Hello Local Guides community, seeking help from you is likely the last thing I can do before giving up
Level 8 here, half way through level 9, profile is here.
Starting from this year (2022) my reviews were frequently hidden, see my comment here on a thread of similar issue. I submitted account appeal form twice and received āno penaltyā reply. Today I just discovered this mega thread of hidden reviews bug and filled out the account investigation form shared by moderators iyudhi MashaPS in different threads (example).
However, while the bug was reported as resolved, my public review rate has dropped further to 72% (857 of my 1,190 reviews are public).
Below is my view vs. incognito view of my profile:
Yet the worst happened this past weekend, when I received (for the first time) emails of āYour review isnāt postedā and āYour rating isnāt postedā within 24 hours after I posted several reviews of a trip to France.
All of the emails cite the same reason being fake engagement:
āGoogleās moderation systems and processes identified content that may be fake engagement. Itās possible that your contribution also violated other policies.ā
Even though Iām careful with word choices + I sometimes check in on timeline (to indicate Iām here at the venue) + I usually answer beta questions, my account seems to still be shadow-banned by Google AI. If my account could be saved, I hope this info could also help other accounts who experience similar bugs.
Can anyone (moderators?) help me? Thanks in advance for your reply.
Hi @monochromique , thanks for writing. Yes, what you have found is correct. In addition i can say that what you received seems to be a kind of ātestā version for reviews written in Francophone countries.
You did the right thing by filling the the account investigation form. Please be aware that it may take about three weeks for the investigation to be done.
Iāve filled it myself the form a few time, and all the times my legitimate reviews were released. At least you received a feedback (your rating isnāt posted), while for reviews written in Italy we have to discover it by ourselves.
Please let have us a feedback in a few weeks, to know if everything is fine.
The algorithm is working in a quite strong way, trying to avoid fake reviews, but it can be triggered by some word or sentences used by others in some spam, so it can not be your fault.
Make sure that the text used by you is "original (some user get inspired by online contents) and it is not written in more than one review (some user paste the same reviews in more than one place of the same group / chain of businesses.
Also check if you have private photos (the procedure is the same used for checking the reviews). Recently one of my reviews was probably blocked because the photo was made private. I removed the photo and the review was back.
Please let us know if there is anything else we can do.
As mentioned by @ErmesT , over the past year we began sending email alerts to users when reviews were not published or removed, and we will continue doing so, to provide more transparency to you. In addition, now all Google Maps users in France will be able to see the status of their reviews within the application.
In addition to the account investigation form you can edit your review so that it follows Google review policies ā for example, by removing a phone number or URL from the review. The review will be evaluated again and automatically republished if it is found to no longer violate any policies.
I am on level 10 and my reviews have been hidden too.
I have over 1000 reviews missing from 2021. I had no idea that so many reviews were missing until this year. I filled in the form. Last yearās reviews were published and then again reviews disappeared. Iāve filled in the form recently and I am waiting. I havenāt received any emails about reviews not being posted.
Another local guide mentioned that when he travels and posts reviews they arenāt published because Google knows thatās not āhomeā Iām not sure if thatās true but after a trip to Turkey last month all of my reviews are hidden. Maybe someone else can confirm this.
Thank you all for your prompt reply. As far as Iām aware, none of my reviews contain email / URL / phone number, and all of my reviews are originally written/typed by me.
Iām based in Switzerland, so I am also not informed about which review is hidden (except this weekend on my France reviews), having to often use incognito mode to investigate myself. Photos Iāve shared are always āposting publiclyā, as I donāt see any other option (of posting privately) and my profile is public. Of course Iāll post an update here if I receive Google Mapsā resolution/reply.
@MashaPS thatās a good feature to have email alerts sent to Local Guides. I hope it could be expanded to reviews on locations in countries other than France.
Just to provide some context: Previously, my hidden reviews in 2022 are of locations in several countries (FR, CH, IT, UK, IE) and I did not receive alert emails / status labels. This past weekend (26 November 2022) was the first time I received such emails + status labels on my reviews, and only of locations in France. Yesterday I posted 1 review of a location back in Switzerland, itās again hidden, but I donāt receive email/label for it.
@waza28 Iām sorry to hear about your experience. I agree with you that traveling could likely mess up the review visibility. After a trip to Paris in August 2022, my reviews of locations in Switzerland since then to date are all hidden, except one review (no idea how it broke through the AI algorithm). I hope your case gets resolved soon too.
Hi @MashaPS@ErmesT hope youāre well. Iām reaching out to you here as I havenāt received feedbacks from any Google Maps team after I submitted the form āAccount investigation for contributions not visible on Google Mapsā on 2022 Nov 28 (two months ago).
Would either of you be able to help check with the team, or do you have any suggestions for me as to what to do? Thanks in advance for your reply.
Below is my view vs. incognito view of my profile as of today 2023 Jan 24:
