I recently got a strike on my account for a violation of ToS for a Wayspot I submitted. It is for a food stand with a sign and an oversized shopping cart statue at my local MLS Team’s stadium. I submitted multiple wayspots for the various food stalls around the area, with some being approved and some denied. This one is a little plaza with a “Grab-n-go” style with a partnership through a local retail food chain, Price Chopper. I honestly don’t know why it got reported for explicit language and abuse, ridicule, or harassment, but then I also got a strike for violating the policy of wayspot submissions? I’m hoping to get some advice and hopefully speak this and avoid it as I would prefer to not be banned for my submissions. I have attached screenshots, as well as a link to a news article talking about this very real place. Any help would be appreciated!
Hi there, and welcome. Wish you were popping in on better terms but hopefully things can be worked out.
One thing important to help understand is the language of this rejection text is unclear and unhelpful and staff has been asked many times to clarify it for the general community. The comma structure makes it unclear, but the “abuse, ridicule, or harassment” is not meant to be inclusive, rather “abuse OR ridicule OR harassment” where abuse can be defined as but not only improper Wayspot nomination placement, 3rd party or AI generated photos, 3rd party text, or spamming of ineligible nominations.
I’m not immediately seeing anything “abuse” worthy but I did not look too closely at things. Keep in mind that the user community here can help and dig in a little and make suggestions on what you can do. Staff may (and usually does) chime in and offer a DM to help clarify things as well which is done in private.
Something you can do as you review the situation is to make sure you have a geo-tagged photo of your nomination that reflects where the submission was made. All this should be is taking a photo with your GPS turnee on and your camera app allowing saving the location. Again, I did not look too closely at the information you provided, but other supporting photos and news articles that support the placement may also help.
@OmegaDexion Following up, after carefully re-evaluating the location and the explanation provided, we have revoked the warning and it will not show on your records. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
I’m so glad this was overturned and staff was able to post that to help keep your reputation clean and let the community know there can be paths forward.
One thing I would like to add is that it is very important to provide support to your nomination that help not only prove that something exists but that it is correctly placed. On a quick view, I don’t see enough context in your Support photo to show the nearby stadium. I don’t quite know the view made available to reviewers, but looking at the nearby Street View I can’t find this. Making sure your Support photo shows surroundings that can be confirmed through Google or links that provide similar support can make a huge difference and avoid the flag to begin with.
Hope this doesn’t dissuade you from future submissions and you have a more positive experience going forward. I should add, congrats on the successful nominations you’ve made!
