I have been facing a serious problem for weeks and it has completely taken away the joy of the Local Guide Program during my vacation.
Many of my reviews are still pending, some of them for several weeks!
For the past two days I constantly receive the message “Your review was not published” even for reviews that were already visible. I then have to appeal and in most cases they get approved afterwards.
This is really no fun anymore and I am desperate. I put a lot of effort into many of the pending reviews and always tried my best to follow the content guidelines.
Hi, @Dieter_Klepp , I can understand your concern as you have explained about your problem, so let me tell you that due to sometimes technical glitch or maybe due to some other reasons like copyright, promotion spam is the reason. In this case, if you are not published and are pending still now, I must suggest you that you can edit your pending reviews again and then publish them. If this trick also not works, then you can fill the Google Local Guides Appeal Form in order to explain your concern to the Google Maps team. I hope this will work for you
>The Roman Theatre of Caesaraugusta in Zaragoza dates back to the 1st century AD and could accommodate around 6,000 spectators. Built on flat ground following Roman models, it features a striking stone façade and exclusive access routes to the orchestra. Today, the excavated structure is open as a museum, with walkways and a protective roof offering a direct view into the Roman past.
This is what Google calls General remarks. And this should not be in a review. General remarks are text that sounds like it could be on a website or in a brochure.
You did not mention your visit, or what you saw and did. How did you like the place and why. Such personal information is what can be helpful to fellow Maps users. Getting general information about places can be found anywhere. Personal testimonies are what makes Google Maps special and helpful.
Thank you for your reply.
You are right, some of my reviews could certainly be misinterpreted because of personal experiences. I will take that into account. However, I almost always try to add value to my reviews, with a few interesting (historical) facts and sometimes even a pinch of humor.
That hardly applies to most of my numerous pending reviews though. They are not negative texts or anything like that.
It is starting to feel more like rocket science and less like creative freedom. I think I will end this hobby and put my energy into more meaningful things while traveling. I had hoped Maps would evolve into a kind of social network, but now the opposite seems to be happening. Instead, we local guides are expected to write AI-compliant texts with less and less creative freedom, without any real return.
I no longer see the point. On the contrary, I am putting a lot of work into something that gives me NOTHING.
Just for the record when others read this discussion, I will mention that you have not been exhausted getting this fixed. When the spam filter start seeing you as a potential spammer the moderation will be tighter (more reviews get hidden). If you fix the issues mentioned above the next step is to fill out a form to request a manual check of your hidden reviews.
There is nothing wrong with including historic facts and jokes as long as your personal experiences are also mentioned.
What can I do? My reviews still don’t get published, even for very simple or ordinary places.
Either they stay pending forever or I have to file an appeal.
This really takes the fun out of it. How am I supposed to report this? Why does Google seem so intent on getting rid of a genuine and authentic reviewer?
You are hit by the fact that the fight against spammers also hits innocent and authentic contributors.
I believe I have already already mentioned your options above. If you need more help doing so please let know in details what specific steps you need help with.
I have assisted hundreds of Local Guides facing hidden review problems. But rarely has the spam filter been 100% wrong and it can take a lot if work figuring out why and fixing the issues.
Thank you very much, but I am really not interested in a few hidden reviews from the past! For weeks now I have had the problem that I can hardly publish anything anymore without it remaining “Pending” or being set back to “Not published” after a few days. (Filing an appeal) Most of the reviews I write now stay stuck in “Pending”.
How can I get proper support? About 10 days ago I submitted a ticket here:
The response I received was: “Everything is okay”. But since then I have to file appeals on a daily basis for numerous reviews that had already been published.
You can expect proper support on services you pay for. It is not Googles policy to provide support from staff to users of free products. You will have to do with online documentation and support from volunteers both here and in the Google Maps Support Community.
You have used the wrong form when you get the standard reply about nothing is wrong.
Try
But keep in mind you will not be notified about the outcome.
Thank you Morten. I will try this and if this is not changing anything, I will delete my Maps account. Same like other Germans do because of the fact that ratings in Germany are senseless. I think i will focus more on Instagram.
A small update from my side. What is happening with my profile is still an absolute joke. Every day reviews that were already published or pending are suddenly marked as “not posted.”
I always have the option to appeal. Once I appeal, the reviews remain active. Since my vacation is over, I have only published a few reviews in the past days. But the pattern is the same with every trivial place: it is either published immediately or pending and then at some point I get the email saying “not published.”
Unfortunately, not every case triggers an email. To make sure I can appeal in every instance, I have to proactively scroll through my reviews.
@morton:
The difference between the number of reviews in my profile and the number in the public profile keeps shrinking. It does not seem to be hidden reviews. It looks like all my pending reviews are being counted. A week ago the difference was still 40, now it is only 17. That matches quite closely with the number of pending reviews I still have.
Another noticeable point is that almost all reviews from the last 4 to 5 weeks have very few views and hardly any reactions at all.
Apparently, I am no longer considered an interesting contributor for Google.
I will keep watching this for a while. But more and more I am leaning towards giving up my activity or even deleting my profile along with all contributions.
It is supposed to be fun and not a tedious full-time job or rocket science.
