Ten percent of Photo Contributions are not Attached to a POI

I’ve discovered that approximately ten percent of my contributions as a Local Guide to Google Maps - around 400 photos - are not attached to the associated Place of Interest (POI) although they are visible in my own profile.

I’ve determined that, should Google Maps reject a photo for one location then it will reject the exact

same photo for any other location. (Tested by using a photo that represents more than one POI). No amount of resubmissions will establish the photo at any POI.

None of my photos violate any of Google Maps’ rules and are all of high quality. Indeed, I’ve seen a photograph of a frog accepted by Google Maps as representing a POI so I have no faith in their rejection algorithm.

Should I upload a virtually identical photo to one Google Maps previously rejected to a POI then Google Maps usually then accepts it. (The photo’s hash will be different.)

My hypothesis is that Google Maps employs an aberrant and incompetent screening algorithm that excludes valid photo contributions.

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Hi @user_not_found

I suggest you to read Prohibited and Restricted Content chapter of the Local Guides Help page. It will help you to understand why, to use your words “should Google Maps reject a photo for one location then it will reject the exact same photo for any other location.

On the Spam and fake content section, you can read: “…**don’t post the same content multiple times, …

Posting the same photo multiple times is exactly the reason for the photo to be removed from the places. When a photo is removed, is in fact made private (visible only by you on your profile).

I see that there are more “multiple photos” visible on your account. My personal suggestion is to remove them ASAP, to avoid a suspension from the Local Guides program.

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I definitely agree with @ErmesT here @user_not_found your comment

None of my photos violate any of Google Maps’ rules and are all of high quality.

really isn’t true. Lets take these as an example

This sort of duplication is certainly going to cause you issues going forwards.

These ones are even worse where you’ve shared an image of one place to that place and to another place at a completely different address

You need to consider the Maps Mission when you contribute. Maps is about finding the places worth visiting and the things worth doing. By sharing the images to multiple places someone trying to find one of those places using your photo as a landmark will not be able to find it.

I recommend you read the Local Guides Rules https://maps.google.com/localguides/rules and the Maps User Contributed Content Policy https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/?hl=en#topic=7422769

Paul

Paul

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Thank you for your reprimanding response (which doesn’t address my topic directly because all of the contributions you are criticizing were actually published.).

I added the HIlls Place photos individually because it is not possible to add photos to an address, just to a POI (in this case to the companies at this address.) My mistake; I shall remove the duplicates and just leave a photo attached to one of the POIs.

(Should there be multiple POIs at one address, how is one meant to depict them without duplication when one can’t attach them to the address itself?)

In the case of Beppe’s, Google Maps insisted on attaching the photo of Beppe’s in Maple Street to Da Beppe in Cleveland Street. I shall manually delete the Da Beppe photo.

We can only guess about what we don’t see, @user_not_found based on what you wrote and what we see.

@PaulPavlinovich picked two example on the several others that are public on your profile.

Picking a photo of a building and adding the photo on all the business that are inside that building is useless in term of contributions, because you are not really giving a description of every single business, and can be easily interpreted as a way to only gain points.

I do not want to say that this is your scope, but simply that this is one of the reason why this practice is forbidden.

To respond to your question, what about to enter in the building and take a photo of every single business, or to get closer to the storefront and take two different photos? If it is not possible to enter in the building, and if the business is not accessible to the public, we should not add a photo.

This is the sense of the rules, that are always insisting of our “personal knowledge” about the places where we contribute

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Hi @ErmesT

Thank you for your response, although it doesn’t address my topic. None of my photos mentioned and derided in this thread have not been attached to a POI.

Should you have determined that some of my contributions include “spam and fake content” then I am at a loss to understand why or accept this criticism. I shall do everything possible to review and ensure that my contributions are acceptable to resolve this issue, but none of them have been “fake” or “spam”… like the photograph of a frog I saw attached to a POI: that’s fake content.

@ErmesT Thank you for your explanation.

I have no interest in gaining “points”. Should an address have more than one inhabitant then I shall no longer attach photographs to its included POIs.

Edit: all but one removed.

