mission authoring rejection email clarity
Could you change rejection emails to cite a single field? e.g. the Title
Currently rejection emails say there could be an issue in the art, title, description or waypoints, and then list various possible issues. Here's am example from Feb 23, 2021
Thanks for submitting 2-6 #MP Year of the **** Theme US - Eagle Park, CA. Unfortunately, we were not able to accept your Mission. Your Mission may have one or more of the following issues:
- A lack of a clear and informative description and/or title
- Mission Image, description, and/or title are unrelated to the Waypoints chosen
All 4 fields are mentioned with 'and/or' implying there could be more than 1 issue.
If there is 1 field wrong, there are 4 possibilities.
If there are 2 fields wrong, there are 6 possible combinations of 2 fields that could be wrong.
If there is 3 field wrong, there are 4 possibilities. Only 1 is right.
Or all 4 could be wrong.
For a total of 15 possible combinations of fields that could be wrong.
There are also many reasons for rejection, but they are less important, because whatever it is, we'll be changing a field, to avoid all known issues.
To resolve the rejection, the author changes 1 thing, taking a guess as which of the 4 things it could be.
If there are truely multiple fields that require changes, I would still prefer the email only pick one reason, and then when that is resolved, move onto the next field. Worst case, thats 4 rejections.
So far I've tried 11 times on this example. And the reason is unrelated to what the email says. Its not the description or title being unclear. Its not the image, description or title are unrelated to the way points. The real reason is the art contains the chinese symbol for ****, which falls into the single letter rule that isnt written.
This example being a mission project, we're also given art, and a template for what the title and description should be. So it would be nice if the art, which is not copyright, and created expressly for banners, were preapproved, so a large number of people submitting the same banner around the world, didnt all have to go thru the reject/resubmit process.
Comments
Thats interesting. The word that is being censored here a p i g. is that why my mission is being rejected too. Sorry for the profanity.
Missions are using the Vanilla Forums filter? That's going to make things so painful.
I tried removing the potentially offensive words of China and **** and changed the waypoints but it was still rejected for
one or more of the following issues:
Niantic, your rejection emails lack clear and informative criteria for rejection.
It may seem expedient to have 1 big button for rejections, but it means we submit with the changes you're suggesting - which is the title, description, art and way points.
A few words from the reviewer would really help. Like "Its the art stupid" :-)
Seriously frustrating. I was helping another agent create a banner and we got the title/description canned response. I'm fairly well-experienced with creating banners and I feel pretty confident in saying there was nothing wrong with the title or description. It was pretty generic wording that's been used in tons of banners (i.e. "Tour of (Place)" "Visit the portals here to earn a picture on your profile"). We tweaked the description several times but kept getting rejection emails. After contacting support, they sent us a different email with a different canned response 🤦 We responded debunking each bullet point and got a followup saying "we can't provide any additional detail for the rejection."
Maybe someone from Niantic can step in here and offer us some guidance...
In my case, I had to delete this banner because they said it was offensive, I admit that I started to speak in the descriptions about LGTB members along History, some of them were pretty shocking. For instance, in my hometown a ruling king was dethroned and among the accusations they told the public that he was ****. Therefore, the name "Wrath Pride" refers to how they were treated.
I would pay money for this, and so would most of the people I know in the mission community! lolz!! I think we all have the canned response emails memorized at this point, and it is beyond frustrating.
Maybe they just need to clarify the wording of the rejection reason a little bit. How about this. 😆
Unfortunately, we were not able to accept your Mission. Your Mission may have one or more of the following issues:
• We flipped a handful of coins and one or more landed on tails
Agreed. It could be a feature of 'C.O.R.E.' subscription. A place to report issues that requires membership, but ensures Niantic responds to issues reported. That should probably be a separate feature request.
Totally agree. Experienced authors have a pretty good idea of what a good mission is. And still it appears random when something is rejected. We are told it could be any of a number of issues, and it may be the title, description, art or waypoints. In otherwords, it could be anything. It could also be something they haven't listed as a reason, such as containing art that appears to be a letter.
My proposed solution is pick one thing to reject it on. title, art, description or way point.
Just one of these 4 things.
It doesnt really matter what you say is wrong with it, at least we will know what to change.
Once that one thing is good, you can reject based on another single thing, if there is more.
+1 on this. I recently had one mission in a 6-mission series rejected. The mission was in a former amusement park that closed down in the 70's then was converted into a park with informational signs about some of the more famous attractions that used to be there. My only theory was that the park's name was somehow objectionable, but almost all of the Portals in the mission had the name in their title so I had figured it was pretty self-explanatory.
unclear mission rejection emails are still a problem.
I've got one that is getting this rejection: 2-6 #MP Year of the Pork Theme US - Eagle Park, CA
A lack of a clear and informative description and/or title
Mission Image, description, and/or title are unrelated to the Waypoints chosen
Its a mission project Year of the **** banner, and previously was rejected (for everyone) due to 'copyright', which I think really meant it had art that appeared to be a (chinese) letter. The email is misleading and unhelpful.
Saying there is an issue in the image, description, title OR waypoints means we have to guess which of those 4 things and resubmit. Please tell us 1 reason, so we know what to change. I continue to resubmit this mission, attempting to resolve whatever it is Nianitic thinks is wrong with it.
My most recent banner was rejected for copyright:
In nearly all rejections, I think Niantic is simply wrong. This was a photo I took myself. The text of the title is generic, containing no trademarks or copyright words. The description is similarly generic, referring to what the picture is and the city. The picture had some shrubbery. No people, signs, or text of any sort... just scenery.
The rejection email is unclear where the issue is. I would guess the image, but I have seen missions rejected for the text in the description. It would be helpful if the rejection specifically said the reason for the rejection is a copyright violation on the mission image. Then we wont need to guess and try changing the title or description.
Are rejections done by a bot? My low quality photo of scrubbery should be clearly not copyright rejected, if a human took a look at it. Or was the real reason that it wasnt a great photo, and copyright is only way to reject based on image? A couple words typed into the rejection reason, similar to OPR, would be great. reason: ugly picture
This was my exact experience with mission denials as well. I'm convinced the first layer of review is an algorithm or bot that needs some serious adjustment for the silliest reasons for denials. The appeal to support to a human (supposedly) is always just as generic and no help at all. This experience really deters me from creating mission banners for local agents to do for things like Second Sunday.
I've found, if you change the mission to Sequenced, it's more likely to go thru. Then edit it to Any Order.
Nearly all my recent banner submissions have been getting rejected, and the emails are less than helpful.
My last 2 banners had all missions rejected for
The title and description mention the location. The description mentions a way point you'll see that relates to the image. I resubmitted one of the banners with a different description, and it got rejected a 2nd time for the same reason. I really have no idea what the issues could be.
The banner prior to those 2 had 1 mission out of 6 rejected for copyright. It was a photo I took.
Its a bit discouraging investing time into authoring missions, and most are getting rejected for unknown reasons.
I've submitted another. There is some urgency to getting new missions live, so there are some to do for 2nd sunday.
Here's my long list of mission tips, that I've collected for six years:
New Mission Reject
“Use of image or text” Email
IMAGE:
TEXT:
“Quality issues” Email
Other potential pitfalls…
Ambush Portals
Wording Tips
Although your list of tips is good, what I'm looking for is Niantic to cite a specific reason for rejection.
Once the resubmitted mission passed criteria for that one field, if there are additional concerns, repeat with a failure of the next field. This should reduce the number of resubmits, saving everyone time and frustration.