how to have my contributions validated - everything that i update is DENIED !

Google Maps tips & tricks
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hie or hello

i am getting exhausted, i am a level 7, and i struggle to validate every contribution that isn’t a picture and a map change…WHY and HOW ?

when i say a shop is permanent closed…IT IS !!!

when i say it doesn’t exist…IT IS !!!

when i say the name change…IT IS !!!

when i say its private…IT IS !!!

when i say this shop already exist, 1 m to this one…THAT’S THE CASE !!!

you got to understand my frustration, what is point of taking time out of my day if every update is refused ?

i tried to mark a road that is unsafe for vehicule, it’s a deadly road with sign asking you not to take it, yet google did’t accept when i send a mail explaining that this road need to be removed from the gps, i took it once it wasn’t fun at all, and i can’t believe google still recommend that road to save 5 minutes, you are 1m away of falling to you death in a canyon.

i have shop in my street that have been closed for YEARS !!! yet its refuse, i even provided picture for one of them…how is it possible to say “no it still open” when you can see its walled up , thats been the case for years too.

i am getting tired of doing this everyday and nothing is approved, who decided it ? i thought by being a higher level it should get approved faster, otherwise what is the point ?

i even have stuff that has been waiting for review for MONTHS.

who do i need to talk to ?

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Hi @masterac , first of all, I’m sorry to hear about your frustrations. However, so far, it doesn’t exist a kind of “trusted editor,” so every review needs to be verified by Google algorithm and / or by other users (regardless of the Local Guide Level). Two things make edits more take time to be approved: 1) google needs to process millions of editions around the world; 2) Not everyone knows how to check contributions in Maps, which makes the process even slower.

In Idea Exchange, the fellow Local Guide @Sebaas posted an Idea to Google create “Google Maps Trusted Editor”. I was one of the first do vote for this Idea and the first to comment on it. You can also vote to support Sebaas and hopefully, Google will attend us.

https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/Idea-Exchange/Google-Maps-Trusted-Editor/idi-p/1922483

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yes but how in the world for 10 time already someone or something ( algo) can say that a shop is open when its not ?

i feel lately i can’t do anything anymore, anything i trie to do is refuse, i even encountered a bug in the system, one of the reason i got refuse was name " data missing " or something, i second your idea because right now its a brick wall.

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Thanks dear @AlexandreCampbell for your support to my idea. And for your kindly words!

Hi @masterac I recommend you to read this post to understand the process of editing.

Why-is-my-edit-status-Pending-or-Not-Applied

And please don’t give up, I understand your concern, we are all in the same team improving Google Maps in order to help other people and to make every user experience successfull and unique.

I tell you a very possitive thing, that my last editions were approved a faster than the past months ones.

Keep mapping!

Best Regards.

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Hi @masterac sorry for that, and we understand your frustration. I would suggest that you follow the link @SebaasC has shared, this affect us all, even my self, you just have to understand how the system operate and that will make life easy for you.

To solve issues like this it is advisable to host meetups as a group, this will enable you to provide the required information to approve your edits, if one edit is not approved from you it will be approved from the other person. Remember not to create multiple accounts with the purpose of using the other to approve your edits, this is against the Local Guides Program Terms and Conditions This is how others do it, I hope you will find this information useful. Thank you.

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Take a deep breath, @masterac .

We have all felt the same frustration. And the only good thing is, that over time the problem goes away. In my experience the trick is to listen and learn from the edits you make. Try to figure out what types of edits gets easily and quickly accepted. This is very difficult if you mix up a lot of different edits in one submission. Change only one thing with each submission. This way you can figure out which of several bundled edits are causing them all to be rejected. Overtime the AI starts to trust your edits more and more and at the same time you learn more and know how to make edits that are quickly approved.

It might also be that your trust score (I’m not sure it even exists) have been shattered by some bad edits you have made in the past. I have no idea how to restore it, but I can tell you this much: I’m always very careful not to submit faulty edits and edits that I’m not 100 procent sure about. Hence now my success rate in getting edits approved is above 95%. In the past week there I have experienced a slight delay of a few hours in getting all my edits approved. But on average they all come through within 4-6 hours. Still many straight away.

