Over the past few weeks, I have submitted several new PokéStop nominations. However, only two of them have been approved, even though the locations are public, historically or culturally significant to the city, and there are not many PokéStops in the surrounding area.
Of the two approved nominations, only one has actually appeared in Pokémon GO. I read that this can happen if a PokéStop is considered too close to another one. However, I live in Gävle, and in the Valls Hage nature area there are PokéStops every few meters throughout the entire park. They all seem to have been accepted without any issues, so I’m having trouble understanding why my approved nomination did not appear.
I also noticed that when I look at the Niantic map, there are Wayspots that exist but are not visible in Pokémon GO. I only discovered this after submitting some of those locations myself, and they were rejected as duplicates. In addition, one of my nominations was rejected because the location was supposedly not where the pin was placed, even though it was exactly correct.
Is it really this difficult to get PokéStops approved? I would appreciate it if someone could explain how these decisions are made, as I’m finding the process quite confusing
This can happen with an Ambassador program that Pokemon Go provides to add lots of extra pokestops into a popular area, normally a park. However, I cannot see any of these pokestops are flagged as that; they all look like normal community submissions.
The pokestop density is intense. Do not take this area as a guide for what Pokemon Go normally looks like.
To answer your more general questions, the review process for wayspots is not “do I like this POI?” or even “is this POI eligible?”, but “is this submission eligible?”
In order to be accepted, a wayspot has to not fail any of the rejection criteria
- it has to be safely accessible to pedestrians
- it can’t be on school grounds, single-family private residential property, farmland
- it has to exist at the location given
- it has to have a reasonably accurate title and description
- the photo cannot contain licence plates, identifiable people, unnecessary animals
- it cannot represent something that already has a wayspot
- the photo must be one that you took and have not posted elsewhere
- it has to be reasonably distinct, not just a random location
It also has to meet one of the key criteria
- Exploration
- Exercise
- Social
Something can pass all the rejection reasons but still not be eligible because it simply isn’t meeting criteria.
Something can meet criteria but fail for one of the rejection reasons.
Often, the rejection reason(s) do give an indication of the point of failure. Sometimes they don’t. If you are confused by a rejection, you can post the full details (including submission location, which is found in the initial receipt email below the photos) into this forum for advice. The location helps because sometimes the only error is selecting the wrong location (accidentally or on purpose).
You are correcting about Pokemon Go having density/inclusion rules. As I said, forget Valls Hage, as this breaks the rules, probably using abuse. Often, an unused wayspot will get used as a powerspot, but not always.
This is not true. The pokestop in this area seems created by abuse in the past. When this got noticed, usually wayfarer will recalculate wayspot density in the area.
The abuse was probably to submit an eligible POI at the wrong location, somewhere where it would appear as a pokestop in Pokemon Go, and then submit a location edit to put it in the correct location. Under the processes in 2019/2020, Pokemon Go didn’t recalculate the use of a wayspot when it was moved, so this was abused to create dense clusters of pokestops.
Most of these have been cleaned up.
Now, when a wayspot is moved, Pokemon Go re-applied the density/inclusion rules, so it is a lot harder to create clusters like this.
Please don’t look into Valls Hage I’d really like it to stay the way it is. I was only wondering why the PokéStops there can be just a couple of meters apart, while my approved nomination that’s about ten meters away from another one doesn’t appear in Pokémon GO.
Maybe they were added before the newer rules or criteria were introduced? That would make sense. But then why are some of my nominations being marked as duplicates when there isn’t actually a PokéStop in Pokémon GO at that location?
There are several reasons why you can’t see duplicates:
sometimes different items belong to the same structure, so technically different but in the eyes of wayfarer the same. For example two different playground items (but still the same playground)
Sometimes a nomination is indeed already in the database, but not visible in game, due to the density rules
The PokéStops are not in the wrong locations. There are many informational signs throughout Valls Hage. It’s an arboretum with a wide variety of tree species, and the signs provide information about the different trees, beetles, and other wildlife found in the area. So the PokéStops all have accurate and relevant information associated with them.
This is probably true. However, they were almost certainly submitted at other location and then moved here. That is abuse, since it was done specifically to get round the Pogo density/inclusion rules.
I fully understand why you would prefer to keep them, but I do expect at some point the area will be rebalanced according to the density rules, and many will disappear in game (but not the database)
Ignoring the location which definitely seems to be due to abuse remember that the “Density” rules are not “Distance” based.
As long as 2 wayspots are in differently cells then can be extremely close as long as they are over the cell lines. You could get 4 “close” wayspots in game as long as they are in the corners.
Okay… I came here to better understand why some nominations get approved but never appear, and why some can be almost on top of each other while another one gets reported as “abuse” just because of its location.
If I had known this was a place people would react so strongly to, I never would have used it as an example.
Valla Hage is the only place like it in our small town. It’s where everyone—from young children to retirees—gathers in the forest park for Community Days, GO Fest, and even on ordinary days. People even travel from other places just to experience it. And now, because I used it as an example, suddenly everyone’s morals kick in and it has to be removed?
I honestly thought this was a community where people supported each other and worked together, but I was clearly mistaken.
I discovered our little hidden gem seven years ago, and all I get in return is, “This is abuse,” “This needs to be investigated,” and similar comments. Why does someone who is completely uninvolved feel the need to investigate something like that?
I can’t even delete the thread anymore, so now I’ll end up being the bad guy in our small town where everyone knows everyone. Great.
Thank you to those of you who actually answered my questions. To everyone else who chose to focus on something completely different from what I asked: please remember that you can make someone’s day simply by choosing to be kind and positive.
This is a community where we do support others to nominate “correctly”.
Part of Wayfarer is that “incorrect” locations or cases of Abuse should be reported. Why should this area be able to keep wayspots that where obvious cases of Abuse when others have been previously removed.
IMO: This area was on borrowed time until it was identified by staff and re-calculated, your post may have sped that up but it would have come at some time anyway.
Consider it that you had the “incorrect” wayspots for so long when they should not have been there from day 1.
Sorry that this is not the answer you was expecting / hoped for.
I’d really like it to stay the way it is. I was only wondering why the PokéStops there can be just a couple of meters apart, while my approved nomination that’s about ten meters away from another one doesn’t appear in Pokémon GO.