So we recently had a bunch of wayspots go down after I reported 1 which was an obvious fake someone added.
Thought oh hey weird so I resubmitted a bunch of the ones I submitted over the years. Like little free library by the sidewalk on my neighbors lawn.
It got rejected so I thought odd, appeal. Appeal says it’s on private property. I feel like these were always the case but being accessible from the sidewalk was always ok not sure what’s up with this?
My neighbor is cool with them being wayspots btw, we use it as a meeting spot on campfire and they were the one who sent me a text when I was at work to check with me if the games they were playing bugged out or not.got home and verified yup gone.
The rule has always been that if something is on single family private residential property, then it’s ineligible. It doesn’t matter if you can reach it from a public sidewalk, or if the person living there wouldn’t mind if it was nominated. If it’s on their property, it’s ineligible.
It’s been the case for quite some time. If something is on a Single Family Private Property, it is not eligible, irrespective of whether it is publicly accessible. If it’s on a block of flats, it may be eligible.
The owner of SFPRP (single family private residential property) cannot give permission to override this rule (which has a legal situation as the basis).
One basic reason for that is that the owner of a property can change. Niantic will have others.
There are very few cases where a neighborhood LFL is eligible. Almost always it lands on the private property of a single family home. If you can prove it is on public property, multi family communal property, or city owned road verge property then it can be possible. It takes a lot of work though. Many ineligible ones made it through due to inexperienced voters but don’t rely on that, and as you have learned, if they are approved then they are subject to removal at any time.
Yup I feel like I maybe also not know about that rule. Back in the precovid days I was also led to believe anything accessible from a sidewalk or public property that doesn’t really cause a disturbance was free game
When I first started submitting wayspots, I thought anything not inside (single family) private property was eligible. So anything in gardens was out, but anything on the outside was OK. Unfortunately not.
It was further muddied because some of it is dependent on which country we are taking about. The specific wording of the clarification is aimed at USA laws and rules which are similar to European rules but can differ from rules in Brazil. There is some leeway given depending on country and culture. In some places things on a private wall facing the sidewalk can be accepted but in the USA it is a hard no.
Reviewers might give leeway, but from what I’ve seen on the forums, Niantic apply the SFPRP rule consistently across the world, including the ineligibility of external boundaries regardless of the sidewalk that it is facing.
Nope. The key part here is Single Family home. Which also means extended family. Appartments, group town houses, and the like can be ok as long as the object is on the communal shared spaces.
Yea. Might have to look around for some replacements for our campfire group meetups or temporarily relocate for a bit. The only other things around a neighborhood are utility boxes.
So in my part of Canada. The sidewalk divides what’s public or city property and private property. Between the road and sidewalks city owned. Other side of the sidewalk is public.
E.g. utility boxes are between the sidewalk and road.
If my neighbor moved their little free library to the boulevard would that be acceptable or still considered on private property?
Also what about the land on the side of a house which is just sidewalk, grass and fencing ?
Look up land zoning maps for the area to get clarity on how far the private boundaries extend. Also private landowners have the right to request removal of any game object within 40m of thier land so its a good idea to keep a buffer around anyone who might get particularly annoyed.
I had a submission rejected as ‘private property’ which was a massive mural on an apartment building (I was standing on the public street in the nearest spot to view it safely).
Our city has a long-standing program of commissioning these murals and nearly every one of them is a pokestop, even the ones on small apartment buildings, on garages, and overlooking business car parks, etc. Definitely not private in any way.
Reviewers make mistakes. Regarding the private property issue, the mistake is often made because they “know” that private property is ineligible.
When this happens, and you are certain the location is not SFPRP, that it is on a multi-family apartment or a business, you can either appeal or resubmit. When you resubmit, don’t ram the “private property” issue at the reviewers, but you can include a link to the criteria clarification to remind them Private Residences, Farmland & K-12(It is really off-putting to review something that has clearly been rejected already and the submitter is effectively shouting at the reviewers not to be so stupid and just accept it already.)
Incidentally, garages that belong to SFPRP are treated as SFPRP even if they are not attached to the property they belong to.
Welcome @Teatrolley
It sounds as though this would be a good submission to appeal.
Not sure how much you might already know so here is an explanation just in case.
The appeal system is in place because sometimes mistakes happen. An appeal is reviewed by the wayfarer team.
There are 2 appeal slots each on a 14 day refresh timer.
If you have one available it will look this when you are looking at a rejected nomination
