I am a Level 10 Local Guide and an active Connect member. I am writing to request a manual review from the technical team regarding a severe discrepancy in my public contribution counts caused by automated spam filters.
Here is the breakdown based on my attached screenshots:
Reviews (Screenshots 1 & 3): My private profile shows 3,782 reviews, but only 1,455 are visible to the public (Over 2,300 reviews hidden).
Photos (Screenshots 2 & 4): My private profile shows 16,251 photos, but only 6,182 are visible to the public (Over 10,000 photos hidden).
Steps I have already taken:
I reviewed my contributions thoroughly to ensure full policy compliance and cleaned up any potential issues.
I submitted the official Local Guides Appeal form (Local Guides Appeal) to check my account status.
Support responded confirming that there are no overall feature access restrictions on my account.
Since my account has no penalties or restrictions, this massive visibility gap proves that the automated filters are incorrectly flagging valid, high-quality contributions.
Could a Google Moderator please escalate my account to the technical engineering team to review and resolve this automated filter issue?
Hi @Yousef.ar
I’m sorry about your issue. We cannot comment on what we can’t see, so my feedback is based only on what I can see in your contributions.
This means that you can post photos and reviews. But it doesn’t mean that we have a pass to post everything. Every content we publish is checked by an AI filter and, if a single content is found to be against the policies, it will not be published. When we post a review with media attached the whole post is made hidden if a single element of the post (text or one or more media) is found to be against the policies.
Normally editing the text and/or remove the images can be enough to have a review published.
So let’s talk about what we see.
If you did it already, it means that your knowledge about the policies is limited.
photos: there are a lot of photos published in more than one listing. According to the Local Guides community guidelines - Google Maps Help
"Local Guides who duplicate photos across locations or post images that infringe on copyrights will be removed from the program”. In this case the issue is not directly related to the content of a single photo, but on the inappropriate use of that photo.
Reviews: Share thoughtful reviews & tips. Always include notable information about a place and elaborate on your authentic experience.
A lot of your reviews sounds impersonal, a generic description of the place, and several of them sounds like “sourced” from the web, like here : Google Maps . In this case what is missing is the personal experience: how was the visit/service, waiting time? Was the place crowded? And so on. Others are clearly totally useless, like when you tell us that “a Mosque” is "a Mosque: Google Maps
As an interesting example, it this a review? Google Maps. Honestly I wonder why it want’s blocked.
If you need help about how to improve your content please let us know. But looking on what we see I’m not surprised if many of your reviews are not published
Thank you so much for taking the time to review my profile so thoroughly and for providing such detailed and constructive feedback. I truly appreciate your insights.
As a Level 10 Local Guide, my goal has always been to contribute positively to Google Maps. However, your response made me realize that some of my older contributions—such as repetitive photos or overly brief/generic descriptions—might have triggered the automated filters without me noticing.
Based on your valuable feedback, I am fully prepared to take action:
I will systematically review my profile to remove any duplicate photos across multiple listings.
I will edit and refine my reviews to focus strictly on genuine, detailed personal experiences rather than general descriptions.
A quick question if you don’t mind: Once I complete this clean-up process on my visible and hidden reviews, does the automated system re-evaluate and restore hidden contributions over time, or is there a specific recommended way to trigger a re-check?
Thanks again for guiding me on how to improve my content quality!
@Yousef.ar
When you edit a review (text and/or attached media) the review is automatically checked and, if considered respectful of the policies, republished.
After that, If some of the review isn’t published, you can use this form:
Make sure to clean up your profile before to use the form, because the team will check the contribution and may detect every potential violation
Thank you so much for clarifying this! That makes total sense.
I will start auditing and editing my hidden contributions based on your advice—removing any duplicate photos and rewriting generic descriptions to share authentic personal experiences.
If any valid reviews remain hidden after the clean-up, I will use the form you provided.
This discussion is a brilliant master class example.
@Yousef.ar, you did a very deep and thoughtfulness analysis of your problem with hidden contributions. And you also tried many correct steps to understand and fix your issue before requesting help.
Then @ErmesT did a good investigation and spend a long time writing his superior responses. I don’t recall seeing such a well argued response with precise citing of the relevant guidelines. Great job.
Lastly, @Yousef.ar reacted very professionally proving he perfectly understood and accepted what he had done wrong and now needs to fix. Amazing.
I often try to help Local Guides in a similar situation to @Yousef.ar and the standard reaction is often “I did not do anything wrong”, “I followed all the guidelines (dispite never reading them)”, or “I’m not going to spend all the time needed to fix my old contributions”.
I think all LGs running into trouble with the spamfilters hiding reviews and media should carefully this read this discussion to get valuable perspectives on their situation.
You guys are Masterclass.
That said, a small word of warning to @Yousef.ar: it will take days of hard work to check all your reviews, realize what needs to be done, and then improve or delete old contributions. It is tough because you made a lot more contributions than most, and it is a shock to be confronted with when Google Maps every week sends out praise emails congratulating us for low quality contributions..
I wish you well and hope your issue gets resolved soon.
Thank you so much for your kind words and thoughtful feedback! It really means a lot coming from someone as experienced as you in this community.
I truly appreciate the time and guidance provided by @ErmesT, which helped me clearly understand how the system works. While auditing such a large history is certainly a challenge, I’ve decided to focus forward—ensuring all my future contributions strictly follow the guidelines, while gradually updating older ones whenever possible.
مرحبا يوسف @Yousef.ar أعتذر اول شي عن تطفلي بموضوعك وعن التأخير في المشاركة ، ولكن بعد ما اطلعت على الموضوع رأيت لزاماً عليّ أن اقول ، المرشد المحليّ امثالك اللي يتعبون ويقدمون مساهمات يستاهلون كل شكر وعرفان وعلى اقل تقدير احتواء لمشكلتهم وتوجيههم ، بدل من الاستهزاءات بمراجعاتك وطريقة أسلوبك ، يعطيك العافية على سعة صدرك وتجاوبك الراقي الذي يعكس ذاتك ..
