As active Local Guides, many of us have noticed that a large number of Local Guides are not aware of Local Guides Connect, the general rules for Local Guides, and other important information. In my opinion, the Local Guides program could be even more successful if engagement on Connect was increased. However, there are several key factors that may be driving people away from Connect and towards other resources such as Reddit or away from the community altogether.
One of the main factors is that the most active group on Connect can sometimes come across as condescending and unhelpful. I have personally seen many threads where people have asked questions but received no response, while in other threads the original poster is being criticized for something unrelated to the thread. While I believe that the intentions are good, in many cultures, including on the internet where tone is difficult to convey, this can be more discouraging than helpful. If we, as members of Connect, could create an atmosphere similar to that of r/localguides, the community would improve and function as a more cohesive unit.
This post is meant to help and encourage the community, I hope no one is offend. I thought about this while doing some self reflection and as a member of the community I felt the need to share.
This is a nice post indeed. Nevertheless people reaction and behaviour on connect is also very important on connect.
I often try to interact as best as I can with local guides on connect. Even long.before I became a CM. Please no offense intended when I say this about you. I have just realised how that you are deleting certain questions or post you put up. That leaves the response standing alone. It also leaves others wondering why the response.
To keep connect alive and useful we should be truthful and friendly. That will help others to learn. Except your post is off-topic or an error,you really shouldn’t be deleting posts and replies on the forum.
Please I hope you don’t find this annoying or offensive. Just a friendly reply.
Engagement is indeed a key factor, however it is also a wide concept, especially due to the fact that helping people with their issues is only one of the scope of the Community, and to seek for engagement there are more powerful topics.
The web is full of community / groups where Local Guides are posting, and most of the post in there are in fact about issues, and not about being Local Guides.
Indeed it may happen that a post do not receive a reply, most of the time because posted in a wrong place, but we do our best to help everyone.
When you say “the original poster is being criticized for something unrelated to the thread. While I believe that the intentions are good, in many cultures, including on the internet where tone is difficult to convey, this can be more discouraging than helpful” are you referring to replies like this one?
This open the point to an interesting consideration. I will share an example with you: Recently a Local guide wrote a post about How to nominate himself in Connect. Moderators were very kind and friendly, and they helped him to fill the form with the correct ID number. No one warned the LG about the implication of this action, and after a few days the LG was banned, most probably for inappropriate reviews and duplicate photos uploaded in more than one place. Being kind and friendly did the Mods really helped him? We could say yes, because the guy was able to fill the form, and as a result the profile was checked by Google. They avoided to "criticize for something unrelated to the thread". Wouldn’t it have been better if they had warned Local Guide of its program violations and the implications of being named, in connection with Google’s review of submissions?
Just a thought. In Italy it is said that “those who criticize you don’t always do it for your bad, and those who smile at you don’t always do it for your good”