A friend of mine applied for Mailbox (a private postal service) but was rejected by both the users and the appeal. But didn’t postal services automatically meet the criteria?
Postal services do not automatically meet criteria.
Post offices where people go to send letters are considered eligible under Social criteria, even though people don’t send letters anymore, but not all post offices in all countries would get accepted. Not everything people would want to see as a post office would be accepted.
UK postboxes (pre 1952) are accepted by the community because they’re special 
Other than that, postal facilities don’t have any special treatment, so have to meet Social, Exercise or Exploration criteria.
Even for post offices and UK postboxes, they’re not automatic. Nothing is automatic.
That is a forwarding agency not a post office
Why not? It says “international shipping”
OK, but this is a private international postal service. Why shouldn’t it meet the same criteria as the post office?
Treat every submission as needing to meet criteria, either Social, Exercise or Exploration. If you just think “this is automatic”, but cannot explain how it meets criteria, then it may not be suitable as a wayspot.
(Also, if a submitter thinks something meets criteria, this doesn’t automatically mean it does. For example, “this is a lovely spot on the pavement where you can meet people, be social and look at the interesting buildings, as well as go for a walk.”)
Let’s start with the assumption that, for me, the post office isn’t a good place to socialize, yet the criteria are presented as EXCELLENT examples of where to do so. Someone here suggests that, theoretically, you can send letters to each other through the post office and therefore communicate with anyone remotely. This friend of mine explained exactly that. It’s an international private mail service that allows you to communicate with anyone from anywhere in the world.
I honestly don’t understand the criteria, but whatever. We’ll try again.
If you submit again and it gets rejected again, don’t keep trying. There would be a risk from repeatedly submitting something that Niantic have said is not eligible, but after just one rejection it is possible the submission can be improved.
I can’t completely explain why some places where you can send letters are eligible and other places where you can send letters are not eligible.
(Equally, I can’t explain why footpath markers 10m inside a field are OK, but an identical footpath marker for the same footpath at the edge of the road would get rejected, but this is what happens most of the time. Sometimes, it’s not possible to change the community’s opinion.)
how strange
As was stated, NOTHING is automatic. Post Offices are given as an example of something that could be a great wayspot. You still must convince that anything you nominate meets acceptance criteria, even if it is mentioned on the eligibility criteria list, and doesn’t meet rejection criteria.
Maybe these criteria links will help. It was recently pointed out to me that the existence of some of these links is not obvious on mobile from the wayfarer site.
1 Like
So, this is not any kind of official statement. This is just how I’ve come to think of post offices. Back when Niantic were originally setting up this concept of using real-world locations for a gaming service, they needed places to add to the map as a start. One easy answer was, “Every small town has a post office.” I think they said, “Yeah, that’s good. Let’s import all the post offices from around the world.”
Eventually, the program evolved to user submitted content, so they had to develop criteria, and we have the three tenets of socialize, exercise, and explore. Those all make sense, except it’s hard to fit a post office into those 3 tenets. So, as a community we’ve found a way to make the post office kinda meet the socialize tenet.
Ultimately, we’ve landed in this weird spot where government run post offices are generally acceptible but business/private postal/shipping services do not. Honestly, we really should point to this more often when people complain about the rural situation. I believe post offices only exist in Wayfarer to try to help as many players as possible, despite not really meeting criteria.
Again, this is all just my personal interpretation of the post office situation.
3 Likes
Yes, exactly, it should be specified. Although all the positions, even private ones, were accepted for me.
I am familiar with this business as it’s international, as you say. People generally don’t use this for personal correspondence but for shipping goods, usually in a business setting. They’re not really places to socialize at
Not everything can be specified by Niantic regarding what is potentially eligible and what isn’t.
This would be impossible. The list would be endless and argued about constantly.
1 Like
With a UK view of Post Offices I think they get through for mostly nostalgic reasons.
It has the idea of staying in touch with distant family / friends by letter / parcels where in reality most of this is now done online.
A lot of villages may have had the Post Office as the only shop and they really where “the centre of the village”. It was the place where you got the local news etc. They also tended to be one of the 1st “businesses” built as the village grew so they tended to be in the oldest part in historic buildings.
In the days before payments where paid direct in to a bank account if you passed the Post Office half hour before opening on Pension Day there would be a crowd with people socialising.
There was historically the link with the Royal Mail which has history going back to the 17th Century.
Although a lot of this has changed with many post offices either expanding in to a shop or being moved in to another shop people of a certain age still see the Post Office as a centre of village life.
2 Likes
the square no, but a coat of arms and a bench that are there are
While this information is very outdated and Wayfarer has undergone criteria revisions since then that have overridden old advice, long-term reviewers’ perceptions may have been guided by this older Niantic AMA response as well.
1 Like
Ok then I would try the gym, the restaurant in a cave, and potentially more things at this church and its garden (like statues and other art, signs, special architectural features)
sarà fatto, ma far approvare ristoranti e pub è davvero frustrante. Nonostante inserisca link e prove, devo sempre candidarli più volte e arrivare al ricorso…