# Why is wayfinder rating based on total nominations? **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussion\ **Created:** [June 12, 2024, 4:38am UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536 "2024-06-12T04:38:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![doomsday126](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@doomsday126](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/doomsday126)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 4:38am UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/1 "2024-06-12T04:38:57Z")
As a relatively new reviewer, I’ve noticed that the Wayfinder rating seems to be heavily influenced by the total number of nominations. Once I reviewed 100+ nominations, my rating dropped from ‘Good’ to ‘Fair.’ I suspect this is because most of my reviews haven’t been resolved yet. Shouldn’t the Wayfinder rating be based solely on agreements per resolved nominations? ---
**Author:** ![elijustrying](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wayfarer/user_avatar/community.wayfarer.scopely.com/elijustrying/32/25162_2.png) [@elijustrying](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/elijustrying)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 9:09am UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/2 "2024-06-12T09:09:25Z")
Welcome @doomsday126 You are quite right to raise questions. Great to hear you are taking part in reviewing. This is going to sound a bit strange, but no one (wayfinders) actually knows exactly how the rating system works. Intuitively you would think we should know so that we can use the information to learn about how we are doing and to use it as a tool to improve. It is quite basic. As wayfarer is about judgements and reaching a consensus reaching agreement with the majority is a critical factor. And yes in some areas you will review and what you have reviewed will take time to resolve. The best advice I can give is to keep answering the questions when reviewing as honestly as you can judging against the criteria. Take it slow and steady and if you are very unsure it is ok to skip. ---
**Author:** ![doomsday126](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/51bf81/32.png) [@doomsday126](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/doomsday126)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 2:21pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/3 "2024-06-12T14:21:36Z")
Thank you for responding! While I understand that nobody knows how exactly the wayfarer rating formula works, I think we can make certain assumptions about the formula that are fairly obvious based on the data we see. My only issue is that the formula is based on how many nominations you’ve reviewed in totality so if someone does not have that many reviews to begin with, the rate of resolves to reviews will always skew the rating negatively. My only option seems to be to let the resolves catch-up to the reviews I’ve done and then continue but that seems counterproductive. ---
**Author:** ![MargariteDVille](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MargariteDVille](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/MargariteDVille)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 6:17pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/4 "2024-06-12T18:17:23Z")
Niantic has said repeatedly that number of agreements/disagreements/unresolved does not affect your rating. Reviewing too quickly can affect it - which is defined not only by speed but also whether you interact with the page. When needed, you can click the title for a google search, click a potential duplicate existing wayspot, click the Google symbol bottom left of the map (or click a place lablel and then open in google maps), click the pictures to enlarge them, scroll the text in description or supplemental. You don’t have to do all this in every nomination - but if you never do any of these things, you are not giving a good review. Also Niantic uses what we call “honey pots” (that’s slang). What they actually said was “We pre-approve or reject certain Wayspot nominations prior to them entering Wayfarer. Reviewers who disagree with our assessment may see a dip in their performance score.” ---
**Author:** ![cyndiepooh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@cyndiepooh](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/cyndiepooh)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 6:20pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/5 "2024-06-12T18:20:41Z")
> [@MargariteDVille](#): > > Niantic has said repeatedly that number of agreements/disagreements/unresolved does not affect your rating Do you happen to have a link to them saying this? I try to save links to anything important like that. In my experience, the few times I have dropped to good, NOT reviewing has made my rating go back up to great. ---
**Author:** ![MargariteDVille](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MargariteDVille](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/MargariteDVille)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 6:22pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/6 "2024-06-12T18:22:59Z")
I used to try to keep up with everything, but got burned out and stopped. For you - I’ll dig thru my archives. ---
**Author:** ![cyndiepooh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@cyndiepooh](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/cyndiepooh)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 6:27pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/7 "2024-06-12T18:27:14Z")
i know it may not exist anymore. we tracked down a niantic statement about reviewer rating affecting the weight of their vote to G+ - and i wasn’t ever in a G+ wayfarer community, even when that existed. ---
**Author:** ![DTrain2002](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@DTrain2002](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/DTrain2002)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 6:51pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/8 "2024-06-12T18:51:26Z")
This is what is currently being discussed in the rating bug report here: > [@Ratings making me sad - they have dropped because of the challenge](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/ratings-making-me-sad-they-have-dropped-because-of-the-challenge/15690/): > > My ratings have always been great I’ve got 10,000 reviews and never below great. Then this wonderful challenge comes along. I only reviewed 550 because of the reload issues but during that time my rating went from great to good, back to great and now good. It sucks and I’m feeling ‘depressed’ or ‘down’ Anyone know what we need to do to get the rating back up? I know others say their rating is fair or good and that’s fine but for some reason this bothers me. I wish I knew what I did wrong du… My last post there, and others as well, has shown that your rating is not just based on your agreements, but there are other factors that we may not fully be aware of. Most ambos even agree with this. ---
