This has been on my radar for far too long now. Its been 8 long years since I’ve joined the Google Local Guides Program. Apart from the continued interest in submitting pictures, videos, reviews etc. on Google, there is one thing that keeps me really at bay or at a constant fear to be honest, that my Local Guides account would be banned. That too for not meeting the community guidelines.
I have been through the guidelines more than once now, and try to keep my reviews and pictures within the framework, but it always happens that some of them do not make the cut. It is really difficult to constantly dive deep into the 8 years of historical submissions and match it through your public profile to know which of the contributions did not make it through.
Over a period of time, the gap between public and private profile increases, resulting in profile being banned, with a long process of appeals and what not.
I beg someone from Google, to please seriously think this through and give us a platform to identify our mistakes and give us a chance to correct it, before banning our profiles, without warning. It is a very difficult job to keep on uploading quality reviews and contributions, but we are also humans, prone to mistakes.
@MortenCopenhagen : I agree, and if Google should do this, it would be handy if they can be as concrete as possible. Suppose that I added a picture to a review that is violating the rules, tell why it violates the rules so that a good edit of the review etc. can be made by the user.
But it is not that simple. The spam filter looks at the individual contributions. But not only that. The contribution pattern and general behavior of the volunteer is also important. So the triggering cause might not be in the individual contribution itself.
@MortenCopenhagen : I understand. But how can Google expect a volunteer can find out what he/she did wrong and how to solve it when Google can’t indicate what the volunteer is doing wrong?
Yes. But the problem is there’s no solution to the core problem. I want a transparent system wherein we know where our faults lie. Hope Google has a solution soon.
The big dilemma is that Google’s main focus is to fight the spammers and fake content. Keeping the volunteers happy unfortunately only got a low priority. I guess new regulations from the EU and many other authorities forced Google to change the moderation to give users more insight and in some areas the option to submit appeals. The business owners demand fake reviews be removed and in this process we the volunteers are pretty much collateral damage.
But you are right, to keep volunteers enggaged the moderation and the messaging related moderation needs to improve by a lot.
I’m just trying to help you understand what is going on. The volunteers are only one of many stakeholders in this transformation. And we are obviously not the primary stakeholder. I guess one if the primary concern on the side of Google is not to be held liable for publishing fake contributions.
@MortenCopenhagen : Ik had uw antwoorden ook in die zin begrepen. We willen allemaal hetzelfde: een transparant systeem dat uitlegt waarom bijdragen etc. geweigerd worden. Uiteraard moet Google nep inhoud als spam markeren. Ik kan me als vrijwilliger ook stomweg vergissen. Iemand die moedwillig foutieve info etc. verspreidt, moet aangepakt worden. Maar geef een vrijwilliger die ter goeder trouw handelt wel de kans om bijdragen te bewerken als die als spam aangemerkt worden en geef dus transparant aan waarom dat zo is. @InaS of @DeniGu kunnen misschien helpen om dit pijnpunt aan Google te melden?
The notion that we do not get a chance to fix what we did wrong is not correct.
Last week I helped an LG who got suspended and all his congratulations got unpublished. By identifying the problems, admitting to having made some blunders AND fixing them got him reinstated and all contributions went public again.
Photos and reviews can be deleted or edited to comply with the guidelines.
@MortenCopenhagen : Okay, Ik wil gerust toegeven dat we onze fouten kunnen corrigeren. Maar had die persoon uw hulp niet gehad, dan had die zelf moeten uitzoeken wat hij of zij fout gedaan had. Mijn punt is, dat Google zelf beter zou moeten uitleggen aan de gebruikers wat ze precies fout doen. Laat ik het voorbeeld nemen van de foto die ik publiceerde bij m’n review van “Shakespeare and compagny” in Parijs. Ik kan de foto niet zien en dus weet ik niet op welke manier ik de regels van Google schond. Niet iedere vrijwilliger is bereid om alle richtlijnen van Google steeds opnieuw door te nemen en uit te zoeken waarom hij of zij wat fout gedaan heeft. Ik volg uw redenering helemaal, we staan aan dezelfde kant.
I too wish the system would not make us be fearful of reviews and/or photos. One of the solutions would be to add a sort feature or some tracking device to simply list all duplicate/ private photos. Good lord once you get over 5,000 photos how are you to find an accidental dupe photo. Lol.
The reviews should also be simple. Just perhaps an automated response back like, sorry this review was not in accordance with our rules, please fix it.
In the case I mentioned it was not just a few duplicates. It was thousands.
The warnings you suggested are pretty much in place now in some regions. At least in the EU they are. Here an option to request a manual appeal can normally also be found. This will result in a human operator making a decision within a few days. In all cases regarding photos and reviews you can always delete and/or edit the contribution to request the spam filter to check again.
@MortenCopenhagen
This is of great help! I wish this feature is made available to everyone.
I mean, of course, there are a bunch of losers on the internet spamming this pristine reviewing portal, where people are genuinely giving their reviews and sharing experiences, but then, there is no tool available for us local guides, who are keen to improve their quality of contributions.
I have to open my public (incognito mode on Google Chrome) and private profile on 2 browsers, keep scrolling down until I find a missing review. This goes on and on. The same exercise is repeated for photos as well. I have close to 4.5K photos and 850+ reviews. Just imagine the time it takes to scroll down, match and then correct the review or delete the picture altogether.
We could have spent this time on Road Mapper or Crowdsource instead.
But some level of help from Google would be highly appreciated. I know we are not supposed to make mistakes, but we are volunteers and should be subjected as employees of Google to always follow the guidelines.
I agree with you @PrateekAgarwal and we have presented this to the map team many times and got a good response from them. However, there is still some delay in its settlement.
