Reason for rejection: This submission was declined by Niantic’s automated process for not adhering to Wayfarer criteria
Title: Community Art - Please Clean Up After Me
Description: A colourful, original hand-drawn artwork is permanently displayed in this area. It serves as a friendly and unique reminder for the local community.
Supporting Info: Unique, Council-Verified Local Art & Community Engagement. This is not a generic sign. It is the winning artwork from a Solihull Council competition among local schoolchildren, making it a unique, permanent piece of community-created art and a fantastic example of civic engagement. This submission is verified by the Council’s own news post about the competition: Artwork winner and runners up from Solihull schools celebrated | Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council It meets the eligible criteria for being a unique piece of art and a local point of interest that promotes exploration. The bright, hand-drawn elements make it stand out from standard signage. It’s an easily accessible, safe, and permanent fixture.
I have had this submission for some local artwork refused by the system multiple times, and would like some assistance, please. I can verify personally - having lived here for over 20 years and knowing the local area well - the importance of this artwork and how it is culturally relevant. A few years ago, the school closest to this specific alleyway held a competition among the students to create an image that would be used on a sign that the local Council would then put up to hopefully discourage the constant dog fouling in this area. Only the winner’s design was used, and I feel it would make a great addition as a POI in the local area, as it’s a heavy footfall area, and would give the pupil who won the contest a chance for their art to be even further recognised, more so than people passing by without giving it much attention. Although the artwork is understandably weathered from the time that has passed, it is still easily readable and identifiable. I have seen many other similar art pieces pass through voting just fine and be successfully accepted, and that is with much less supporting information than I have supplied.
I think it’s quite common to turn children’s art into signage in this way. My area has speed signs drawn by children. These signs are then widely used across an area, which makes them into general street signs, and you’re going to have a hard time convincing anyone that they are a good place to exercise, socialise or explore, unfortunately.
I can understand speed signs which there are multiple copies of being rejected - that sounds like a dangerous place to walk and isn’t unique - but why is an artistic sign on a footpath not okay? Where is the line here I’m wondering?
Yeah, I would reject this for being a generic infrastructure sign, asking people to keep the area clean. Yes, it may have been designed by a child, but it serves the purpose of asking people to keep the area clean, so it’s more infrastructure and not very eligible to me.
I appreciate all your advice. The only thing this still doesn’t explain to me, is why similar signs in different areas that are used for the same purpose and are also duplicated there are getting voted through and not picked up by the AI?
As a general rule, when something isn’t eligible but you see an existing object in the game that looks similar, that has no bearing on whether your submission is eligible. Existing wayspots do not make a good guide for what is eligible.
Sometimes the criteria changes, sometimes things get through voting that shouldn’t. Maybe those get through when eMiLy wasn’t operating and it got lucky with reviewers who didn’t pay as much attention as maybe they should.
I do see signs like this in review and I always reject them. We don’t know what criteria eMiLy uses to reject submissions.
Not to mention some wayspot also got imported. Its not surprising to see kindergarden as wayspot but it doesnt make it eligible. Its just staying on borrowed time until someone report it.
I have seen the same mosque become two pokestop(1 from submission and 1 from import) after import because it happen to cross cell boundry
Since its rejected because AI, you can try appeal. But i wont hope too much
“Clean up after your dog” signs are not valid Points of Interest (POIs) in Pokémon GO. They lack cultural, historical, or artistic significance and do not contribute to exploration or community engagement. These signs serve a functional purpose — they’re reminders, not destinations.
The game is designed to encourage players to explore meaningful locations: parks, public art, historical landmarks, and places that reflect the character of a community. A generic sign about pet waste doesn’t meet that standard. It doesn’t inspire movement, discovery, or interaction — all core pillars of the game’s intent.
Approving signs like these lowers the quality of the game map and undermines what makes Pokémon GO special. POIs should be places worth visiting, not just objects of convenience. And to add that any type of sign that says clean up after your dog will not get an approval. Next it will be litter fine signs. I mean come on.
