I have posted many times before. I have recently had two other times and this is my 3rd time that my food pictures are being blocked. I took them, edited them and posted them. The business front pictures are still viewable. Only my food picture are being blocked or blacked out.
I can’t find a number to call. I have tried to send three emails under the help report sections without reply.
Why is this happening? Please help, Nick
Hi @NickfromBurbank “Welcome to Connect! If this is your first visit, you’ve come to the right place. This post will serve as a guide for everything you need to know about contributing content and engaging with the Local Guides community on Connect”. This is the first of the information that you will find in “Your guide to Connect” , the introductory Guide of the community. In there you will find all the necessary information to know how to better contribute in here.
Regarding your issue, we can’t obviously see what has been taken down, so my answer will be based on what we can see.
Let me start with the Maps user-generated content policy . “Our machine-learning algorithms scan contributions to detect policy-violating content, and scan for signals of suspicious user activity. The policy-violating content is either removed by our automated models or flagged for further review by trained operators and analysts who conduct content evaluations that might be difficult for algorithms to perform alone. We remove content because it violates our policies or terms of service, or to comply with legal obligations”. With 150+ millions of contributors, it is quite impossible to have a trained operator to check one by one the posted contents.
Based on what I see, I can say that there are various generic violation of the rules in several of your photos, especially related to privacy (visible plates of cars), selfies (this is usually considered a not helpful content), a few duplicate photos, also added across locations, and this is a forbidden contributions. From Community policy :
But what surprise me more is the low resolution and the unusual size of many of your [especially] food photos. Looking at them on a computer this is very visible, and the first feeling is that you cropped a screenshot from a photo with other content as well. Cropped screenshots of photos are usually an indication of non-original, web-sourced, or non-authored photos. I’m not saying the images aren’t yours, just that they don’t look like it. Why don’t you choose a better shot and upload the full photos in their original resolution? certainly this would help to make them visible. Some are of such small detail that they are probably considered too low quality to be visible.
With a so large number of contributors it is impossible to have someone to respond to an email for checking your removed content. But please read An update on how we moderate Google Maps reviews . In there you will find the link to a form that you can use . With the form you ask the team to review your contents, and to release the good ones. The form includes an option for “photos”
Do you have a doubt about how to do something? The Help desk is here for you,with a long list of post with detailed indications on how to post.
Which kind of contents we share in the community? What are Connect topics? will give you an explanation
Hello @NickfromBurbank
The first proper thing to say is, a warm and friendly welcome to connect forum. We hope you will keep constructively active here even while you contribute quality to the maps. Here is A Welcome-to-Connect-Card for a brief rundown of this connect forum.
Now regarding your food photos, what exactly do you mean by blocked or blacked out? If what you mean is what am thinking,photos that are not;
The AI marks them as private that means only yourself can see them but not the general public.
Although,the AI can take down some legitimate photos by error. In that case you will have to apply and they’ll be restored to you. Hope that helps.
Happy guiding
Cheers
Hi @ErmesT
How are you?
I was typing away and your reply jumped in before mine. Sorry for that and thank you. Yours is more detailed !
Cheers
I have attached the pictures. They were taken with a Samsung Galaxy S23 ultra at 50MP. If I had my full frame Sony I would have used my 90mm macro. What about these photos is the issue they were taken or blacked out. I am trying to understand why they are being blocked.
Is there any way or manner to dispute this? I am completely new to blocking issues.
I briefly took a look at your photos.
I suspect that you might be providing some (paid?) services to businesses where you take photos of the companies including photos of the staff. Am I correct on this?
The Local Guides program is for volunteers only. So providing paid services is against the terms you accepted when signing up for the Local Guides program. You can have a business like that but not while being signed up for the Local Guides Program with the same account.
According to the Local Guides Program Terms and Conditions
Organizations, brands, and businesses are not eligible for the Program. So we should never mix commercial interests with those of being an independent/volunteer Local Guide.
If I’m wrong, please accept my apologies, and take an extra look at the photo guidelines related to privacy. Please blur recognizable faces and license plates (https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/General-Discussion/How-to-make-faces-and-license-plates-unrecognizable/m-p/3527940) Having people in your shots might be good advertizing, but the most helpful photos on Google Maps are with no faces stealing attention or covering details of the places.
