I am writing to politely ask for your help regarding the wrongful deletion of a valid photo for this Wayspot, which unfortunately resulted in the loss of a Gym in Pokémon GO.
Wayspot Name: Nemzeti Színház Emlékmű**
Location:** 47.496487, 19.069934
To clarify, my photo was successfully accepted and had been in the game for a long time. Because it shows the monument in a much cleaner state than the current primary picture, I recently asked my local community to “upvote” (like) my photo in-game so it could become the new cover photo for the Wayspot.
Unfortunately, this drew attention to it, and some local players falsely mass-reported it, causing the automated system to remove it. This specific stone monument has a very unique design: it has two completely different faces carved into its opposite sides. The players who reported it did not know about the second face, assumed it was a picture of a “fake” or “different” statue, and wrongfully got it removed.
As a direct result of losing this photo and its accumulated likes, the Wayspot’s overall score dropped, and it lost its Gym status. This has negatively impacted the game for us locally.
I have attached a reference image (“image.png”) from the official Hungarian public art database. I have drawn red circles to clearly prove that both distinct profiles are actually located on the exact same block of stone.
Could you please review this evidence and kindly restore my deleted photo along with its likes? We really hope to fix this misunderstanding and get our Gym back.
All removal reports are dealt with by Human Staff. Any reports will have required evidence.
I have never heard of Gym status being lost due to a reduction in Photo Votes. Even the old process that the amount of photo votes determined which wayspot would be promoted is disputed by some (me included) but even then it was only at the time that a new Gym was required.
This looks likes something only staff could determine, hopefully they will see this post and make a comment / send a DM.
Losing photo likes does not convert a gym back to a pokestop.
Being moved, especially into a cell which already has an active wayspot (which is a gym), would cause a wayspot to lose its gym status. Was this wayspot moved recently?
Thank you for the clarification! I didn’t realize removals were always handled by human staff. It seems whoever reported my photo provided misleading evidence, and the reviewing staff member simply didn’t know the monument genuinely has two different faces on opposite sides.
Regarding the Gym, it disappeared exactly when my photo was removed, so I naturally assumed they were connected. Whether a location edit happened at the exact same time or something else caused it, I really hope the Niantic Staff can look into that as well.
I will patiently wait for a Staff member to review my appeal and the evidence.
Thanks again for your helpful input!
I don’t pretend to understand what has happened here, but Map - Pokémon GO shows you have 3 gyms in this Level 14 S2 cell, and that has been the community observation for expected behavior.
For any observers of which pokestops become gyms, “Vertigo C” – Corvin Palace (47.496229,19.069260) is a gym, has one photo from July 2026 and has far fewer likes than a lot of the pokestops (which are not gyms) in the same cell.
I have just been looking at the map and it does seem like there has been some re-calculations going on.
With it showing 1 L14 cell requiring an extra Gym but several around it that are over populated. The map is currently 24 hours out of date so more could change in the near future.
@ScopelyExpAaron Thank you so much for getting back to me! Could you please kindly help me understand exactly which policy my photo violated? I really want to learn from this so I can make sure all my future contributions are perfectly in line with the guidelines.
I suspect the human reviewer might have been accidentally misled by the reports. This specific monument is very unique because it actually has two completely different faces carved into its opposite sides. I took the photo myself to show its newly cleaned state, but players thought it was a different statue because they didn’t know about the other side.
What really puzzled me, and why I thought the two events were connected, is the strange timing. Today, my photo was removed, and almost exactly at the same time, this monument suddenly lost its Gym status, and another PokéStop was promoted to a Gym in its place.
@salixsorbus@ScopelyExpAaron Ah, I see! Thank you for the clarification. I completely missed that detail when I took the photo of the newly cleaned monument. I will definitely make sure all my future photo submissions are completely clear of any people in the background.
Thanks for helping me figure this out, I really appreciate your time!
To my knowledge, staff intervention can cause recalculations. As I can gather from the comments written here, there may have been some actions that historically caused more stops or gyms to be there than what’s meant to be possible - and the recalculation probably just caused things to be as they should be.
Thank you, that perfectly explains why the Gym disappeared at the exact moment the photo was removed! The staff intervention triggering a recalculation of an already overpopulated cell makes total sense. I appreciate the insight!
. Please note that our gameboard is fluid and subject to change.
