I’m just starting off my journey of being an active contributor but I’m striking out on a couple stops I’m trying to nominate. Hoping to understand what issues are keeping these stops from being accepted.
Standing at 292 feet above sea level the sandwich lookout tower is one of the tallest structures on Cape Cod. Built in 1934 the tower is part of a network of 8 towers built across the Cape and Islands. The towers are all built on substantial hills in public parks and forests and managed by Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Supplemental Information
The pokestop is located at one of 8 of the historic lookout towers built along cape cod during world war 2. Many of these towers are already pokestops, such as the nearby tower in Brewster State Park. The tower is in a public park with multiple hiking trails as well as vehicle access.
Stop 2:
Description
Standing at 221 feet above sea level the Bourne lookout tower is one of the tallest structures on Cape Cod, and the only Cape tower on the north of the Cape Cod Canal. The tower looks out over the canal and Shawme Crowell State Forest. Built in 1914 the tower is part of a network of 8 towers built across the Cape and Islands. The towers are all built on substantial hills in public parks and forests and managed by Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Supplemental Information
Built in World War I the tower is one of 8 Cape Cod and Islands lookout towers erected. Multiple of these towers are now stops, such as the nearby Brewster State Park tower. The towers are managed by the state parks department, and are situated on public land and surrounded by hiking trails.
I’ve tried a couple of times and was fairly sure this final submission had nailed it, but both were rejected again.
Let me guess: your email says the decision was from “our team” instead of the community. I only see that rejection reason from those decisions. The ML (machine learning) model may not recognize these towers as anything that it has been taught is eligible.
If you can’t get the nominations into community review, you may need to appeal these if you choose to pursue them. You get two appeals, each on a 20 day timer, so use them wisely.
Despite what the prompt tells you, you are submitting Wayspots, not Pokestops. Remove references to why this would be a great Pokestop, and instead tell how it meets the criteria of a GREAT place of exercise, exploration, or being social.
I have never been keen on fire towers as Wayspots because I am not sure that it would not obstruct emergency services there. Get some more opinions from others before you try to appeal. There must also be safe pedestrian access to the towers. If visitors are allowed, and especially if visitors are encouraged, you should add links proving that in the supporting section.
Cyndiepooh is so right on mentioning a game. Remove reference to Pokestops/gyms. Sure in supporting information you can mention other towers are existing waypoint in the Wayfarer system. But your title, description, supporting info is about the object as an eligible waypoint. Not PGO.
You talk of existing Towers as waypoints. Read them. Look at the info. Then take on board the advice here.
I was curious about these towers so I did a little research (we had them back home). What I found was that, although these are historic structures, they are also active fire lookouts, which are fenced at the bottom, limiting access. If they have a sign, that might work, but otherwise, these could be difficult.
Also, I recommend double checking your facts. From the MA Bureau of Forest Fire Control: “ The present Bourne Fire Tower is a 70’ steel tower with standard Mass.10’x10’ wood cab was built in 1947 replacing a 48’ tower built in 1913. This is the second tower built in Barnstable County and the 23rd state tower built overall. It is operated by the Massachusetts Bureau of Forest Fire Control.”the site says it also stands 127’ not 221.
PokéStop contribution UI could get some work. There are multiple instances of this in Pokémon Go, where developers decided to use less words than needed. It should read as: “Explain why you believe your PokéStop nomination is important as a WaySpot”. It also forgets to say that mentioning games is a reason for Stops to get rejected.
As other have said, you should replace the word “pokestop” with “wayspot” or “point of interest” (PoI).
Adding on to that, criteria has changed over the years, what was once an eligible wayspot might not be elegible now. Reviews are done in a case-by-case basis.
(just in case, a traditional context note that the first user you are replying to knows exactly what they are talking about and is very aware of the limitations of in-game nomination flow vocabulary, but is choosing to be disingenuous about it)
I don’t think it’s disingenuous to take what is said at face value in the context of a PokéStop nomination.
If the words are incorrect and the prevailing community sentiment about what a useful supporting statement looks like is correct, then clearly the wording needs to change so that people are not misled.
Absolutely and I’m pretty sure you know I agree with you on that, but we could also do this in a way that doesn’t waste the time of newer forum users on explaining what a wayspot is to you.
Thank you for taking the time to nominate Historic Bourne Watchtower on Jul 10, 2024. Explorers like you are critical to creating a unique AR map of the world that shapes adventures for yourselves and others.
Unfortunately, our team has decided not to accept your Wayspot nomination.
Our team found it did not meet the criteria required to be accepted and has been rejected. This decision could be because of the title, description, location, photo, or a combination of criteria. For future nominations, please review our Wayspot criteria help articles to learn more about what makes a good Wayspot
I can’t speak to fire towers universally, but as someone who has worked with them professionally, there’s virtually no situation where pogo use could get in the way of their operation. It’s possible some locations might have a truck there, but even that is a commute thing.
I’m hearing to try resubmitting with some words changed and an expanded justification and no references to the specific game. Is it helpful to clarify the lack of impact to emergency services or do we think that’s harmful?
The height aspect seems variable, if you look in different sources you get different numbers, I went with the most authoritative I could find. Part of the confusion is that some numbers are the height of the hills, some of the towers, and some of both combined.
They are gated, but the center point of the tower is within range from all directions, and if there are staff the gates are open. There are parks more or less in front and around them both. Technically they are active in the sense that a person is occasionally assigned to go up them, but even there it’s not a response capacity and there’s no activity that could be affected by gamers.
As has been said before, Ingress players are told exactly the same, just with Portal instead of PokéStop and Agents instead of Trainers during the nomination process, so I don’t think that can be used as much of an excuse.
I don’t think this is about excuses but about understanding reasons - a totally different thing.
I think it is a mix of the words and the context. The last word is asking about “value”
There are differences across games as to what the value of a new submission will be.
The interactions are different.
As more features have been added especially in Pokémon Go the value of a pokestop or gym has increased, more and varied things are tied to these points. Within that context and experience people will approach it different.
The context that an Ingress agent approaches the same words will be different because of the different gameplay.
There is no need on a practical level for wording to be the same when context is different.
But as this issue has been raging for a long time I don’t expect a change.
The important thing as a reviewer is to be understanding of the different responses and not to apportion any negativity.
This is a major factor in why I always make my Portal descriptions and my PokéStop descriptions different from each other!
I’m being asked to describe the spot based on my perspective as the player of a given game, and my perspective is different depending on which game I’m playing, so I would describe them differently.
Even the titles make sense to change for different games, and since Niantic asks that I title things in the context of the game I’m playing, it’s important that I do so.
