Missions keep on getting rejected by bots?
Recently, it's basically impossible to get missions approved. Normally, I build one Banner per month for our local IFS. But for the last two months, all my missions keep on getting rejected for the same reason:
- - A lack of a clear and informative description and/or title
- - Mission Image, description, and/or title are unrelated to the Waypoints chosen
I never had this kind of issue. Normally, you could just edit the description a bit and then it was fine. But now, it's an endless loop.
Also, all missions are getting rejected at the same time. That's also not normal/never has been like that. I highly predict that this is also because of the new Pokemon GO routes.
Is there something to do against that? It's just straight-up annoying and sad to see your time get wasted on something like this. Its also sad for the IFS which I need to improvise again.
Also, sorry in case this has already been reported. I'm happy to get a link for old discussions :D


Comments
I don’t know the answer but with Niantic using AI to check Routes for Pokémon GO, I did wonder if we would see it used for Missions here.
This is why I stopped submitting missions and removed every one I've made. You can't get them approved anymore. I've wasted too much time trying. It's almost like they want the game to fail.
Same here. Not worth the effort anymore. I’ve left my existing ones up, for now.
Just feels like Ingress is eating away at itself from the inside out.
Wouldn't bother anymore, I've submitted too many banners where they'll approve 21/24 tiles and the last 3 don't go through no matter what and you end up with an incomplete useless banner. They should just approve them all and let people report them if there's an issue
I stopped submitting, but left my single missions from a jillion years ago still up, plus my half finished banners are still out there. I'm not gonna disable them. If someone does part of one, they are SOL. Blame the mission idiots who mark stuff with random, stupidly vague responses and random this image is copyrighted (except how does an image I took with my phone get tagged as copyrighted?).
My mural using an actual copyrighted image was accepted on the first try, and is still live. Done by multiple agents from both factions.
Just more stuff that doesn't make any sense at all. And we can't get a human response on it ever.
Reasons why people leave the game Brian. Not gonna tag you, you don't reply to it. Likely don't even read anything at this point anyway.
The entire mission system is rng sadly. What they need do is remake the mission create system from scratch but guess its not possible due to lack of resources and priority for other things
i've got those rejected for "An image with identifiable people or faces"
lol ? 😥
Gotta change the words on the missions just slightly and resubmit over and over again. Its how I got one of the Second Sunday ones to go through. And the best part is that is uses the same exact image for all 6 missions. 🤣
The frustration with missions is part of the reason why Second Sunday shouldn't focus on missions anymore.
Or how I believe it was Thia who claimed it was going a totally different way...but never has
The next wave of missions was rejected again, obviously. This really takes all the fun out of creating cool routes.
You can try posting your description and other information to see if there is anything we can advise on. I haven’t tried submitting a mission in at least six months, so no idea if things have got even worse (seems to be)
Here are some tips I've collected for the image / text rejection. Maybe you can find a couple things until you get it through.
“Use of image or text” Email
IMAGE:
TEXT:
Lastly, when a mission is rejected, put REJECT in its title, and create an entirely new mission with tweaks. Maybe it's superstitious, but I think a failed attempt is tainted, and gets rougher review if you edit and resubmit.
Good advice there, and I'd like to add something based on a recent experience.
1. Ensure that photos don't show any people, even tiny ones in the background. Try to use a program or AI to remove them, or blur them even if it seems unnecessary.
2. Insert non-trivial words from the mission title and the description as the agent name in the profile deep link to see if there are hits. In case of hits, rewrite the text.
3. Think like a data privacy (GDPR) advocate.
I submitted 7 missions on September 18 (last Monday afternoon). All approved last night (emails 8:30 Monday morning). It's a 1-row Discoverie banner, plus one mission just in case one of the banner doesn't work (or stops working).
If anyone would like me to look at their missions and make suggestions: I'm glad to help.
Obviously missions are approved overseas (likely India) where their workday is my Sunday night thru Thursday night (in east coast U.S.). As ancient and ignored as the mission making system is, I don't believe they've invested in training AI to do the reviews.
On any day with mission email results, mine all have around the same timestamp. This has been true since missions began. Reviewers review when they review, and results are saved in a dataset. The process to bring missions live on the map (and send emails) runs when the contractor shift ends. Unless Niantic servers are tied up with something else; then it's later.
Maybe nowadays they only review missions in the two weeks leading up to Second Sunday?
Last time I created a banner, I had someone else submit everything that was rejected, because resubmitting with no changes never works for me.
Exact same waypoints, exact same description, exact same pictures. And it got through right away.
I agree.
Months ago I posted a thread about NIA needing to stop approving only parts of mission banners. Either all of it, or none at all.
A banner mission I undertook had part nine missing. Many months later and it STILL hasn't been approved.
What an utter joke.
Since official images that are allowed to be used are flatly rejected, it would be nice if we could at least attach "a web site or image evidence that the Mission content, images, etc. are allowed" at the last transmission screen.
Are Missions still limited at 150 per Agent? I’m nowhere near that, but also creating some more recently and thinking about the Pokémon GO equivalent (though not as good) which doesn’t seem to have a limit.
it was raised to 180 at the beginning of the pandemic. Funnily enough, it was always labeled as a temporary increase and wasn't made permanent until the last Covid boni were removed/made permanent.
Thanks. 180 still seems a little low if you’re doing plenty of Banners however. Hopefully they can update it again.
I believe Brian recently said in an interview from Kobe that they can't increase the limit any further anymore due to performance issues of the Mission creator.
Sounds like they need a new system then. Must be getting on a bit with how long Missions have been around.
Aside from an update from the beta version, as far as I know, the Mission creator hasn't been updated once in the last 10 years, aside from fixing a login bug for Prime accounts
Maybe they need to have a look at however the Pokémon GO team are storing their Routes info, though it’s less complex (point A to B, and just use photos from the Wayspots, not your own).