I want to give a Shoutout to @AdamGT for the monthly leaderboards ,they are a huge hit andhave become very popular and like so many guides we all eagerly await the new monthly publication of the boards. Beyond the excitement of personal comparisons and getting the opportunity to compare ourselves to other guides, it also gives us great ideas for future endeavors.
With the rising growth and importance of videos, new captions, and increased road contributions, finding all the leaderboards has become a bit challenging.
I think it would be helpful if there was a dedicated area within Connect for easier access … Fellow guides, what are your thoughts on making these leaderboards more accessible?
Wondering if the powers that be could make this happen. Thoughts?"
Thank you for bringing this up. I agree that a dedicated section would be by far the best solution.
I have a LG folder in my Chrome bookmark bar and I just added a sub-folder at the top labeled 2024 with
short cuts to the two star discussion posts (soon to be 3?) and the two star albums (I don’t do 360 video). It is the best solution I have come up with so far. For other guides with Windows, I’m guessing there is a way to export and share this folder to other Chrome browser users. Of course this doesn’t address Mac users or any mobile users.
I will look into a way to create a shareable folder (drawer, or whatever it is called) that could be added to Android mobile home-screens.
2 other questions:
I find Connect search difficult to use. Is there some keyword (hashtag, symbol, or unique “key” that could be added to simplify searching? One that would bring up all the current albums and discussion posts?
Is there a way for the posts to pinned some place (maybe this is the same as a dedicated section)?
I agree that the current structure is a mess. Some leaderboard posts are under Photography others under Achievements. I have been unable to understand this logic. So I also resorted to creating bookmarks. But bookmarks need to be updated every month. So this is also not a good solution.
The structure on Connect with featuring some popular posts at the top also makes it very difficult to quickly find the latest leaderboards. Having so many leaderboards is also an issue. And finally the monthly new top illustrations with changing text makes visually search impossible.
Currently we can search for Adams signature for links to the latest versions (which is not always 100% updated in my experience) or take a look at the index that I maintain here. It is a lot of work to keep this updated as I need to check manually if the individual boards have been published. I would be happy to stop updating the index. (I wonder is any if you use it?). And my index is not complete.
So while we wait for a revised Connect structure the best solution would probably be that Adam creates and maintains a yearly or permanent index page to the leaderboards. So we users need to make one bookmark only.
Thanks for the lovely shoutout @TerryPG and for this very interesting idea that you have raised. However, it is most unlikely that a dedicated area on Connect can be given to the Leaderboards.
As you know, other than Points, the Leaderboards cover the different media types contributed to Maps and of the available Connect topics, they are currently added to Photography, Local Stories and Achievements. From this, the only thought that I could add and which could possibly make things easier, and I think I have floated this idea before, if it were possible is to have a Videography topic on Connect. Given that video is currently the hot topic on Maps then rather than having all video contributions (including the video focus leaderboards) added into Connect’s photography topic, it would be much better if video had its own dedicated area. This would then allow for the split of the video from the photo leaderboards.
Thanks again for the shoutout Terry and for raising this interesting idea.
From your comment and reading how you go about indexing the Leaderboards, I can’t help but wonder why the index in the signature of every post and comment I make on Connect doesn’t work for you.
@MortenCopenhagen I try and place the different Leaderboards where I see the best fit is in terms of what the particular focus of the leaderboards is. So for example, the photo and video focused leaderboards are posted on Connect’s Photography topic and the Country leaderboards being more about local heroes are posted on the Local Stories board. The Points leaderboards are not directly focused on any of the different media types contributed to Maps (e.g. photos and videos) but more about climbing up the Local Guide levels and so I see that they fit best under Connect’s Achievement topic.
Creating all the cross links on the Leaderboards themselves and even the signature links takes time and requires a lot of effort beyond the leaderboards themselves and I would have thought provides the best index so I’m not at all following your suggestion Morten for me to create and maintain a yearly or permanent index page.
