Hello,
I joined the Local Guide project a few years ago. Since then I have been posting reviews and photos from many different places. In the reviews I have learned to include historical information of the place, a personal impression of the place, a view of the surroundings of the place and a note of nearby interesting objects (if there is something of interest).
I was very surprised to find that a large number of reviews were not published, or were being “published”. I therefore tried to search for a solution on the internet (without success). It was only this evening, i.e. this morning, that I discovered this thread on the forum. I decided to share this experience with others.
I have read the community guidelines (it was not a short read), but I still think that my review meets these guidelines. I admit that there are a few places where I’m not sure. For example, the statues near the Wallenstein Garden in Prague - the statues have the same artist, were created in the same year, and are copies of 18th century statues (the originals are in the Valeč Castle). Since all these features are common to all 6 sculptures, my reviews are the same. On the other hand, after reading the review, visitors to the site will learn something more and understand that these statues “belong together”. I might, really just might, be violating those principles here, but are there really dozens/hundreds of other reviews violating them? I’m willing to rework reviews from the sites I’ve visited to better suit the community, but with this experience I’m not sure how to do that.
I have already filed so-called appeals against some of the decisions. I’ve also filled out the attached form (here on the forum). However, there are still dozens of reviews left that are “disliked” and I’m not sure why that is. Can a moderator (“approver”) advise me on a few specific examples of my reviews, what the Google Maps algorithm doesn’t like about the reviews and why all this is happening? I’m not angry, I just found the rejection of reviews surprising and odd. I currently have photos from over 20 other places I have visited (last 14 days of travel). I’m a bit worried about what this will entail - write a review, post it, wait a while, file an appeal, think what went wrong this time.
I have been visiting interesting places in the Czech Republic (I live here) for several years, and occasionally other countries. I travel with a heavy DSLR, sometimes with a tablet. I take photos and videos from places. For ultra-wide angle photos and videos I borrow my brother’s mobile phone. When I return home afterwards, I write reviews of the places I visited and add photos and videos. The tablet does not have internet access (only Wi-Fi). My profile can be found at: https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/113626297313183144732/
