The wayspot I nominated was a sign for new community in my area and I don’t understand why it got rejected. The reason I got doesn’t make any sense to me as it is not private property. The other communities in my area with signs have pokestops or gyms on them. So I would love a better reason why this got rejected
Here is what was said “ Niantic Note
Thanks for the appeal, Wayfinder! The nomination is on the property of a private residence which makes it ineligible. Hence, we are unable to reverse the decision. We recommend you review the Wayspot rejection criteria before submitting any more Wayspot contributions:”
Some neighborhood signs are on single family private residential property. We would need to see the location to see if we agree with the appeal reviewer on that.
The community is divided over these neighborhood signs. I personally do not see how the majority of them meet any of the three eligibility requirements: a great place to exercise, explore, or be social. I reject these when I see them in review.
You are correct that many of these are on the game board. That does not mean they were correctly accepted. But internal criteria for removal, which is not published publicly, seems to be stricter about removals, so they usually stay in game once accepted.
Staff have not weighed in on the eligibility of these signs, although I have begged for them to for years.
You may not be aware, but anything attached to the external boundary of single-family private residential property is still ineligible due to the location.
This is true even if it is against the sidewalk where people could lean against it and touch it without trespassing.
Thank you! I understand that this sign is not on private property. I just felt that the reason for the rejection wasn’t explained very clearly and seemed like a generic response. I’m still new to this process and genuinely want to learn so that, going forward, I can improve my submissions and have more accepted than rejected.
Try not to get into the habit of looking at other things that have been accepted and assuming that that means similar things are definitely allowed.
Reviewers aren’t 100% consistent, and sometimes will accept things that technically do not meet the criteria. And then you see those and start wondering why your similar sub won’t go through.
Always circle back to the social, exercise, exploration criteria, and use the free text box to explain / prove how your sub meets at least one of these. And even then you will often get rejections because people disagree with you. This job requires a bit of a thick skin and a lot of patience.
If the sign is part of / attached to a perimeter wall, it’s probably not location-eligible due to the single family rule. This might vary depending on what the wall is enclosing. (For example if the wall is enclosing a gated apartment complex and the area immediately behind the sign is in a shared space.)
If the sign is however a freestanding sign (such as in a landscaped area between a perimeter wall and a street), it’s probably location-eligible. The ones you are comparing to are most likely this type. (I’ve seen some of these placed in the center median of streets, this would make them ineligible due to lack of safe access.)
You’d still need reviewers to accept based on the criteria.