All the best
Morten
No, I am actually going to eat at these places and take pictures as a hobby when I eat. I have over 10 of my photos of the business front are used by Google as their main photo. They don’t take those down. Only the ones that I have taken of the food.
I am a photographer and videographer. I make spiritual documentaries and commercials for businesses. This is for fun. I love food and love to share it with other people. My posts of jack hammers, tools and medical services are not being blocked.
My Catalytic Converter was stolen and I went to Morse Muffler (google using my pic for the main photo) and took pictures of the owner and installer. Yes, I do talk and get a lot of information from them. They got me in when I had to deal with a stolen Cat converter. Those are not blocked. I do honest and detailed reviews.
I am trying to understand why only some photos are being blocked.
Hi again @NickfromBurbank
The high quality of your photos mislead me to assume you were a professional 
It would be very helpful if you would use the tagging tool when replying to someone here on Connect. Type @ followed by the username. Type slowly. Then we get an e-mail notification and you are more likely to get a prompt reply. Just hitting Reply does not ensure we get notified by email.
Another aspect I would check would be the redundancy of your food pics when looking at the pictures already uploaded to the places. This might explain your issue.
You mentioned you uploaded some of the photos in question. I don’t see any. Please keep in mind that you need to reduce the file size to <3MB before uploading them here on Connect. Please share them, and maybe we can spot something. Also include the Maps links to the respective places.
But I can not guarantee we will reach a clear answer. Approximately 1-3 percent of my photos get rejected for no-know reasons. I keep them in a Google Photo album for further evaluation. Let me know if you want to see the album.
Cheers
Morten
As you are a photographer, @NickfromBurbank , I think time by time you should check your contributions on desktop.
This is how some of them appear
regarding your question “Is there any way or manner to dispute this?” I answered already: “please read An update on how we moderate Google Maps reviews . In there you will find the link to a form that you can use . With the form you ask the team to review your contents, and to release the good ones. The form includes an option for "photos”
I have submitted a request. Thank you. I do it for fun and many times just as I am walking out or see a quick shot.
Great, @NickfromBurbank .
Please keep in mind that the investigation may take several weeks
Please remember to tag the person you are responding to by using @ and selecting the person from the pop-up (see screenshot)
Active members are following a lot of conversation, and without a tag they can miss your reply.
Thank you
Thank you @ErmesT value your reply on this post.
@NickfromBurbank Thank you for kindly and patiently replying as well. Very often people ask questions and have issues to be sorted out on connect and don’t give feedback afterwards.
We always appreciate these feedbacks so as to learn and be able to help other local guides in similar cases in the future. Of course help ourselves incase we fall into the same problems.
We are local guides like you and contribute to the maps.Most of us do this for a hobby as well. I particularly love food like you. Therefore ppleased o E-meet you here. Hopefully the issue will be sorted out.
Thanks to @MortenCopenhagen also for valuable input.
Happy guiding
Cheers
I’m confused about your mentions of image resolution.
Uploading 50MB images to Google Maps is currently more than overkill since most images are shown on tiny mobile screens. But you can for sure upload such high res images to Google Maps, and maybe in the future, the extra resolution might come in handy.
I shared some test results on how Google Map store and deliver images in this post. You may find it interesting.
You hinted that the very high resolution could be the reason for your images not going public. I doubt that is the case.
On the other hand, many of your images have been uploaded in very low resolution. Some of the images that @ErmesT shared screenshots of are of very low resolution.
Is there a strategy behind what resolution you are sharing Google Maps photos in?
All the best
Morten
They were edited down to 2.48MP @ 150dpi. Usually would do 72 dpi but wanted extra texture on the Bacon. Originally the files were 50MP. The Business front shots that I did are at the same resolution. I do not think that file size is the issue.
This posting is all new to me. Thank you all for sharing your knowledge. Nick
Hi @NickfromBurbank ,
As I can see you got great replies by the fellow Local Guides.
I just want to let you know that I will change the topic of your post to How-tos to keep Connect organized. This is the place where you can ask questions, share tips and feedback about Connect and the Local Guides program.
I am learning. Thank you
Nick
