It’s a terminology thing that also confuses me a lot - in the US, a plaza is a mall/shopping center. Not an urban gathering space, which is how I (and I suspect most Europeans) would define this word.
Hmm… okay so the term plaza means something completely different then!
But what is a car park with some restaurants and a nail bar? Its not a mall that I would say either. But is it a plaza?
I’m mulling over a list of types of candidates like “plazas” that might have different meanings across regions. (Don’t get me started on “business parks,” lol)
I might call a rest area or a seating area at a park or along a trail to be a “plaza” and have titled some as such. Some of my favorite types of nominations 
“Plaza” might also a block of businesses, like the one you reviewed, that might be rented out or sold to shops or dining establishments, local or franchise. It’s called something nicer than what it is (“Applewood Plaza” - where’s the apples???) and named by the property owner or land developer. Some, I consider highly eligible. It might house several generic businesses that would in no way meet criteria on their own, but the sign itself is expressive as the focal point that people legitimately might gather at spend an afternoon or day shopping with friends, having a few treats, and enjoying some time out.
“Outlet stores” are similar and might have discounted name brand clothing that people earnestly flock from hours away to spend a day shopping. In my opinion, that’s culture and a part of exploration.
Horrible, terrible, extremely lazy, low-quality nominations that decrease the quality of the map but meet the criteria per Wayfarer clarifications.
Not that I have any strong opinions. 
Soooooo it’s a great success?
I know, this makes no sense to me either 
Ah okay so you won’t be cross that I rejected it?
I can’t confirm it… but I think @smantz0rZ will be upset beyond belief.
Not one bit.
My interpretation of these is that they make better POIs in suburban areas, and given that Worcester is the 2nd largest city in the New England region of the U.S. there surely are better POIs to be found nearby. The submitter for this did put some effort into trying to justify why this meets the criteria.
Still not a nomination in Boston
I would have been happier to accept one of the restaurants instead
I think submitting the overall made it weaker than explaining how great one of the restaurants was
This week’s update:
- Wk 1: 28 pending (10 voting, 18 queue). Longest voting: 7+ weeks
- Wk 2: 28 pending, 0 resolved (12 voting, 16 queue). Longest voting: 8+ weeks
- Wk 3: 33 pending, 0 resolved (14 voting, 19 queue, 5 new). Longest voting: 9+ weeks
- Wk 4: 22 pending, 11 resolved (10 voting, 12 queue). 70 reviews, 37 agreements.
Notably, all 11 resolutions occurred during a 3-hour period on Friday afternoon. Wayfarer works in mysterious ways… In any case, all of my aged nominations have been resolved now, so thanks again to everyone who helped out.
Following up on this, we used Pokémon GO’s Spotlight Hour to do a little adventure and search out some POI submissions. We found a couple really good ones and a few that interested us enough to submit and see what happens. These may have poor photos, but I hope that 1) they show up in the queue for folks in the coming days, 2) they provide some interest to folks reviewing.
I’ll be really curious to see that with the added assistance of the great contributors here if we can actually get nominations within city limits to appear.
Thanks again to those helping.
EDIT: Most importantly we taught 5 explorers how to submit nominations today!
I completed 101 reviews today. About 4 of these were in Boston. A decent amount (20) were in my bonus area. Another 20 in my review zone were in Rhode Island, southern MA, New Hampshire, or Vermont - a rare sighting in the review queue. Over 50 nominations came from California. Eventually I began skipping them because it’s unsatisfying reviewing nominations in San Jose, a city with almost one million residents that does not require my review assistance as far as I know.
I did come across one of the nominations that was submitted this past week by our group, which was nice to see that they’re actually in voting. It probably will not be accepted because it was someone’s first nomination and they could have done a better job providing supporting evidence for the historical facts they claimed.
Two weeks after this, we’ve had two of five nominations enter voting, and one reach a conclusion. Unfortunately that conclusion was that a valid POI got rejected because the photo was taken at night (the sun sets at at 16:11 now and it’s dark by 15:15 
) but that’s not an unreasonable turnaround.
I’d like to see what happens to the other submissions in queue before passing any judgement, but when I review I’m still not getting local nominations which is unsatisfying.
I almost never get to review for a town Ive even been to, let alone near where I live. Many are hundreds of miles away. Its definitely unsatisfying
Actually I don’t get much from mine ……
.i’m just as likely to get yours @frealafgb
The fact that you’re saying “town” makes me think that the place you live may be smaller. Boston is one of the most densely-populated cities in the United States and has one of the most active Pokemon GO communities in the U.S.
When we’ve been blessed with active Wayfarers and submissions we haven’t been able to find nominations in the queue. I’d still like to get to the bottom of the topic and see if the issue is indeed a lack of reviewers or why it is that we cannot find local nominations. There are often plenty outside of city limits, but we’re historically been unable to find local nominations and get resolutions on submissions.
My town is around 350,000 people, and Im 35 miles outside of London, and honestly there isnt much to separate all the towns in between here and there. So its a very densely populated area.
Trying to look up population density… we’re about 1/3 the geographical size of Boston but with half the people… so more densely populated! And considering all the towns basically join up and merge into London, yeah, theres a LOT of people here!!
Do you see nominations from London and its exurbs?
I just popped in saw three nominations from my bonus area, seven from Silicon Valley (2,000 miles away) and one from Maine (200 miles away).
I understand that some of those noms were probably upgraded, and feel sorry for whoever nominated a cannabis store…
Yes, London is not unusual. Neither is Manchester. Or Scotland, Wales, Ireland… I get photo reviews from France too.