I’m looking for some advice on how to handle recent warnings on my account. I actively explore my city to find interesting local spots and help populate the map for our community. It takes a lot of effort to gather photos and filter potential candidates, but recently I experienced a wave of rejections with very confusing rejection reasons (such as “photo contains abuse, ridicule, or harassment,” despite no people or offensive material being present, and “temporary/not permanent” due to local Google Street View being outdated since 2016).
Shortly after, I received an email warning regarding a “General Content Violation” and potential account penalties. This has been really stressful because my intentions are purely to contribute positively to the map.
To keep my account secured, I’ve decided to take a step back and have already withdrawn all of my pending nominations. I’ll also be pausing any new submissions for now. However, I’d appreciate any guidance on:
How to safely appeal rejections flagged with incorrect harsh reasons (like harassment) so they don’t impact my account status.
Tips for proving permanence in areas where Street View hasn’t been updated in years.
Thank you to all the reviewers who take the time to evaluate nominations fairly, and thanks in advance to anyone who can offer some advice!
That rejection reason string that comes up is badly worded. It just means any kind of abuse was flagged, and usually we can track it back to misplacement of the wayspot or third party or ai photo issues. If it is just regular review, it doesn’t directly lead to repercussions on your accounts. If you get a separate email from staff about an abuse, it will have a “contact us” link where you can appeal.
The Web Submit form allows us to send up to 5 supporting photos. I take photos from lots of different angles which include the point of interest along with other features that reviewers can see on Maps that I point out in the supporting section. I also include links in the supporting section that can help prove my case. Examples would be a link to an official trail route for trail markers, a link to the sales site to prove amenities at a new residential construction, and so on.
If you would like to discuss the nomination that resulted in the warning email, feel free to post screenshots of the email and the contribution here for advice. Often staff will even start a DM with you to discuss privately.
I checked my email where they warned me first. and it’s of a well known civic group in our city with their specific chapter in a specific neighborhood. i thought it looks cool, and it’s still in good condition even if it’s painted on a wall for a while now, i just don’t think i made any form of abuse in this one
Rejection Reason: “The text or photo contains abuse, ridicule, or harassment” & “Lacks uniqueness or historical/cultural meaning.”
Context: A painted fraternity seal on a neighborhood wall. While there are existing accepted Wayspots like this in our area, this submission seems to have been heavily flagged as “abuse” by reviewers, directly leading to my General Content Violation email warning.
Could i get in trouble for nominating fraternity seals from now on?
The “Abuse” rejection narrative can be flagged for a nomination for any of the following reasons (roughly in order of how often they occur):
* The photo is not yours (e.g., taken from streetview, found on another website)
* The wayspot location pin is misplaced
* The wayspot is deliberately misrepresented (e..g., on school property but pretending it isn’t)
* The nomination is believed to be fake
* Another nomination was flagged and all of yours have been flagged as a consequence
* The text itself is abusive
* The nomination is controversial and likely to be offensive (e.g., a mural of terrorists)
* (there may be others)
The rejection reason “not permanent and distinct” comes up in three situations:
* reviewers did not think the object is permanent
* reviewers did not think the object is distinct
* reviewers did not think the object meets any criteria (exercise, explore, social) and wanted to explicitly reject it, so reject for not “permanent and distinct” because that is the advice from Scopely Explore
I think this is what happened. after i got flagged from the email that i got (see the above submission), all my nominations got rejected (even those that im fairly confident that might get accepted) so yeah. If only the emails that i got about my violations were more specific, that could help me know what im supposed to be avioding in my future actions when i create my nominations.
Tonight i submitted a few, one Grotto near our Parish, one mural, and a signage of a restaurant, then I got a follow up email saying again that violated said “general content violation” and so i decided to stop all this before it becomes worse.
Should I be worried about my game account safety? My absolute top priority is protecting my account from suspensions. By withdrawing all pending nominations and stopping all contributions for now, am I safe from further punishment?
How can submitters deal with misuse of the “Abuse/Harassment” rejection button by reviewers? Is there a safe way to clear false strikes so they don’t impact account standing?
Are fraternity/sorority murals strictly ineligible under current guidelines? If so, what is the proper way reviewers should tag them without triggering unfair policy warnings against submitters?
If that email does not come with an email with “Concerning ACCOUNT status”, it is an education email. I got one in 2 days ago and it was on a submission I am not proud to submit(I tried to explore criteria)
That look like a Logo..? A company logo tend to not met crtieria unless it look uniquely cool for worth to exploring. I don’t think it warrant an educatation email, but I disgress.
yeah about that. i did get one just now. this is what triggered me to start this thread.
they said that “Note that any further violations can lead to more severe enforcement on your Wayfarer and Niantic game account(s).” so that’s why i withdrew all of my pending submissions and just take a step back from all this.
I’m glad you came to the forum. It looks like you have received the official one day warning, the next step is a 30 day ban (wayfarer and Pokemon Go), so understanding what went wrong is important to avoid having those issues.
Usually staff will be able to send you a DM with the exact details, but my guess is that they believe you have used pictures for the nomination that can be found on the internet, and as such have been flagged as 3rd party.
Thank you, at least the one day warning isnt as bad as a ban So i’ll take it as an opportunity to step back and review the guidelines again.
To share my process, i usually take the photos, sometimes my brother also helps contribute with the photos that i submit but i make sure they’re all mine/ours and not taken in the internet.
I also use photoshop to clean up a photo, like when i catch some trash, i usually do minimal edits to ensure that the photos i submit and will eventually go to the wayspots are photos that i am proud to represent what we can see here in our city. Is editing in that sense not allowed?
As far as I know real editing is not allowed, adjusting the size is not an issue, but changing it could also flag it as fake. So I would not recommend that.
We have seen people being flagged for ai photos when the ai traces were for clean ups. Would you post the full version of the photo as you submitted it, so we can see if we are getting hits for ai usage? (I am not great with that, but lots of folks here are.)
Sure, I’ll be able to do that when i get home, will follow up on this. i guess this points to one submission that may have led to the warning today, that i did a quick cleanup since the two other submissions i just did a simple crop and image enhance (brightness/contrast)
But yeah it’s weird how i get flagged for one reason (abuse?) and then ultimately get the one day warning for another reason (clean up edit/fake?)
Thank you, i’m trying to find clarity with the situation first so i can objectively say if their decision is fair and i deserved getting warned or if an appeal is necessary, i feel a bit down rn and i dont want to engage with them because i might make things worse
Got this, i’ll get back to you with these info when i get home thanks for taking your time to guide me through this stressful event i really appreciate you all
thanks for taking your time to guide me through this stressful event 