A revelation. How some persons can find out very fast that some of their reviews are now private.

Google Maps tips & tricks
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Frequently, I come across complaints here stating some of the reviews are not visible to the public.
I was wondering about how these persons can discover that so fast?

At that time, I found out that frequently such profiles display an immense number of likes to their reviews.
Like so, the truth is apparent. As soon as the contributor publishes something, the buddies go through that & then reward that with up-votes. Here frequently, mundane or one-liner reviews also display the award.
And then, if anybody is unable to locate a particular review, immediately the creator is alerted about that.

However, whether it is right to bloat the count of likes in such a manner, is certainly debatable.

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Nice observation, @C_T .

I think you are correct in your suspicion.

Also, some local guides like all their own photos. That is equally questionable in my eyes.

But what the heck. If it makes them happy - so be it.

Cheers

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This is one of the sad aspect of gamification, @C_T , but on the other side can also help Google to find the ones who are tricking the system.

It happen here in Connect too, and it is so easy here to cross the data that I am not surprised when someone simply “disappear”

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@ErmesT I have a question. For the likes on a review of Google Maps, we don’t get extra points, right?

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You are right @Ant_Bad_Yogi . We do not get extra points. However, the badges " Expert reviewer" & “Master reviewer” do need a certain number of likes to earn those.

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You are correct @Ant_Bad_Yogi , we do not get any point, fortunately, as the like is supposed to be given by a Local Guide who find a review helpful.

BTW, like @C_T , I have observed myself some “OK” with several likes. It was quite easy to find a group of friends that was exchanging likes.

Someone think that, for the connect live application, Google will check the number of likes, in Google Maps and here in Connect, without verifying the contents

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@ErmesT OK, I see. Thank you for the answer, clear.

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@C_T Oh I see. That might be the reason why they do that. Thank you for the answer.

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@ErmesT Can I be off topic a bit? hahaha

Please read this comment, https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/General-Discussion/Hobby/m-p/2416533#M812158. It said we are not encourage to share our social media links.

But then I saw this post, https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/Announcements/Which-small-businesses-are-you-supporting-right-now/ba-p/2419434. It said to share the links of social media of our posts.

In general, we share our YouTube video on Connect, some also share social media links in signature section.

So, I’m a bit confused about this. What would you say/think about this?

CC: @C_T

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Hello @Ant_Bad_Yogi

The subtle difference reflects in the wording. It says “not encouraged” but doesn’t say it is banned.

So the message is clear. As far as possible, let’s share everything here only without rolling to some external links.

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@C_T Thank you for the reply. Nice answer. I see about that. Yes, I’m trying to do that as well. :slightly_smiling_face:

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What you are talking about @C_T is spammy behaviour. It is possible it is just friends, or it could be a result of the follow feature. I’ve seen a case where the person had hundreds of accounts and would go to each one and like their primary account’s content. These people always come undone in time and discover their work is to no avail when it all gets marked private. Of course you can game any open system like Maps, but if doing it the people should realise that sooner or later the system will close them out.

If you notice any where it looks like the one person doing it I would encourage you to report them.

Paul

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Oops, I am discovering now that I left my answer in draft. :disappointed: You already had some great reply

I agree with you that the subject is not part of this topic @Ant_Bad_Yogi .

Btw, there is a tiny line in the reply by @JavieraAu , between sharing the link of an account (please follow me on YouTube) and sharing a video.

Is the difference between contents and self promotion. There are several local guides who share their social media links on their signature, and do not invite the people to follow them. On the Connect Live application it was possible to share your Instagram and Twitter account.

So again, the difference is on the context and on how you share

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@ErmesT OK, I think I see what you mean. Thank you so much for your help and continued support. :slightly_smiling_face:

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