I noticed that approximately 1-2 months ago, all my reviews since that time frame (but no photographs) are automatically marked private and not publicly visible. I reached out on the appeals form (about 4 different times) asking to see if I was suspended and each time they responded that I was indeed, not suspended.
I’m really confused as to why all my reviews are now automatically private and have no ideas remaining on how to reverse this. Some possible ideas: I was traveling in Europe and did a batch of reviews while at the airport waiting to return to America. This coincides with my reviews being automatically marked private beginning about 1-2 months ago. Could the system had possibly marked me as “Spam” for rapid posting reviews?
Please help! I love contributing to the Local Guides community and it’s demoralizing now that all my reviews are no longer public
Moreover, in this form there is no way to describe the root cause of the problem, so how can they investigate it?
In my case right after updating one of my old reviews it became right away automatically hidden for the public, as well as all my new reviews and ratings that I published next (and am publishing now).
Reverting the updated review to original state or even deleting it does not help.
Even simple rating without writing any review becomes invisible to others.
How can I share this information in this form?
No such possibility…
@mirekl thank you for your detailed synopsis of your similar experience. I did update some of my reviews to remove things like “$” signs and other types of possible “violations” suggested in other threads. Unfortunately those edits all came AFTER my reviews are automatically being made private. And they also haven’t changed anything for me anyways.
So you haven’t been able to find an answer or get your reviews made public again?
a few years ago such problems were addressed by the moderators, but they “got tired” and started ignoring people begging for help here in their posts.
The only thing you can do is to fill in the form I mentioned and keep your fingers crossed that someone will do something in a month or two.
In my case, after filling in the form, my hidden ratings became publicly visible, but still any rating or review, that I’m adding now is becoming automatically hidden.
To sum up my current status: after more than 5 years of providing quality content and reaching the top level 10 (which I did 3 years ago), earning all badges, etc. I’m still considered by their “AI” to be a regular spammer.
Those remaining 4 ratings, that are publicly not invisible now, are the ratings that I placed next, after the issue was “fixed” to test if my future contributions are unlocked.
Thanks for tagging me. I took a look at some of your 199 public reviews. And I see nothing violating the guidelines in the 5-10 reviews I read. Your reviews are respectful, concrete, and helpful for sure. I also looked at your photos. They are stunning. Happy to see you make sure to have good lighting when shooting food pics. With those skills, I would suggest you also consider sharing photos of more than just the food when you visit restaurants. Why not also take an exterior shot of the front of the restaurant?
Your reviews tend to be slightly long-ish, but that can not explain what you are reporting.
I’m working on a new post on hidden reviews. In there I will share more tips on what to check to keep reviews public. I hope to publish it in a few days.
@MortenCopenhagen Thanks for the kind words about my photography. Unfortunately with my reviews being automatically hidden, I’m less enthusiastic about continuing to contribute to the community, surely that can be understandable.
