Nomination rejections are too devastating

Looking around this forum, nomination rejections seem to be a popular subject. And no wonder! It's highly frustrating to be working in good faith to nominate a wayspot and then have it rejected without comment. The only recourse is to come here and discuss the nomination, or to try again.

Thing is, I see a LOT of in-game Pokestops in my area that have sketchy titles and unclear photos, but they make great stops! As a player, I've had nothing but fun with the inclusion of stops that have typos or weird photos. As a reviewer, those are some of my LAST priorities when reviewing a pokestop.

If an area meets the criteria and genuinely would make a good wayspot, if it's something like a basketball court that is a shoe-in, I honestly don't give too flips if it's got a typo or a weird photo. It's just so genuinely devastating to have your wayspot rejected after waiting forever. It's devastatng because of how long it might take to go through the process if you resubmit. It's devastating when you have a spot you genuinely believe in and put some care and consideration into, only to have a faceless entity tell you no, without a reason, sending you back to the beginning. It feels callous, like someone was just looking for a reason to tear you down, or like they just didn't put as much care into reviewing as you did submitting.

Disproportionately devastating, for the fact that it's just a game? Maybe. But devastating nonetheless.

So my idea here is a gentler approval process. If other parts of a nomination are solid, but something like the pic isn't, I don't believe a nomination should get rejected. I believe it should be kicked back for improvement. It should be a system that holds the nominator's hand and guides them through the issues with their nomination, instead of just a hard NO. I think the system should involve a review process that helps make nominations the best they can be, so that it is a process of being built-up. And if the nomination ends up being too problematic anyway? Then at least we gave it the best shake it could get.


  • patsufredo-PGOpatsufredo-PGO Posts: 1,340 ✭✭✭✭✭

    If you're encounter such Pokestops with terrible photos and/or bad title/description, why don't you edit them in-game yourself?

    Also, rather than you complain about the voting system why don't you try to improve your submission and try resubmit it again?

  • tomtom3090-PGOtomtom3090-PGO Posts: 19 ✭✭


  • Shilfiell-INGShilfiell-ING Posts: 541 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Whenever I get a rejection for something I though was worthy of acceptance, it stings a bit, but only a little. Maybe I'm made of sterner stuff. Most of those rejections go through after a few more attempts, as I work to improve my nomination each time. I can only advise not taking it personally, and look to what you can do as a submitter to get your candidate in game. If you think there's some local bias, get your upgrade lined up to apply: if the text or description or supporting info can be clarified, then write it down in advance and edit, edit, edit. I've been nominating for a while and reviewing almost as long, and these things work for me.

  • HaramDingo-INGHaramDingo-ING Posts: 790 ✭✭✭✭✭

    When a nomination of mine gets rejected that I absolutely knew was worthy of acceptance, I go into a mini-rampage and rant my heart out, much to the dismay of others at times. But then right after I calm down and understand that it is akin to a lottery. Then I resubmit the nomination with barely the slightest of changes and it goes through. At times I think there is upgrade bias, so I have fodder (aka a throwaway nomination) lined up to apply to another sacrificial lamb and remain confident in my own ability and submission quality.

    The initial reaction is almost always the worst, so it goes straight into a certain Discord's #way-frustrations channel. It's a bad coping mechanism but I get through it in the end. Also considering that there was a recent post about a park with no sign in which OP has also expressed their approval for, I am not so sure with the validity of this rant.

    For so long, nominators clamoured for reject reasons to appear in emails. Those in the early-days of Ingress nominations and before OPR became Wayfarer. got this general email of the common reasons for rejection (which were almost always frivolous and misleading at best). It wasn't until roughly October 2019 when reject reasons started to populate emails.

    And while the reject reasons which appear in emails are often erroneous, they still have some sort of constructive criticism behind them to slightly improve upon. Just deal and address those reasons in the next attempt of the rejected nomination in the supporting statement and pray tell that reviewers read your feedback. Or just take it on board that it really doesn't accept acceptance criteria. Some people spend so much energy ranting and complaining about the system that they could be spending time to get the system going. Because the system does work, but only when there is balance between input and output.

  • pinediablo-PGOpinediablo-PGO Posts: 25 ✭✭

    Aw I feel better after reading your guys' responses actually lol. I still feel like there is totally room for improvement with the review system. But I admit I don't have the knowledge of a lot of other people's experiences on the matter!

    Also YOOOOO I didn't realize I could edit pokestops actually LOL I totally am gonna clean up some pokestops around here


    In December 2018 I submitted three really cool things in a country 13,500 kilometers away from my home. One was a restaurant that was famous for being the the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant in the world. The other two were extremely cool and interesting artwork. The restaurant was rejected about a month after submission. The other two sat in limbo until they were rejected in July 2021, over 2.5 years after being submitted. I found all three of these to be very slightly annoying, but that's mostly because I've had things accepted in three countries on two continents and it would have been fun to say four countries and three continents. And because two and a half years is a bit ridiculous even by Niantic's standards.

    I don't really understand how having something rejected can be so important that someone is devastated by it. A little bit sad? Yes. Annoyed? Certainly. Devastated? I feel like that's a pretty extreme level of emotional investment in a wayspot candidate.

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