I hope this at least gives you some comfort in knowing that it is possible to get through what you are experiencing now.

Morten

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@masterac on top of the valuable comments already given by @MortenCopenhagen @Raphael-Mahumane @SebaasC and @AlexandreCampbell I still want to point out 2 things:

  • The infamous ‘not applied’ that you often get seconds after submitting the edit should not be interpreted as “what you submitted is incorrect” but rather as “the algorithm used to judge your submission is not good enough yet to confirm that your submission is valid”; what the rules are on which the algorithm is based, is a secret of course because otherwise spammers could flood the map with their rubbish
  • What I have experienced already quite a few times is that one of my suggested edits resulted in a ‘not applied’, but upon checking the POI was still made (e.g. a name or category change). My suspicion there is that the same edit was suggested by another LG before I made it, so my edit goes pending; when the edit from the other LG then was approved, my edit was changed to ‘not applied’ as the edit was already made

About the trust score that @MortenCopenhagen mentioned: this is not really 1 total score for you as local guide, but multiple scores, e.g. for different types of edits. You might have a high trust score for editing phone numbers, bit a low one for editing place names - that depends on the previous edits you made.

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Hi @masterac and @JanVanHaver

Jan’s second bullet point is new to me and very interesting. Out of the 11600 edits I have made so far I might have experienced this phenomenon maybe 3 times. So if it happens it is not very often. And why should Google not chose to reward both local guides the amazing satisfaction of being awarded some abstract and for Google free points?

@masterac , I hope you will keep trying and let us know what solutions works for you. Also feel free to tag one of the moderators in Sofia. They might have extra tricks for you. Find them Here.

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There might be an automatic process @MortenCopenhagen that automatically moves pending edits to not applied if the same, but older edit gets approved. Also for me this is something rare, and I only noticed it in the last months.

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It can happen with anyone who is improving google maps and is a common issue. I’ll add my point of view too here. When a user edits a POI on google maps, there are various factors are taken into it.

  • Previous edits by user
  • edit history for that POI
  • Whether the user visited that POI (most of the edits can be approved only based on your location history)
  • A review/photo/answer can help maps to take the decision on your edit

these are a few points I can mention at this time. There are a few options on which maps takes the decision very slowly, ex: spam, duplicate(one can say these are based on manual process).

Trust score is just a word for us(local guide), it is never mentioned by any google moderator; even I believe in it. There is something exits that accept our edits on maps and we named it trust score. Trust score can be gained by users by providing correct edits on maps. there is no fixed number for it. We never say that the user is providing the wrong edit but in crowdsourcing( one can say check the facts section) maps get more information about your edit and take decision appropriately.

Let’s say you have edited a POI on maps saying it is permanently closed based on your latest experience. As the business was running smoothly in the past and suddenly someone marked it as closed. In this situation, maps will put your edit as pending and will confirm from other users in that area through check the facts section or will wait for the next edit/edits by other user/users.

“I tried to mark a road that is unsafe for vehicule, it’s a deadly road with sign asking you not to take it, yet google did’t accept when i send a mail explaining that this road need to be removed from the gps, i took it once it wasn’t fun at all, and i can’t believe google still recommend that road to save 5 minutes, you are 1m away of falling to you death in a canyon.”

=> Google maps team can not take a decision on roads based on just suggestions. The user needs to submit a minimum one evidence with GPS attached in it(GPS refers to a photo clicked by used at that location). maps team receives lots of feedback in a day and most of them could be; this road is closed, this is a long way & many others. These lines aren’t enough to make the decision on a public road. Evidence does not guaranty approval of your edit but the maps team can reach you out for more information if needed. A folder link can be more helpful in this.

"I am getting tired of doing this every day and nothing is approved, who decided it? I thought by being a higher level it should get approved faster, otherwise what is the point ?"

It seems everything works based on your previous contribution to the maps app. I’d recommend you never suggest the same edit on maps, else it will become a spam edit. Levels are just based on our points, these are never dependent to our edits. At the start, we are fresher and later maps started counting our edit and save it for further edits.

I somewhat agree with what suggested by #Raphael-Mahumane as the edits are mostly dependent on crowdsourcing.

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