A note to the community: Let's follow just good users on Google Maps

Google Maps tips & tricks
1

Hello, all of my fellow community,

There are several weeks that the Following on Google Maps became accessible [nearly] from all accounts.
This is a very interesting option which makes Maps more social and in my opinion, this is a new era for online maps.

But like every other feature it has disadvantages besides its benefits. These days I see many profiles that follow other users, to get a follow back. This is not an appreciated and true behavior on social platforms.

On the other hand, I see many users who follow the profiles that aren’t good contributors to Google Maps and break the rules. For example, users who added many copy photos/reviews from the web. Or users who added many one-word reviews (bulk reviews), Or users who aren’t an individual and are brand name or general names with a brand/general profile pic in the LG program, Or users who advertise by their reviews/photos and other ways those are clearly bad contributions on Google Maps.

Following such users causes that they think they’re doing good and are helpful and so they continue wrong activities.

A good user who's following other Good users
A good user who's following other Good users1000×550 101 KB

I wanna suggest and ask all of you, only to try to follow the users you find their contributions helpful on Google Maps, not the users who are contributing by violating the rules. And if you wanna follow your friend and he/she is doing many wrong activities (such as what I mentioned above), then please warn him about following the rules. Sure you can not check all activities of other users, but at least check if they’re contributing based on the rules and are their contributions good in general or not? I ask you that consider the good contribution as an important factor for following other users.

On the other hand, if such users with wrong activities want to follow you, this is not a problem. Because you’re a good contributor who respects the rules (even if not, try to be), so they will learn from your way of contributing. So it is even good to let them learn.

This kind of following others has at least two benefits. First, it causes the users who are doing wrong activities to know that such activities are not appreciated and some of them will stop. Next, it will prevent from making bad users bold on a social platform and will let new users know good contributors and find that how good contributing is. It also helps them to see more accurate reviews and photos about the places.

If we, all users in the Local Guides Connect, as a global eager community to do our bests for the Map, keep this in mind while following others on Google Maps from these first weeks of the “Following” feature, then we will keep Google Maps a good, clean, and safe social platform for all people till the next years.

Even because Google Maps social platform is based on the locations and has rules about preparing good content, we should have more attention in this case that users follow its special rules, which are different and more accurate than other social networks.

Hope you all do so and help Google Maps to become even more social but also stay a good place for all people.

Thank you all

2

You are touching an extremely important point @Amiran and I fully agree with you.

But as always, a coin have two sides …

As I said on another post, being followed is for me a big responsibility, that stimulate me to improve the level and the quality of my contributions.

On the other side, and for the same reason, following someone is an invitation to have your profile followed, and checked.

I found the reporting function very useful, in this case, for a good and quick clean-up of Google maps. Reporting is available on Google Maps app, and it works :slightly_smiling_face:

3

Thank you dear @ErmesT

I definitely agree. Completing more steps, brings more responsibility and sure this is the thinking of good users to improve themselves continuously.

And yes, reporting function is also a very suitable option and helps to make the map cleaner but also if we do something that results to make more users good contributors (even in long period) this will be a good step to keep map clean.

4

Muy buen punto @Amiran , no falta ni sobra ninguna palabra de todas las que mencionaste. Espero que muchos Local Guides puedan leer este post, ayudaría a que varios Local Guides comprendan el verdadero espirito de lo es ser un Local Guides. :+1: :grinning: :four_leaf_clover:

Saludos Farid

For the case that has difficulty, in reading my answer, in the upper right part of the screen, in the drop-down menu of languages, you can select the language, in which you want to read the post.

5

Thank you so much dear @FaridTDF , Your support is so valuable :pray: :blush:

6

@Amiran your post is really good. It is very helpful. Thanks for sharing.

7

Thank you @rashedul-alam

You already considered this thought.