Over the last two years I’ve regularly posted leaderboards here on Connect covering various metrics of Local Guides’ Google Maps contributions, such as points and photo views. Then, in an attempt at recognizing that Local Guides in larger countries with bigger cities like London, New York, Paris and Delhi, in many ways had greater opportunity to contribute to Maps and thus earn more points and views from their contributions, in August 2022, I launched a set of country focused leaderboards, showing the leaders for different contribution metrics in each country, irrespective of the country’s size!. An examination of the leaderboards since then will show that that objective has been met and Local Guides in even the smallest of countries now have the opportunity to be recognized and participate.
However there was also a second objective…
In the inaugural country leaderboards post, I mentioned that “my hope is that this new post will become a collaborative effort and feature different photos depicting different aspects of the life and culture in the many different countries, towns and villages that the participants on the leaderboards come from” and I went on to say that “I do plan to include other interesting country focused initiatives.”
To achieve this second objective, the theme and/or cover photo/gif of the country focused leaderboard post in each month was based on some event taking place or of significance in that month to a given country. Here is a summary of that focus:
| Month (2022) | Theme and Cover Photo(s)/GIF |
|---|---|
| August | With paddy grown in so many countries, including China, Japan, India, Indochina, Korea, Thailand, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, paddy cultivation was the opening theme to this country leaderboards. |
| September | In the September post, the second in this series, the theme was Bulgaria and featured the Bulgarian flag because the 6th September coincided with the anniversary of Bulgaria’s Unification Day. |
| October | The October country leaderboard post coincided with the anniversary of the birth of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, famously known as Mahatma Gandhi and so the theme and cover gif featured this great man and the Indian flag with photos depicting Gandhi taken by and kindly provided by avid photographer @TravellerG |
| November | The timing of the November country leaderboard post coincided with time of year when many different cultures hold holidays to commemorate their ancestors and for all of our Mexican friends, this means it’s Día de Muertos (the Day of the Dead). Therefore, the Dia de Muertos was chosen as the theme with an image of Catrina and Catrin face make up together with an image of the cempasuchitl flower making up the cover gif. |
| December | Being the time of the Holiday Season and Christmas, the December country leaderboards post featured Christmas themed photos taken by a number of Local Guides from different parts of world. This included photos of Christmas scenes and decorations in Ontario, Canada by @TerryPG , Cleveland, Ohio by @Mikeinthefalls , Germany by @Stephanie_OWL , St. Petersburg, Florida by @EvaBar and Phoenix, AZ by @JustJake , each being participants on the country leaderboards. |
Following on from this traditional style of the country leaderboards, this month it is appropriate that the theme should be the New Year celebrations in different parts of the world. To this end, the cover gif this post shows:
- A set of images from a video of the NYE fireworks in Wenceslas Square in the New Town of Prague, Czech Republic (Praha, Wenzel Square) taken by leaderboard participant @TorM followed in order with photos by
- @AZ_2021 , a very creative fruit platter depicting the Google Map logo shape and colors from fruit (pineapple for the yellow, raspberries for red, blueberries for blue and kiwi slices for green),
- @Stephanie_OWL 's photo of “Berliners”. And Stephanie tells us that in Germany at least, New Year’s Eve WITHOUT Berliners is not New Year’s Eve. So what exactly is a Berliner? Well it’s a German doughnut made from sweet yeast dough fried in fat or oil. It doesn’t have a central hole and it’s filled with marmalade or jam, and coated with icing, or sprinkled with sugar, or powdered sugar on top. In the south of Germany they are called “Krapfen”. Interestingly Steph mentioned that over the years variations have popped up and this year Berliners were available with vanilla and chocolate cream, eggnog, bee sting and cappuccino flavor, and so on.
- @JustJake shared a number of interesting photos but I selected this particular photo, which was taken during NYE celebrations at home, Mesa, Arizona and finally,
- @EvaBar 's photo showing the New Years atmosphere at her favorite bar ‘Mandarin Hide’ in St. Petersburg, FL.
OK before we get to this month’s Country leaderboards, the first for this New Year, I want to once again wish everyone here on Connect, Google Moderators, fellow Connect Moderators, and all you awesome Local Guides from around the world HAPPY NEW YEAR!
AFGHANISTAN
ASERBAIDSCHAN
GEORGIEN
. I could dominate the Albanian LG Leaderboard!