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!