This is a solid idea @TerryPG I agree that a dedicated location would be nice. Head to Connect and click on an icon and boom - directly to Boards! I would hope that it would be mobile friendly, as not all of us are in front of a computer screen regularly.
I currently either search “adamgt” then have to scroll to find a Leaderboard, click on that post then scroll to find the Board I’m interested in. While not a complicated process, I’d think we could do better in 2024.
Speaking of Leaderboards… How’s that Photos Over 1 Million Views board coming @AdamGT
Thanks for the shout, @AdamGT is working hard… Yes with new monthly Statment we will come to know were we stand on the board . With comparison more contribution will come everyone will work hard.
Thank you @JustJake@jayasimha78@Rednewt74@PrasadVR and @AZ_2021 I do want to keep the solution as simple as possible in the future to help make it easy for the new guides and the new top 100 users to Find.
Thanks again to @MortenCopenhagen@AdamGT@Mikeinthefalls and @RosyKohli for your thoughts. I seem to be getting the impression that nothing much (is or will happen) till Connect makes a revised structure to this system. Again I want to make it easier for all guides new and older to access these boards easier.
I agree Mike it has to just as easy for mobile users.
Simple is important. I have been exploring ways to make the links almost immediately available, without having to search for posts, etc. One question that I have is do you have any idea how many active T100 users are on IOS devices? I don’t really know if any of the ideas I have been thinking about would work for them.
For me I’d like a nice simple link that I can access from my phone. In my research I came across something called “Collections” which is part of the Google App on mobile Android devices which looks like this.
It is found under saved items. Basically you can create a folder, add links, and share it with anyone you want. I shared one earlier today with @JustJake and it seems to work. The connect links open in the connect app when you are on a phone. I’ve created two collections to test. One is for the 2024 Star Albums and discussion posts (360 aren’t included yet). The other will be for the January 2024 Leaderboard posts when they are available. Currently it has the 2023 year end post link.
Please take a look at these and tell me if you think they might be helpful. The collection sharing can be set to allow users to view only or to edit. These are view only links. I am not positive they can be shared this way.
Up until this morning I have been accessing them from your signature or from a connect search. When I looked back at my new shortcuts they are only for the Star albums and their discussions. In searching around (including my newbie helping newbie post) I was reminded of Morten’s where to find the leaderboards post, which it appears he still maintains. To be honest I had totally forgotten about it.
There are two reasons why the way I have been accessing the posts hasn’t been working well for me.
First, either way it involves finding one of your posts or Morten’s (I find connect bookmarks not very helpful). If it is an album or leaderboard post, I then need to scroll to the end of the introduction to find your signature. This is actually not a huge deal.
The other more important reason is that my fine motor skills are not the greatest, and even with a stylus I have trouble clicking the link I want. Also, for me the print is small and with the number of links listed I have to work a little harder than I’d like to.
I hope we can find an easy low effort way to make everything more accessible. I have posted about a feature of the mobile Google App that might be useful in Terrypg’s post on the topic
While it’s very similar to my profile page, it’s an interesting find @Rednewt74 , so well done you. I just tried your links on a Windows desktop and both worked fine for me:
Thanks @Rednewt74 . This post by @TerryPG and the great discussion has certainly got me thinking as to be totally honest, I really didn’t have any idea of the difficulties that some are having in finding the Leaderboards. I will certainly give this some thought. Thanks once again Terry for raising this topic.
I agree about sub collections, but just like with Google photos, no sub albums.
You do realize that if this is a workable idea for now, you don’t have to do it, we others can.
Set up a word doc with some text to copy and paste and it is really easy to create and edit the collections.
I took one and split it to create the album/discussion collection and then deleted them from the copy leaving the 2023 summary. You can edit the title and description, but you can’t change the link. But this way each month will be its own collection. You can reorder the links to your preference as well.
I agree that a dedicated location would be nice. Head to Connect and click on an icon and boom - directly to Boards! I would hope that it would be mobile friendly, as not all of us are in front of a computer screen regularly.