**Author:** ![MargariteDVille](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MargariteDVille](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/MargariteDVille)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 6:52pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/9 "2024-06-12T18:52:59Z")
Yes, there were comments about it in G+. And I saved this link (also gone) **[https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/discussion/5007/quality-assurance-and-reviews](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/discussion/5007/quality-assurance-and-reviews)** From [Ingress AMA Archive](https://ingressama.com/ama/sydneynl1331) **Q38** : Any way to get out of a poor rating on OPR? **A38** : In my experience, people are doing things too quickly, so take your time. Even if you make your decision in a few seconds, just take your time before you actually push that submit button, otherwise you’re probably going to flag something. (MargariteDVille’s note: By “take your time”, I think he meant mess around on the page some. Click things, etc.) From [Ingress AMA Archive](https://ingressama.com/ama/11dec2017) **Q12** : I dropped from great to poor in opr exactly a week ago. In that time I have gotten more agreements than new reviews. That means agreements I made while great aren’t being counted while I am poor. Is this fair? **A12** : Any agreement that occured while your performance rating was Poor will not count towards your Recon medal. _To improve your rating, review the training materials and re-evaluate how you are analyzing candidates based on the criteria._ From [Ingress AMA Archive](https://ingressama.com/ama/20nov2017) **Q7** : Would a mandatory OPR test be something you could explore for those stuck at bad rating? What are the percentage thresholds for ratings or is it more complicated? If so, any additional comments? **A7** : This sounds like something worth considering. There are many reasons you may have a poor rating in OPR. _The best way to recover is to continue to analyze candidates and follow the criteria and guidelines to the best of your ability._ and **Q41** : I went to Panama/Mexico, and did some opr down there… I went from Great to Poor in the matter of a day while maintaining a 70% agreement ratio. I have close to 200 agreements since then…and my needle hasn’t moved…and my stat isn’t counting. My questions are: What gives? **A41** : OPR performance takes many factors into account including abuse detection. The best way to ensure your rating stays high is to take time to carefully analyze each candidate. As an IT professional for many decades, I know that every website you visit, every newsletter email you receive - they all track how far you read, how fast, where you paused, what you clicked, etc. This is generic, easy, packaged code, that I have no doubt Niantic implemented. I’m pretty sure it’s shareware (free). ---
**Author:** ![cyndiepooh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@cyndiepooh](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/cyndiepooh)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 6:55pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/10 "2024-06-12T18:55:21Z")
will save this link - ty ---
**Author:** ![MargariteDVille](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MargariteDVille](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/MargariteDVille)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 7:01pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/11 "2024-06-12T19:01:56Z")
As I’ve said before, I think Niantic has some kind of internal math error with edit reviews. [Niantic Wayfarer](https://wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/new/help/agreements--upgrades) says “Note: Reviews of Wayspot Edits are not counted as Agreements at this time.” I’ll bet edit reviews are added to some internal counters, but not all of them - and some downstream processes uses math with numbers they think were all created the same. Until the challenge, edits were rare enough that this inconsistency didn’t do anything noticeable. But we got so many edits in the challenge - it tore through with fireworks. ---
**Author:** ![Gendgi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wayfarer/user_avatar/community.wayfarer.scopely.com/gendgi/32/333_2.png) [@Gendgi](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/Gendgi)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2024, 11:19pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/12 "2024-06-12T23:19:54Z")
I’ll be honest I did not read these (I HAVE in the past). The longer I’ve been involved in Wayfarer the less confidence I have in anything said by RedSoloCup on Ingress AMA and frankly half the responses we get even from the now dedicated Wayfarer team. Believe everything at your own risk. ---
**Author:** ![Everett321](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@Everett321](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/Everett321)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 3:35pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/13 "2025-03-11T15:35:07Z")
That is helpful. So your advice in the review is to dig deep in the analysis: expand the picture, open google maps to verify location, etc? There are some that are murals so no way for me to validate them: I just skip those. My rating is stuck at “good” and 42%. I’ve had some of my submissions rejected for silly things like: stating it’s seasonal when I’ve taken the picture and submitted it mid-winter and explicitly stated this is a year-round … Or when some stated they saw people or faces in a photo that had no people or faces. Question: there are submissions that look to be private homes, albeit historic homes. I’m not sure what criteria to reject those based on. ---
**Author:** ![cyndiepooh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@cyndiepooh](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/cyndiepooh)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 3:43pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/14 "2025-03-11T15:43:38Z")
private homes are rejected under the “Appropriate” section by checking “Private property” - the first choice: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/wayfarer/original/3X/7/8/783f72dfd727431fa9eef3b92ba3205b1297c9f2.png) > [@Everett321](#): > > I’ve had some of my submissions rejected for silly things like: stating it’s seasonal when I’ve taken the picture and submitted it mid-winter and explicitly stated this is a year-round … This rejection reason included “or Not Distinct” so it could be that reviewers just felt your nomination had no significance. ---
**Author:** ![DTrain2002](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5a626/32.png) [@DTrain2002](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/DTrain2002)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/15 "2025-03-11T16:41:26Z")
There’s an i in a circle for each of the 7 questions while reviewing, called tooltips. When you click on these, a box will pop up to give you more info. ![Screenshot 2025-03-11 113813](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/wayfarer/original/3X/8/5/85156e64f5c8017c089875df0e2593ded73fcb4e.png) This is the one that pops up for Appropriate, for example: ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/wayfarer/original/3X/e/0/e00ec377409015a3b29e8b0b5f6ba2d335f356ba.png) If you ever have any other questions about reviewing, feel free to post them in the #Review Support topic, and we’ll be more than happy to help! ---
**Author:** ![Gendgi](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wayfarer/user_avatar/community.wayfarer.scopely.com/gendgi/32/333_2.png) [@Gendgi](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/Gendgi)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2025, 2:46pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/16 "2025-03-13T14:46:58Z")
It’s funny this thread got bumped the other day. > [@MargariteDVille](#): > > [Niantic Wayfarer](https://wayfarer.nianticlabs.com/new/help/agreements--upgrades) says “Note: Reviews of Wayspot Edits are not counted as Agreements at this time.” This text is no longer here. ---
**Author:** ![Nymeria81](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/e8c25b/32.png) [@Nymeria81](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/u/Nymeria81)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2025, 3:08pm UTC](https://community.wayfarer.scopely.com/t/why-is-wayfinder-rating-based-on-total-nominations/20536/17 "2025-03-13T15:08:00Z")
very well said