I recently had a nomination rejected for a historical and religious shrine/statue in a small countryside town. The shrine is built into the exterior wall of an inhabited building and is publicly visible from the street. It is admired locally and serves as a stop in most religious processions.
The rejection cited two reasons:
The submission is on private property that is not publicly accessible
The submission is believed to be fake (this is incorrect, as it is clearly visible on Street View)
Because many historical signs, paintings, and other forms of wall art on private property facing public streets are accepted, I decided to resubmit the nomination for appeal.
While I understand that nominations located inside private property (such as in gardens or behind walls) are not eligible, this shrine is different: it is permanently built into the exterior wall and fully accessible to the public visually. Similar examples, such as historical signs, murals, and wall art on private buildings, are commonly accepted when they face public streets.
You can clearly see the nomination in question in street view
Could anyone please clarify: if this shrine is considered “on private property not publicly accessible,” shouldn’t all similar exterior-facing cultural and artistic works (murals, plaques, religious art) also fall under the same rule? My understanding is that such nominations are valid as long as they are permanently placed and viewable from a public space, even if technically attached to private buildings.
If existing game locations on SFPRP are reported, they will be removed. Please note that this “private property” rule only applies to SFPRP: single family private residential propery.
In France we have a lot of shrines like this one in old city centers, all of them are approved despite being on the facade of private house (being directly on the street such as this submission).
What could be the difference in the acceptance?
Way back in the old days, before Wayfarer existed, it used to be considered enough to be able to reach something from a publicly accessible location. With these examples on the game board, explorers tend to continue to submit and accept them. This also happens a lot with graffiti. Even though vandalism is ineligible, if that is what explorers see on the game board, then they continue to submit and accept them. And are shocked when they are rejected.
Other folks here may be able to comment on specifc situations in other countries. I am US based, and don’t travel.
I had read and understood that criteria before, and can understand why this could be an issue, but knowing the nomination item personally, and what it means for the people in the town, I thought it made sense to appeal.
Maybe I should’ve explained better in the appeal details.
In some places, such as the UK, for certain types of object, you can submit something on the exterior wall of SFPRP facing directly onto a pedestrian pavement, and it will be accepted without issue. Technically, it should be rejected, and Niantic review should always reject it, but the standards from wayfarer reviewers don’t always meet the Niantic standards.
it does not matter how you explained it. if that is a single family private residential property, then anything on it is ineligible. do you have evidence that it is not this kind of property?
I sympathise very much with submissions like this, but the SFPRP rule has been applied for legal reasons. Niantic ran into problems with a court case and part of the remediation was to ensure that SFPRP did not get used. Niantic are applying the precautionary principle and that is unlikely to change, however much players feel that POI backing onto public space should be OK.
Private space that is not single-family is OK, such as apartments.
i want to caution you about trying the nomination again hoping that community reviewers will accept it. trying again on a nomination that is eligible is okay, but knowingly submitting ineligible nominations repeatedly has been considered abuse.
As a general piece of advice, the photo is crucial for the first impression from reviewers. This photo with its supporting photo, having bad lighting, will have immediately been taken as a negative, which increases the chances of rejection. This is true for everything. It is very rarely worth taking a picture at night.
Can I mark this as the solution as well? I think the main criteria is the solution, but this provides additional and important help for future submissions.
