"Contribute Reviews Photos Edits": OK but my photos are not visible in the maps last 3 days

Hi,

I saw through my searches that in the past there were a lot of issues with the “contribute” counts. Mine is OK: photos: 2,936 views: 253,021.

Although last three days my views are getting steadily increasing, I can’t see these photos in the posted Map locations anymore (last 3 days).

It may be related to Google Cloud failures, but I couldn’t see any link yet if this is the case.

Please check the following Map location (I created it where I can’t see my photos anymore in it) to see if they are visible to other users.

I can’t see any of my posted photo at the moment in the Map while I see them in Contribute Photo tab.

Thank you.

North Round Valley Trailhead

https://www.google.com/maps/place/North+Round+Valley+Trailhead/@40.7118577,-111.5006385,16z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x87526d5dd74faf0d:0xc0f900d8f4284b6a!8m2!3d40.7115568!4d-111.4969879?hl=en-US

A brief description what I have been doing lately:

I designed and enhancing/finalizing a web-application (not a website though: a (RCP) Rich Client Platform and (SPA) Single Page Application, a core JavaScript design with the Grid/Flex CSS) for Park City, Utah.

My “philosophy” is to treat Park City, Utah as if my Space-City while my home in Park City is my Space-Ship.

Our Park City UT is one which includes all: (Mr. Park City (all about Park City, Utah excluding the Ski Mountains/Resorts) and the Mountains:

Ms. Park City, Ms. Deer Valley, Ms. Utah Olympic Park, Ms. Woodward, Ms. Sundance, Ms. Solitude, Ms. Brighton, Ms. Snowbird, Ms. Alta)

Mr. Park City although is in Progress, the “Trails” and “Parks” modules are mostly completed.

Currently we are working with Vail’s PC Mountain/PC Canyons and Deer Valley Mountains’ Ski Lifts/Trails.

The rest of the Ski Mountains are in “To Be Done” status for the Photos.

While we were taking the Photos/Videos, we realized most of these locations were missing in the Google Maps so we also started to add them into it.

In this process we hope to understand the users’ interests into these places.

Cheers

2 Likes

Hi @OurParkCityUT

You can always check if your photos are public by visiting the place on Google Maps in an incognito / private tab.

Cheers

Morten

1 Like

Thanks.

We checked it with my wife google account and didn’t see them.

Incognito is the same.

I checked the “public profile view” as it is seen below.

The photos are missing in action in the Map.

I don’t know if any Google tech looks into these posting.

Here is what I see which may be helpful to them:

Although I can’t see any of my photo in Maps in my area (Utah, USA), in some areas the users can see them since I see the view counts are increasing constantly.

Cheers

Hi @KlaudiyaG

With the public profile, I see “This user hasn’t uploaded any photos yet or has chosen not to display them” when I clicked on “Photos”.

Did I set my photos private mistakenly? If so, please let me know where I can set it public again.

Thanks.

You have uploaded 2535 photos and none of them are public. Views must be from before they were made private.

Learn about hidden photos and how to find out how many of your photos are hidden by reading my post called How great a local guide are you?

Recently quite a few local guides have experienced this issue. One frequent trigger is self liking of photos? Have you been liking your photos your self or have you asked others to like them systematicly?

Morten

1 Like

@OurParkCityUT

There is only one setting for photos and reviews combined. So as we can see your reviews your settings is not the problem.

Morten

Thanks for your time, I am sorry to see that you have to go through this much effort for almost no result.

But thanks to you, we won’t go through the same fruitless effort.

Weather.com is purchased by IBM. When you visit the site, the first info you see on the left top: The weather channel: an IBM business.

Here in Park City, most of the time, they are jokes for us.

They say it is Sunny while it is cloudy and snowing: The computer (I guess as AI) figures out the weather and maybe they don’t have a soul in Park City to verify/inform the real weather of Park City for them.

Now about a month for two reasons I started to update Google Map:

1- Help the World =): so they can know what is where/what in regard to Park City, UT.

2- Since I can put my copyright image(s) with my company websites on the photos/videos, I can be benefited from my good deeds.

With your help and the recent events now I see “helping the world” will be limited in Google Map since I can add the missing place which stays but my photos/videos can go away without any warning (any good reason).

Unfortunately above (2) also failed for my effort. Almost 250K views didn’t bring me any website traffic.

To “Help the World” in regard to Park City, UT, I need to get all the accurate and vertically/horizontally comprehensive information/data of Park City by Park City for Park City =:). OurParkCityUt.com and MrParkCity.com together with 9 mountain websites will hopefully “help the World” without any proviso.

Take Care.

Don’t (ever) forget to bike. I love the rigidly protected Copenhagen bike paths.

Cheers.

1 Like

@OurParkCityUT

It would be really helpful if you would use the tagging tool when replying to someone here on Connect. Type @ followed by the username. Type slowly. Then we get an e-mail notification and you are more likely to get a prompt reply.

There are strict rules on adding credit text in out photos. When adding 360 photo spheres the rules are less strict.