@ErmesT T*his is the sense of the rules, that are always insisting of our "*personal knowledge" about the places where we contribute

That’s nice and clear (but doesn’t really come across in “the rules”). Thank you, I understand and recognize my mistake.

Unfortunately, no-one has addressed my original topic yet.

The photo of Beppe’s in Maple Street that Google Maps insisted on attaching to Da Beppe in Cleveland Street is now removed.

You can of course report that photo (the frog) as spam, @user_not_found , and you can also report the person who posted that photo, if this way to post is a behaviour of that person. Please read this post to know how to report a Local Guide: How to identify and report fraud on Google Maps.

In addition, you can now report the whole profile directly from Google Maps App. For more details about the procedure, please click :point_right: HERE

Nevertheless, spam is only one of the reasons for a contribution to be removed. Duplicate and near duplicate is the most common reason.

Regarding the rules, here a few excerpt for your knowledge:

From Maps User Contributed Content Policy : “Contributions must be based on real experiences and information”

From Community policy :

  • “Take photos that clearly and accurately represent a location …**”
  • “Dark, blurry, and redundant photos will be removed. Users who duplicate photos across locations, … will also be removed.”
  • “Contributions must be based on real experiences and information”
  • “Users who abuse this trust will be removed from the Local Guides program”

From Local Guides Home: “By sharing reviews, photos, and knowledge about the places around you, you can help inform millions of people.”

Adding a note, @user_not_found

You don’t need to tell us that the photos highlighted by @PaulPavlinovich have been removed. We are Local Guides like you, that volunteering help the community.

I am not going to list one by one all the several other duplicate photos that there are in your contributions. Searching and fixing the duplicates, or leaving in Maps is up to you.

I have removed the duplicates cited and reported the ‘frog’ ages ago.

Still no-one has addressed my original topic.

Which part of the original topic has not been addressed, @user_not_found ?

:arrow_right:I’ve discovered that approximately ten percent of my contributions as a Local Guide to Google Maps - around 400 photos - are not attached to the associated Place of Interest (POI) although they are visible in my own profile.

:heavy_check_mark: Reply(from hereWhen a photo is removed, is in fact made private (visible only by you on your profile)

:arrow_right:I’ve determined that, should Google Maps reject a photo for one location then it will reject the exact same photo for any other location. (Tested by using a photo that represents more than one POI). No amount of resubmissions will establish the photo at any POI.

:heavy_check_mark: Reply(from here

"From Community policy :

  • “Take photos that clearly and accurately represent a location …**”
  • “Dark, blurry, and redundant photos will be removed. Users who duplicate photos across locations, … will also be removed.”

:arrow_right:None of my photos violate any of Google Maps’ rules and are all of high quality. Indeed, I’ve seen a photograph of a frog accepted by Google Maps as representing a POI so I have no faith in their rejection algorithm.

**:heavy_check_mark: Reply:**This is not true. The rules have been listed here

:arrow_right:Should I upload a virtually identical photo to one Google Maps previously rejected to a POI then Google Maps usually then accepts it. (The photo’s hash will be different.)

:heavy_check_mark: This is a way to bypass the already mentioned rules. Do you need a deepest reply about that?

:arrow_right:My hypothesis is that Google Maps employs an aberrant and incompetent screening algorithm that excludes valid photo contributions.

:heavy_check_mark: Even if this is just your hypothesis (no need to be responded) the reason why some of your photos are not “valid photos contributions” have been clearly explained mentioning the rules.

I suppose this is covering all your original post, but if we missed some point please let us know

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Hi @user_not_found ,

Local Guides around the world constantly add photos on Google Maps, as a result of which some of the images take more time for evaluation than others. If your photo(s) have been rejected, and not made public, there are quite a lot of reasons why this happened. Even if we aren’t able to disclose why this occurred, you are welcome to review some of the factors which may have led to this conclusion. You can find them listed in this article, which I believe was already shared with you by my fellow moderator, @ErmesT .

P.S.: This thread was relabeled, and it now appears in the How-tos board on Connect, which is the section where all program related inquires are published.

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