It was 2016, a year of many firsts for me. Fresh out of higher secondary school, I had just started using a smartphone—a second-hand Huawei phone gifted by my maternal uncle. For a boy from a modest background, this phone felt like a window to endless possibilities, a connection to the larger world.
One day, while exploring my new gadget, I stumbled upon something fascinating on Google Maps. I realized I could review places I visited and earn points. It felt like a game—exciting, rewarding, and strangely addictive. I started uploading photos and writing reviews for every place I went to. Soon, my obsession with points consumed me so much that I began reviewing places I had never even visited. Within days, I reached Level 7—a milestone that should have brought pride but instead became the turning point of my story.
If you’re from Bangladesh, you might recall a tragic incident at BUET when Abrar Fahad, a student of Sher-E-Bangla Hall, was murdered. In the aftermath, I impulsively edited the names of certain places on Google Maps to reflect that grief and anger, renaming the hall to “Shahid Abrar Fahad Hall” and create/renamed some toilets of BUET to the names of the perpetrators. It was a moment of emotional vandalism—an expression of pain and disillusionment—but I now realize it was deeply wrong. Even today, I carry the weight of that mistake with me.
Within days, the names reverted to their original ones, and my changes disappeared. But the guilt lingered. It was a wake-up call. I stopped contributing to Google Maps entirely and shifted my focus to Wikipedia. Over the past 7–8 years, I’ve poured my energy into building trust in the Wikimedia community, and it has been a transformative journey. You may recognise my name ‘Yahya’, if you have few editing experience in Wikipedia. I’ve grown to become an admin on multiple Wikimedia projects and was recently elected a steward—a role that comes with immense responsibility, allowing me every technical access across all language versions of Wikipedia.
This journey has taken me to international conferences and countless meetups, where I’ve connected with incredible people from around the world. It has been humbling and empowering in ways I could never have imagined back in 2016.
A few months ago, I heard about Local Guides Connect from a fellow Wikipedian. It stirred something inside me—a desire to revisit my roots and start fresh. Local Guides was where my journey as a volunteer contributor began. Today, I’m starting over, this time with integrity and purpose. I’m currently at Level 3 and working my way up. Perhaps, one day, I’ll reach Level 7 again, but this time, I’ll do it the right way.
Should I be welcomed back into this community? I hope so because, for me, Local Guides isn’t just about points—it’s about connection, contribution, and making a meaningful impact.