It is understandable. If you want, I would be happy to check your efforts after you cleaned up maybe 100 reviews, so you can be more sure you in the right path and mit missed something. This can safe you time in the long run.
**
مع كامل الاحترام ، هذا الرد والأسلوب ينافي تماماً إرشادات مجتمع المرشدين المحليين التي تنص على ضرورة التحلي بالاحترام والتشجيع ، بغض النظر عن أي شخص ، الزملاء متطوعون وليسوا موظفين ، ودور المشرف هو تقديم الدعم البناء لا التقليل من الأعضاء أو الاستهزاء بمحتواهم ، أرجو الالتزام بمعايير المجتمع**
Was my reply meant to ridicules you and your content, @Yousef.ar ? Was this your feeling?
We had this conversation already, @Khalil_Jouf . When a Local Guide write here looking for help, we try to respond at the best of our knowledge, addressing the issue, comparing the contents with the guidelines, and providing a potential solution to fix the issues.
Our first aim is to make our reply clear, concrete and concise, for the author to clearly understand the potential violations and how to fix them. This doesn’t mean discourage the Local Guide. On the contrary, it’s an encouragement to improve.
But if your feeling is different, I suggest you to respond and guide directly, by addressing the issue by yourself and to suggest how to proceed, instead to simply criticise who’s trying to do that.
In this way we can learn from you too.
If you think that I was acting against the guidelines, you are welcome to report my replies.
Just as an additional note, Connect Moderators are volunteers too, so what you say should apply also for them. You should encourage them to do better, instead of blaming them without sharing any alternative way to help who’s writing to fix a personal issue.
لدي تساؤل @ErmesT هل من شروط الإشراف في المجتمع الرد بأسلوب جاف وفوقي على من جاء يبحث عن حل لمشكلته ؟ طبعا لا ، وإذا لم تكن ستفيد المرشد فالصمت أولى ، ولست ملزماً بالرد أصلاً ..
وأين المشكلة لو استبدلت هذا الأسلوب المنفر بطريقة لطيفة وودية ؟
هذا الرجل وأمثاله هم أساس خرائط جوجل بإسهاماتهم ومجهودهم التطوعي الذي لا يُقدر بثمن ، وهم أصحاب الحق الحقيقي هنا ، ويستحقون دائماً أن تُقابل جهودهم بالاحترام والتقدير لا بالتعالي ..
وأتذكر تماماً حين أخبرتني سابقاً أن خبرتك في المجتمع وصلت إلى عشر سنوات ، فالمفترض أن تكون هذه المدة الطويلة دافعاً لتقديم النموذج الأفضل في احتواء المرشدين وتوجيههم بالحسنى وتجنب الفوقية ، لا لتعزيز الجفاء ..
وأما دعوتك للإبلاغ عن ردودك ، فاعلم أن الأسلوب الذي يحتاج إلى مراجعة يدركه الجميع دون الحاجة لبلاغات شكلية ، التطوع الحقيقي هو خلق بيئة دافئة وحاضنة ، لا طاردة لجهود الناس ..
Well, @Khalil_Jouf
I think the conversation on this post is already responding to your comments:
Of course you are free to disagree and to provide by yourself a constructive solution to fix the issue raised by @Yousef.ar , otherwise I honestly don’t understand why you are posting here.
It took a lot of time and effort to check the contributions and to find what can be potentially triggering the filter. I do this because I believe that every issue needs to be correctly analysed, for the Local Guide to understand the problem, and to correct it. The scope is to have his important activity visible to everyone, and not hidden by the filter, exactly because what he does, the effort he’s putting on his contributions, deserves to be acknowledged.
And I’m used to avoid canned and generic responses, because that way do not provide any real help.
Fully agree, so the questions are?
what is the benefits (for the person who posted) given by the replies provided by me and @MortenCopenhagen ?
what is the benefit (for the person who posted) given by your reply? Is encouraging without providing a real solution what @Yousef.ar needs?
المشكلة لم تكن أبداً في عقد مقارنات بين المشرفين أو من يقدم الحل ، فالجميع هنا يسعى للمساعدة .. لكن الاعتراض الأساسي كان على الأسلوب الفوقي والجاف ، فدور المشرف هو احتواء المرشدين وتوجيههم لا تنفيرهم ، التشجيع والكلمة الطيبة جزء لا يتجزأ من تقديم الحل ، والمساعدة تفقد قيمتها عندما يصاحبها استهزاء وتنفير ..
وبالنسبة لسؤالك عن الفائدة ومن يقدمها ، تذكر جيداً أن من يأتي باحثاً عن حل لمشكلته هنا في المجتمع قد يكون أفضل مننا جميعاً بما يقدمه لملايين الناس على أرض الواقع في خرائط جوجل ، فالقيمة الحقيقية تظهر في حجم النفع ميدانياً ، ولولا وجود هؤلاء المساهمين لما كان لوجودنا هنا أي قيمة أو أساس ، دورك الحقيقي هو تقديم الحلول وتوضيح الأخطاء بكل أدب ومهنية لا أن تتتبع العثرات وتستعرضها بأسلوب استهزاء وتنفير مما يحمل المرشد المسؤولية ويشعره بأنه هو المشكلة بحد ذاتها ، المساعدة الحقيقية تقدم بروح احتوائية وراقية ..
ختاماً لو واجهتني مشكلة مستقبلاً والحل لمشكلتي انت الوحيد الذي يملكها ، فلست بحاجة لحل يُقدم لي بتعالي و استهزاء ..
