, or dragged some family sized benches onto the grass, and called it a picnic area like I’ve seen so many other people do in their nominations.
Oh well… There are other pokestops to use, I’m just frustrated and mostly crying about the Upgrade I spent here. It took me 7 minutes to nominate the pokestop, but it took me months to achieve that upgrade. And poof - wasted.
Abuse like that can get you banned from the games.
I feel you on the “wasted” upgrade, but please don’t fake nominations.
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… Which is why I nominated a real and usable pokestop.
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fwiw, a picnic table dragged in would also most likely be rejected as temporary. but this location does appear to be an accessible area by sidewalk that does not look like someone’s SFPRP. possibly you could work with the neighborhood to set up a little free library in this common area? idk if lfl’s are common there.
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Sorry, I don’t understand the abbreviations… Fwiw, sfprp and lfl?! 
SFPRP stands for Single Family Private Residential Property
LFL stands for Little Free Library
No wayspots are allowed on SFPRPs. But LFLs are great at parks, churches, or other public places.
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FWIW is text speak in English For What It’s Worth.
The others are commonly used abbreviations in this forum, no reason a newcomer would necessarily know.
Yes are others around, I saw a play area and basketball court I think.
It will feel frustrating having worked for an upgrade.
If you have something that is not as obvious as a play area, p,ease free to consult here first to reduce your chances of a rejection and an upgrade not being approved.
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Thx to all for the constructive criticism. I’ll see what I can do to improve this spot for future nomination.
Merry Xmas.
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Oh, apologies for the acronyms! I assumed you were an old hand at doing this, since you were submitting in a free L17 S2 cell. Do you need any explanation about the rules for accepted Wayspots to become Pokestops or gyms?
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Hey no problem 
I started playing in March and did my first nominations back in June, including researching into s2 cells. Only now the nominations finally got accepted a few days ago. Well, apart from that last one I spent the upgrade on.
I believe I have a fairly good grasp on what can be a pokestop or not. But thanks for reaching out and offering help.
Oh, but now you’re asking I would very much like to hear more about the criteria for pokestops to become Gyms? I can’t really find much concrete about this when Googling.
Niantic really doesn’t want people manipulating which become gyms, but I will share this post from the old forum that I found linked on the Wayback Machine fwiw:
Other than that, you get gyms at 2, 6, and 20 Pokestops/gyms in an L14. Sponsored stops/gyms sometimes count for that total and sometime don’t - I think lately they tend to count more often than not.
This is a great article to save for reference: https://pokemongohub.net/post/article/comprehensive-guide-s2-cells-pokemon-go/
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When trying to access your first link, it says the pages might not exist or is private. But thx anyway.
oops that was the link i looked up on the machine still on my clipboard - fixed it
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So, in short, before 2021 Gyms were created on either oldest or most popular pokestop. And now it’s completely random.
The criteria of # of Gyms depending on # of pokestops per L14 cell, is still the samme.
Correct?