Apologies if this topic has been done to death already but I could not find a current thread on the subject. As a reasonably keen local guide I have made several contributions but one thing which still baffles me is the length of time between my contributions being published and Google awarding the relevant points. I read somewhere it takes about 24 hours but my latest contribution was 5 days ago and still no award of points?
I used to put lots of reviews on the TripAdvisor system but lost faith in them when a lengthy review I had constructed was not posted and there was no reason provided. If I know what Iām doing wrong I can change things but when I donāt I canāt. Stopped contributing on that site immediately as there was no communication with reviewers or appreciation shown for their efforts.
I hope I donāt repeat the experience with my Google Maps Local Guide inputs.
Sorry about the issue of your points not updating as often as it should,I donāt think itās a strange or new issue. We all face these issues as local guides. Yes it says 24hrs,but it could take some weeks in some cases.
Though the system might be slow,it will eventually award the necessary point to your account but donāt let that demoralise you from contributing. At the end of the day itās all about helping users make an informed decision about places and things,the points,levels and badges are only secondary or indicators. Please give it a week or 2 before reporting back. Otherwise you can also tag a moderator to check on your profile.
Not too sure what you mean about putting lots of reviews on the trip advisor system, but reviews on a particular business or site should be once,although there is the feature about updating a review now,yet its still one.
Google has automatic filters that hide your reviews so only you can see them. This can happen when some of your reviews violate the guidelines, including: Prohibited and Restricted Content Format Specific Criteria (See under Text Reviews and Captions)
Read about typical review guideline violations here.
Thanks for the rapid reply. I guess my point is if Google state a timeframe they should comply with it as it sets an expectation. If it could take 2 weeks then they should state it upfront. I never started posting reviews to gain points or virtue signalling but to help others but it does provide a way of measuring your contribution to the team and as such needs to be taken seriously by Google.
āTripAdvisorā is a different organisation who provide a platform for travellers to report their experiences of holidays and the accommodation theyāve stayed in. In many ways it overlaps with what Google Maps provides in terms of reviews and ratings. This is why I mentioned the fact they also rely on contributors but similarly lacked a means of communicating with them on things like review rejection ultimately causing disaffection.
It will be very helpful if you can please use the tagging tool ā@ā followed by the username name of the one you are replying to, like I did with yours above. It does notify the user personally. Thank you
Thank you for your understanding about the points. Good to hear that you contribute for the purpose of helping others make informed decisions. The points update will follow suit with time.
On a more relaxed note would you mind taking a moment to Introduce-Yourself-May-2022 . There is so much activities to enjoy on the forum as local guides. If you need more to read why not go trough this article Your-guide-to-Connect just to help you get a good knowledge of connect.
I was expecting the total to increase soon after but it has stayed at that value ever since. As you can see it says Iāve added a new place so I was expecting about 26 new points made up of 10 pts for new review, 10 bonus points for review >100 words, 1pt rating, 5pts photo.
@trevor432990 , in the future please remember to tag the people you are responding to by using @ and selecting the username of the person from the pop-up.
The screenshot that youāre showing is just the newsletter that is summarizing your contributions of your previous month. not an information of more points.
As I said in my previous reply, your points are exactly representing the numbers of your contributions. You can calculate them easily by yourself.
Honestly I cannot find any error in the number of points.
You contributed with
30 short Reviews (10 points for review + 1 point for rating) = 330 Points
12 Long Reviews (10 points for review + 10 points for bonus + 1 point for rating) = 252 Points
37 photos (5 points for photo) = 185 Points
26 Answers (1 point for answer) = 26 Points
7 Edits (5 points for edit) = 35 Points
3 Place added (15 points for each place) = 45 Points
TOTAL points = 873
So, again, I donāt see anything wrong in your points.
If you are ensure, you can also check the list of your edits in your profile
I just use the āReplyā button to reply to a post on the thread. Iāve no idea where this ātagging toolā is and if it is outside the thread then thereād be gaps in the conversation or am I missing something?
Many active local Guides respond in Connect to a lot of different thread, so they will probably skip a reply if they donāt know the reply is addressed to them.
Thatās why, like in many social media, we mention the person we are responding to by using @, like in the screenshot here below
The only way to prove points are being awarded correctly is with an audit trail which shows the date of the award and what points were awarded for each category. All I see from your message are totals so there is no way of drilling down. Is this points awarding done manually or by some software, if the latter then maybe there is a bug? Either way to prove it you need an audit trail and Iām guessing there isnāt one.
You seems to be a bit confused about the program, @trevor432990
If you want to verify your contributions you just need to count them.
Most of them are available directly in your profile (photos, reviews, ratings, edits, place added) and as you donāt have too many of them, you can do it in a few minutes.
Points are obviously added by a computer. There are more than 150 million local guides in the world, and it would be impossible (and illogical) to add the points manually.
Please check your profile, and if you find that the numbers are wrong please let us know
I thought your reply was somewhat condescending. What I said is quite straightforward. Before I submitted my latest review I looked at my points score then a few days later I checked it again and it had NOT been increased despite my review being published and a confirmation email being received. Anyway, forget it for now and when I do my next review Iāll see if the situation has been corrected. In the meantime if anyone else has been similarly affected Iād like to hear from you.
