On 27 August 2024, I submitted a nomination, which reviewers (bad people from the community or AI) considered Fake (besides other classifications). I appealed, explaining that the object in the photo I provided was real and could also be seen on Google Maps. In the answer to my appeal, it is possible to read this: Niantic Note
Thanks for the appeal, Explorer! The nomination is on private residential property which falls under the Wayspot rejection criteria. Hence, we are unable to reverse the decision. We recommend you review the Wayspot Criteria before submitting any more Wayspot contributions: Wayfarer — Niantic Technical Support and Help Center
Today, I was passing near the spot, and I noticed that a new pokestop had been created there. I couldn’t believe in my eyes — exactly the one I proposed some months ago. How can this be?
You could report it, given that it shouldn’t exist if it’s on private residential property. That way it would likely be removed (or you could appeal the decision to keep it if it isn’t removed).
I unfortunately cant read the language in the descriptions but what I can note is it seems that compared to your descriptions they may have put in more work into researching info for the wayspot(again, I cant read whats there and Im making an assumption off of length, so this may be wrong). My point being the amount of detail you put into your description can make or break a nomination. For example, Memorial Benches: If you submit and just write “Memorial bench” in the description that will most likely be denied as not distinct/generic, but if someone else submits it and does research on the individual the bench is for and explains why they are important to the community in the description and then uses the supporting info to explain why it meets criteria(socialize/exercise/explore) that submission has a better chance of going through since they explained why it meets the criteria and why its important. So taking time to do some research, make sure photo, title, and description are as relevantly detailed as possible and good quality will really help submissions pass. Make sure to double check spelling. Its also important to make sure you avoide any immediate rejection criteria like unnecessary game references, faces, license plates etc. Something to also keep in mind: it could be completely unrelated to that and you. If the 1st submission is on private property and if the 2nd one is just a generic bus/area map the original rejections for private property and not distinct are correct. Despite that, it may have gotten through because the other person just had different people vote on it than yours did and they votes in favor of it. It isnt a perfect system sadly which means that sometimes mistakes are made on either side. I wish you best of luck on your future submissions though! There are also plenty of people who could offer advice on any future ones before you make them in Nomination Support
Edit: if the 3rd submission was an “our team” email with a wayfere criteria rejection that happened pretty quick it was probably denied by the AI because it couldnt tell what your were submitting due to the orientation or quality of the photo. The Machine Learning AI also isnt perfect so it can happen even for acceptable wayspots. Thats why good photos and descriptions can be the key to fast an easy submissions if you get used to what the AI likes and the Criteria Clarification Collection.
Thank you for the time and detail that you gave me.
In all of these submissions, I put thorough explanations in the supplemental information field. I saw somewhere that the description should be resumed and the additional information should give reviewers all the details. That’s what I did. During the summer I did a lot of submissions, some of them with a couple of words on the description. And were accepted. see below some examples:
I don’t really think that the first one, up in my initial message was rejected because the lack of explanation. See the text provided in supplemental information:
Then, I appealed and gave many details about the place and object to the reviewer, even though it was rejected. Now, it was approved with the wrong information. Sad… so sad.
To be clear, I wasnt trying to question your descriptions cause again:
I was just trying to provide some surface level insight and explain why I dont think its anything personal to you. I think thats unlikely. Also:
“That” being the description. As said above it could be that different people reviewed each submission etc.
If it is attached to a single family private property that is why it was rejected. Thats a rejection criteria and it doesnt matter what is in description or what the item is. It instantly disqualifys it. This has been clarified by Niantic many times.
I wish I could but again I cant read it. If you typed it out in a message (or copy and pasted it into one) then I could use the forums built in translator to translate it but I cant do that on images. Sorry. Best of luck
The description goes like this:
ESTE PROJETO DE ARTE PUBLICA EXPOE OBRAS QUE REFLETEM ESPACOS OU PAISAGENS RIOMAIORENSES - pintura de Joao Miguel, de 2016.
And the supplemental information goes like this:
Projeto Rio Maior na Tela, e um museu de arte a ceu aberto, expondo pinturas de artistas que retratam o quotidiano riomaiorense. Aqui vemos uma pintura de 2016, do artista Joao Miguel
But, don’t bother… this doesn’t change nothing, because the problem was not the texts. The rejection motif was about being in private property. And the approved submission has the same problem. The painting is on the exact same place.
You know that the our nicknames are showed to reviewers when reviewing. This is not fair, nor ethic because we don’t know the names of the reviewers that systematically reject our submissions. I mean when we know that it was not AI reviewing (by the time it took to decide).
First, I wouldn’t call this discrimination, as your nominations were properly rejected. ML, the AI system, has been off as of late, and was accepting nominations that don’t meet criteria, as well as rejecting those that met criteria. Niantic disabled ML’s ability to auto-accept nominations, so it can only reject currently.
It’s possible that others in your area have been trying to submit these for some time, and their nominations kept getting rejected. However, when ML wasn’t working right, it may have accepted them.
Player names are not shown while reviewing, so no one knows who submitted. Only if a new Wayspot is featured does a player’s name get listed, but this is something that can be turned off in Wayfarer settings. Only Niantic know who submits and who reviews.
