Wayspot Appeal denied as duplicate but no other wayspot of the same kind

Hello, can you please clarify what is the duplicate wayspot referenced in the denied appeal? There’s no other wayspot the is the same within the 20 meters radius. Closest wayspots are a church and a pergola.
The ingress snapshot marked with red is where the wayspot would have been.

35.6580533, -97.4655838


While this is a bad rejection reason from the appeals team, this is just a sign for an apartment complex. These are pretty indistinct to me, and are more like advertisements for the complexes by the property management than unique signs.

Hello @darthfuego86

Im sorry that you got a confusing response from the appeal team. I don’t see that there is a duplicate shown on IITC.

I am curious as what the original rejection reasons were though.

I don’t see a good explanation as to how this meets eligibility of being one or more of the following:

  • A Great place to explore
  • A Great place to exercise
  • A Great place to be social with others

Does this community have a pool, playground, gym or other common amenities? These would be much more likely to get accepted as they meet different aspects of the eligibility criteria.

Sorry for not being able to address Duplicate. I think that was wrong.

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It does have a pergola that is a Wayspot, as well as a pool, which isn’t a Wayspot.

@darthfuego86 If you haven’t nominated the pool yet, that would be good to do. The rock sculputer and garden may also be eligible. If there are any other eligible POIs, like a fitness center, picnic areas, a playground, dog park, etc, those would be good, too.

I appreciate your opinion on the wayspot nomination but the question was the about the duplicate Niantic was referring too. They have allowed many of these types of nominations via appeal.

I appreciate your opinion on the wayspot but the question was the about the duplicate Niantic was referring too. They have allowed many of these types of nominations via appeal.

The pergola is a wayspot.

The community most likely approved them, not Niantic/ML. Just because you see something in-game as a Wayspot doesn’t mean it meets criteria today, as criteria does change from time to time.

Apartment/neighborhood signs typically are not distinct, just advertisements put up by the management or developer of the area. I thumbs down on Permanent and Distinct whenever I get these to review.

I do wonder if this is a Power Spot in PoGo, which may be the reason for the duplicate rejection. Power Spots do not follow the same criteria as Wayspots; many of the apartments I live near have Power Spots.

Again, you can’t go off of what you see as current Wayspots as currently meeting criteria; you do have to follow the criteria, and this sign doesn’t meet criteria currently.

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I don’t see anything in the database at this location, nor is there a similar sign nearby, so I’m not sure what it would have been considered a duplicate of.

The other signs are based on my appeals that were passed by Niantic. I do know not to base things from in game. I’ve been doing wayfarer for a few years now. That’s why I posited the question about the duplicate rejection because it makes no sense.

In regards to the power spot, I am hoping that was not the issue that Niantic based their duplication from. I have had nominations go through from my community and my appeals that had power spots near them in the past so I hope there hasn’t been an internal change on how they review appeals.

Exactly! That is what is confusing me as well.

The Spatial/Lightship map doesn’t show Power Spots. We can only see them in PoGo as such, or as orange exclamation points on the nomination map. Most are imports from a 3rd party database, while some are unused Wayspots.

We have had many conversations in regards to these community signs, and many agree that something else has to be included to make them eligible, such as unique art or a gazebo. Here are just some of the discussions we’ve had here in the forums:

I’ve also deleted my post from the Power Spot discussion, as it’s not relevant to that one since you posted a screenshot showing there isn’t an import there, so most likely no Power Spot.

So I had this response

That’s a confusing response. However, I do feel that they are pointing out the criteria issues in the last paragraph.

Now, some have been wondering if there will be a refresh to Power Spots, with either new ones being added or ones marked for removal actually being removed. I haven’t seen the ones that I was able to get removed come back within the last week, and my title edits approved in the middle of December have now been applied.

Maybe there could be a Power Spot refresh coming, but we haven’t been told about it yet, as not everything has been fully worked out. Maybe there are some new imports coming that we can’t see, but staff are able to, as they’re only accessible to them. Maybe there’s an issue with the data staff is using. Really, it’s hard to tell and hard to know why this is happening (you’re not the only one to get the duplicate response from the appeals team and yet there wasn’t a Wayspot or Power Spot import at the location).

Just speculation at this point, nothing confirmed, but I do hope we get some answers so this doesn’t keep happening and causing confusion.

I just took another look at this area, and now wonder if there’s any import listed around 35.65854388740451, -97.46341524769441 or 35.65847240505169, -97.46496073872014. There’s are signs that are the same at both these locations, but one is northeast and the other is more central. I know the response says West, but some of the Power Spot imports aren’t always in the correct location.

Similarly to objects in-game, just want to point out that appeal decisions are also not universal evidence of the eligibility or ineligibility of a type of object, criteria are.

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I also had an appeal rejected as duplicate with the message

“Thanks for the appeal, Explorer! We can confirm that there is another Wayspot connected to the same location and as a result, we are unable to approve this nomination.”

Yet there is no other stop at that location (on wayfarer map) and the one submitted couldn’t even been mistaken for anything else in the area.

There have been some truly bizarre Niantic wayfarer decisions on appeals lately

If you would like to post the details of this wayspot we can have a look at it.

I’m not sure there is any extra input that can be added even when looked at with fresh eyes. It’s exactly as I said in my post.

An Intel link to a wayspot in that area:

Oh and some other photos that verify it’s position:

@elijustrying was I correct that you have nothing to add after looking at it?