I received a notice in Pokémon GO saying activity was detected on my account in violation of player guidelines. Also in Wayfarer, I got a notice saying One or more of my recent actions have violated Wayfarer
criteria and/or Niantic player guidelines. Both notices reference an email that was supposedly sent, but I have not received any such email. I confirmed my account email, so I know I’m checking the right email for the account. I have checked my spam folder and done a search for Nianticlabs. Nothing.
I have two concerns with this. First, I’m hoping my account hasn’t been hacked and that they are identifying violations from someone else’s use. Second, I am struggling greatly to understand what violation I may have even committed. The fact that the notice shows up in both Pokémon GO and Wayfarer, and the fact that the Pokémon Go notice says specifically “trainer guidelines” and the Wayfarer notice said “and/or trainer guidelines” makes me think it is a trainer guidelines issue more than a wayfarer issue. But honestly, in the last year, I have played the game as I always have without incident. I can’t for the life of me think of what I may have done to violate the trainer guidelines, even after a thorough perusal of them just now.
Yesterday, there was a period of several minutes where I Struggled to log on. I thought it was a glitch, but now I’m concerned it may have been illicit hacked activity on my account. Without receiving the email referenced for further detail, I have no way of knowing what this is about.
A possible third concern I may have is this: if this warning IS in response to my activity on Wayfarer, then the harsh and punitive environment of this community makes me want to not be part of the community. The only activity on Wayfarer I have had is the nomination of two new Pokestops, both of which I felt met all the criteria just fine. Both were rejected, and I appealed one. That appeal was also rejected—although, I struggle to see why, as it is a bench in a public easement (by city ordinance) with clear perspectives of open spaces and known meeting activity for athletic groups.
But even at that, I don’t have a problem if the appeal is rejected. Maybe Wayfarer reviewers’ standards are just much higher than mine for what each of those definitions of the criteria should mean. (And reading through some of the other posts about rejected nominations, there definitely seems to be a certain “Karen-esque“ air of superiority in saying “that park does not qualify as a park.” -\0/-). But that aside, so what? So my appeal nomination is declined? That’s fine. So my appeal is denied? Also fine. Deny the appeal. So my publicly accessible bench that’s used all the time for social activities and gatherings all the time and has a local history, the likes of which might be interesting to anyone exploring the area— so that bench is not, in your opinion, good enough to be a stop on your map. So what? Deny the appeal. No big. But don’t penalize me for trying to contribute to the map as best I know how. If that’s what’s going on here, do you know how off-putting that is?
I really hope it’s just that I was hacked. What do I do to find out?