As previously noted, you are welcome to report these Wayspots for removals in-game. If you feel these were submitted abusively, you can use the Report Abuse link at the top of the forums.
If the results email says “our team has decided” - that means it was decided by AI (aka ML), or maybe a Niantic employee. On the Wayfarer site, only AI decisions say “Rejection Criteria” is “Wayfarer Criteria” (but maybe someday AI will give more details).
If the results email says “the community has decided” - that means it went to fellow Wayfarer reviewers.
I see that one of your AI rejections (a bus station) has a lot of ground and sky in the pictures. AI tends to reject pictures with a lot of ground and/or sky (and/or trees).
How wonderful that someone else in your area is adding to your gameboard! Sure, you’ll have some overlap sometimes. But surely they’ll also notice things you wouldn’t have - and vice versa!
Im sorry to say, but aside from AI making errors on rejecting perfectly acceptable wayspots, the actual accepted wayspots have way better pictures, titles and descriptions than yours. You also need to pay attention to accentuations, since the game won’t use the autocorrect features of our phones. Some reviewers might reject your nominations just because of it.
As for the pictures, don’t leave too much sky or ground in it, watch for other objects in front of it and try to use the sun in your favor: watch for the shadows and never take pictures with the sun behind the object you are trying to photograph or else it will look dark and ruin your photo. And most important, don’t give up.
The name of player submitting the nomination is presented only when signing in the platform. The first nomination presented on the landing page has the player name. However, when I begin reviewing, the names are no longer presented.
I don’t know what you mean by “properly rejected”, namely the “Painel Informativo”. It’s hard to see what was the problem with that one, that lead to rejection. Picture has mainly the object, texts explaining the importance… I really don’t get it.
I reported the first one (painting) and it was already removed. I will report others in the same situation. That’s what we all have to benefit from Wayfarer way of kidding with serious matters.
Some of what you nominated and were rejected by ML do not meet Wayspot criteria, hence why I believe they were properly rejected. I just see the panel at the cinema as just a board showing what movies are being shown there, and that’s not very interesting. Most movie theaters have something to show what they are currently showing, and they do get changed from time to time. They’re pretty indistinct, generic objects, hence why I agree with the rejection.
Keep in mind that there may be Wayspots you see that do not meet criteria, and that doesn’t mean that you can nominate similar things and expect that they’ll be accepted. Criteria also changes from time to time, and so there may be things with Wayspots that no longer meet critera, but do not meet removal criteria, which is more strict.
I also think you may be basing a good deal of your nominations off of the Featured Wayspots page, which no one should, as even ineligible things get through the community from time to time (only community approved Wayspots are shown in Featured Wayspots).
When it comes to Wayspot criteria, acceptance and rejection, it’s best for follow the info set forth by Niantic, and all of it can be found in the help page on the Wayferer website, as well as at the link below. You can also ask questions about whether something is eligible or not in the Nomination Support topic, as we’re more than happy to take a look and give our thoughts.
Thank you for your opinion.
I agree with you in some of the nominations, but not all.
And I will put another example that I saw today.
I submitted this one and the result is what follows:
That’s exactly my point. If “Painel Informativo” was not acceptable (due to the attributes you listed) when I submitted the nomination, some months ago, why was it approved recently when submitted by another person with the same picture? And why the other examples I provided?
Wayfarer and Niantic have nothing to gain keeping this obscure process.
They ought to do it more scientific, avoiding ambiguity. It should be clear to all.
For example, some say that the trail markers are a good example is massive production items. So, why this items keep on being accepted? Honestly, I thought that my nomination (presented in previous message) was rejected due to this criteria. Now I see that it was not the case. There are other nomination accepted equal to mine (that was rejected). So sad.
Thank you for your opinion.
So, you are saying that Wayfarer should wait until several players submit multiple nominations and select what’s best?! Is that it?
So, if it is not that, what do my nominations have so bad? And I recognized already that the bus station was my mistake. But, the others? There are no ground or sky…
Again, ML, the AI system, was auto-accepting nominations back in November that didn’t meet criteria, as well as auto-rejecting those that did meet criteria. Because of this, there may have been things that got accepted, either by ML or the community, before the ML issue was noticed. If the community did accept it, they may of thought it met criteria, although most here would see it as something hard to get approved.
As previously mentioned, the issue with ML is known, and it can only auto-reject nominations and edits currently. Niantic is working to get the auto-accept feature back up and running, but we don’t when this will happen.
Keep in mind this is only their opinion on your nominations, and 1 person’s opinion doesn’t mean something meets criteria.
Again, I really think you could benefit from reviewing criteria, as well as the guidelines fir title/description/photo, as this can be improved upon. Here are the links to those:
We also have a thread going right now about our personal favorite accepted Wayspots from 2024, and those may even help you to better understand and improve on your nominations.
I really can’t figure it out why poor-learning Machine got into this process. Another magician trick from Niantic & co to save some costs and raise profit. If not even humans agree on this subject decision making, how can this automated thing make it better (or even close)?