Good you figured it out.

Cheers

Morten

Your photos have probably been made private because of your self promotional watermark to your website @OurParkCityUT - it is self promotional and too large and distracting within the image. I recommend you review the Maps User Contributed Content Policy https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/7422880 particularly under Photos and Videos / Superimposed text or graphics.

Your username and website make it seem like you are a business rather than an individual. Local Guides is only open to individuals. I note from your text

2- Since I can put my copyright image(s) with my company websites on the photos/videos, I can be benefited from my good deeds.

Local Guides are not allowed to make any kind of gain from the program and I recommend you read the Local Guides Rules https://maps.google.com/localguides/rules

If you want to contribute as a business there are two ways - you can do it via the Street View trusted photographer program https://www.google.com/streetview/ or you can work with the businesses or authorities that manage the public place and Google My Business https://business.google.com/ but you cannot do this as a Local Guide due to the conflict of interest it poses. Note that the same contributed content policy still applies about the size, position and content of watermarks.

Paul

3 Likes

Hi @MortenCopenhagen and @PaulPavlinovich

This isn’t a respond to you both and I also have no request to ask.

I record here my facts and my opinions for Google managers who (hopefully) can evaluate the current Local Guide operation and reformat/reform it in the near future.

  • Facts

“Local Guides is only open to individuals” who has no Liability and/or not required to have any expertise/locality in the area which they are posting/defining a Map information: They are Amateurs but required to do (requested to do and actually doing) a Professional job which requires Liability, Expertise and locality.

One “guide” put a Therapy Office into a Children Park, another defined “a City” on top of the Ski Lift (a Mountain Cable Car): both must be deleted in order to define the Ski Lift and/or the Park. Meanwhile there were/are many no-name lakes in the area. Google Maps are treated like the “official” primary source for anyone to find a place with these conditions while there are no requirements of Liability/Authority/Expertise of the Local Guides (my surprise and disappointment). Google has an automated Verification process and it isn’t clear how it is working with the human interaction. Sometimes it takes so long to get a known/obvious location verified. There is no e-mail address/phone number to communicate to resolve the verification.

As a Local Guide I started to ignore the other guides so fast since there is not much I want to do with the Dignity/Self-Respect to correct the bad information and/or unprofessional (bad and amateur) postings. One “guide” put a review for an Elementary School and most likely this “guide” is using the same text for any elementary school in the country to get the “Points”. Only reason I read it because it was the only review of my kids’ elementary school. It is not a good feeling to report every bad act like this which is done for very simple/banal reason: To get some Points. Plus, it is just fine for Google if this is done with some minor modification: banal and blend gibberish. A professional and qualified (like a notary) Local Guide isn’t required.

  • Opinions

There should be the “Strick rules” only to serve “helping the world (us)”. After serving/helping to the world, in return this good deed should be rewarded maximum possible ways.

A local guide if can be qualified, should be a dedicated company with the expertise, liability and locality or a person like a notary who will be an authorized person with some important qualifications (easy to list these requirements if needed). An amateur without any liability/expertise and (most likely) locality doing a professional job for one of the most important virtual reality: Our Maps isn’t a good business.

As long as the guides (a company and/or a notary kind qualified professional individual) are the producers of the original materials (Photos, Videos, Maps, Reviews, Rates), they should be free to inform Google and the Map users about their company names/websites. Where and how to write should be part of the “Strick rules” to help all.

Cheers

Hi Paul,

“… contribute as a business there are two ways - you can do it via the Street View trusted photographer program https://www.google.com/streetview/ or you can work with the businesses or authorities that manage the public place and Google My Business https://business.google.com/”.

I don’t really see these business activities are producing a Professional Local Guides replacement/solution.

HI @OurParkCityUT ,

I have just released your post from the Spam Filters. I would like to apologize for your post being marked as spam. Our filters run 24/7 and they can be a little harsh at times.

You can visit this article to learn more - Why was my Connect post marked as spam?

Hi @OurParkCityUT the reality of life and use of services is that there are rules. We all have them. I have them, you have them, we all have to follow them. Because others choose not to follow those rules doesn’t mean that we can choose to not follow them too. For any poor behaviour you find on Maps report the issue there are options within the Maps App for doing so. Behaviour outside the rules has consequences, that is simply life.

If you would like to give specific examples of the things you talked about in your post with links to the Maps entry then please feel free to do so and I will be happy to look at them.

Paul

Hi Morten

I noticed this morning that my contribution count is much less compared to yesterday as I was over 2000+ and now stand on 1980+

How can I get the count rectified? or find out why it’s reduced overnight?

You should always create a new post when you have a question @NadiaSamsodien and remember to tag the person you would like to attract the attention of by placing an @ in front of their Connect username.

Can you please check to see if you have activity deletion turned on? Go to this page https://myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols and look at Auto Delete. If this is turned on then it deletes some kinds of Local Guides contributions resulting in a points loss.

If not, then the amount of points you see can go up and down when content is made private by Google.

If you think you’re facing a systemic issue then please reply here.

Paul