Sandia Park NM
Not Accepted
2024-12-05
Wayfarer criteria
Stone sign naming the Magic Valley neighborhood.
Supplemental info:
Stone sign naming thr neighborhood. And how cool is that name?
Photo:
Supplemental:
Location:
Most of us on this forum believe that neighborhood signs like this that are just there to identify the real estate for the builder do not meet the criteria of a great place to exercise, explore or be social.
That “Wayfarer criteria” rejection coupled with an email that says “our team” and happened about 24 hours after you submitted it indicates that this was a decision by Niantic’s ML (machine learning ai) model.
Assuming this was an ML rejection… most of that image shows the road. I have found that when ML is processing an image, it needs to “see” something. The object should take up most of the frame.
Having said that, I would reject this because it doesn’t meet any criteria. But I do think there are ways to photograph it so that it gets past ML so the community of human reviewers can make that judgment.
Obviously, you can’t use street view, but I wanted to show you how to better frame it
I think being closer to it like shown above would get it past ML…probably. However, as I said (and Cyndie reiterates), I would not vote to approve this.
One further word about photos - if I’m submitting in Pokemon GO, I typically crop my photos to be square. Later, I go back and submit one with a landscape crop for Ingress.
Looking at the location for this, I would absolutely reject this for pedestrian access. Being located on this curve, where there’s a sign reminding drivers to be careful and slow down, and there not being any sidewalk … all that adds up for me to be not a safe place to stand or gather.
As others have said, this is likely a rejection by the Machine Learning.
The rejection reason “wayfarer criteria” is the feedback you’re getting - the Machine Learning detected something that it has learned does not meet the wayfarer criteria of a great place to socialise, a great place to exercise or a great place to explore. Nominations need to meet at least one of those three criteria, as well as not meeting any rejection criteria, in order to be acceptable.
I don’t necessarily think it’s true that “most people” don’t think these signs met criteria. I think it’s true that the most vocal people on the forum don’t think they met criteria. But there are a lot of lurkers out there who are afraid to speak up. Plus, think about every person who has nominated a sign like this. All those people think they meet criteria.
I said “most of us on this forum” but I should have said “most people who try to advise here on the forum.” I will be more careful with that wording in the future.
I don’t think this is true. Most people I ask - usually on Discord - can’t tell me what criteria they believe these signs meet. If I tell them what the criteria is, they will usually pick something. I believe - and I do not have empirical evidence for this - that most submitters submit things they have seen in game. And that is why I am so adamant about removing things from the map that should not be live.
I do appreciate you speaking up, and hope this is coming across as a discussion and not an argument.
judging by what kinds of things i reject every day, a lot of people think a lot of things. but that’s not relevant to what the criteria actually is.
This sign goes between the subdivision to the north and the gang mail boxes to the south. Dozens of people walk past it daily to the mailboxes and/or walking dogs.
Rural areas don’t have sidewalks. And the level of traffic on the roads make it completely reasonable to walk on the road.
If sidewalks are a requirement for a portal then we may as well pack up and admit that the game can only be played in urban areas and that exploration isn’t really part of the game any more.
I will also note that there’s a little library and established portal just up the hill from here.
Walking past something does not make it a great place to exercise. How does the design of this sign encourage exercise?
Sidewalks are not a requirement.
It encourages exercise by providing decoration on the route to/from the mailboxes. It makes the route more pleasant to traverse.
If that’s your objection then I believe it could be applied to any submission. No submission encourages exercise aside from making the game more accessible.
funny enough, right after i read the comment about so many people walking past each day i got this to review. That alone doesn’t make anything eligible though.
That is not true. Fitness stations, ball fields, gyms, parks, trails - the list could go on and on.
I wish I could have bounced one of those too. They’ve got nearly every gate in that airport assigned as portals. Sadly, I see no place in the review page to reject for this reason other than questionable value to the community.
Have you ever seen anyone using a fitness station? They’re.a piece of political pork, and a convenient excuse for a portal, that’s all. Not unlike little libraries.
To be fair, I have occasionally seen people sitting on them like benches.
Most I see today have decayed to the point of being unusable anyway. They are safety hazards.
yes i have, frequently.
yes, often! ones here were hard to find without someone using them. i usually have to submit them in bad weather XD
This could be said about sidewalks, lamps, grassy shoulders, landscape plantings, etc, all of which are things that are just there and do not meet criteria.
Sidewalks are also just infrastructure typically. Some might have official trails, with trail markers on them, but most sidewalks have been created for people to get around, and there usually is nothing special about them. Sidewalks may also be a part of private property, and the property owners most likely are responsible for maintaining them, such as removing snow, which is very common where I’m from.
I have said this about neighborhood signs before, and I’ll say it again. I typically reject most of these nominations, unless there is something else that is part of the sign that meets criteria, such as a sculpture or other unique art (great place to explore), water fountain (explore), even a gazebo (be social). Most of these signs don’t have anything else, and are just ads put up by the developer of the neighborhood; some may even be on private property.
