I did a ton of research on poke stop nominations and became a wayfarer as well to learn even more. I submitted my first nomination the other day and used my first upgrade to fast track it. It came back roughly 18 hours later as rejected.
They did not give me any detail as to why it was rejected.
Can you help me determine why it was rejected? And if I should appeal it or not?
The bench is at a lake overlook and is concreted into the ground. It is right on the exercise path. Seems to be a perfect stop. I’ve seen other benches approved, and this one is fairly distinctive as it’s an overlook spot for the lake.
I did just notice that the map tag is on Providence Blvd. where the overlook is but the address listed for some reason is set to the road over, Gunston Ct. I’m not sure if that has something to do with it.
I expect that your email said “our team” decided? And a very fast decision would also indicate that this was an ML rejection. I don’t think the Machine Learning ai is programed to accept benches. I can’t promise that they will accept an appeal, but I would encourage you to try to appeal this to help with training it. I think this is a lovely scenic spot from the photo that would meet the exploration criteria imo.
[Oh and btw I would recommend waiting before applying upgrades to see if the ML model picks up any nomination i make. If it hasn’t after 48 hours, then I apply an upgrade if I want a fast answer.]
That’s really interesting. Thank you. I’ve seen plenty of benches approved that were less distinctive than this, and there is a “bench” category, so that’s why I was confused. But thank you for the information. I guess I just waisted an upgrade.
fyi the “categories” do not indicate eligibility. you will also see elementary school and fire station as categories. idk where this list came from, but it is NOT the eligible poi
I agree this meets “explore” critiera because of the viewpoint/overlook that the bench marks.
The bench isnt the nomination per se, its the viewpoint, but the bench is the thing that highlights where to go for that view.
I think you wrote the nomination quite well, in that it shows you’re nominating the bench at the viewpoint, not the bench just for being a bench. These are difficult to get accepted though, there have been some other comments about rejections of views. I would definitely try this again and not be put off by the rejection. You could appeal and/or resubmit a similarly worded nomination
Just as a heads up, I have had a Niantic appeal reviewer reject a similar location that I tried to nominate after regular reviewers also rejected it, and that’s despite including a link to this clarification in my supporting info and my appeal. It’s all very well that @NianticTintino is posting these useful clarifications, but it’s less useful when regular reviewers and Niantic internal reviewers are completely ignoring what’s been clarified.
I personally think that @QueenPalm2 's nomination would fit into what is acceptable in the clarification, and I would’ve voted to accept it myself, but I don’t have much faith that an appeal will work on this until the internal reviewers have been better educated.
but i did fear that might be the case