Indeed, who are the Top 100 Local Guides? Interested? Details coming soon to a screen near you 
There are many champion Local Guides and they contribute to Maps and Connect in many different and amazing ways. There are Accessibility Champions, Inclusivity Champions and Meet-up Champions. We also have star Road Mappers and, talking about stars, we have the Guiding Stars. We admire all of these champions and star Local Guides. Well this post is not about any of these, well not specifically! So what is it about?
Background
Exactly 12 months ago today, on July 23, 2020, I started the Most Viewed Photos leaderboards post and as the name suggests, for each participating Local Guide this was dedicated to showcasing each Local Guideās single photo with the most views on Google Maps, a photo which I named āstar photoā and we all have one. I wanted to study āstar photosā as I saw this as a way of improving our understanding and quality of our photo contributions to Maps. The post generated a lot of interest. However, it unfortunately eventually broke the number of character limitations in any one post on Connect so I had to break it down into two different streams. This eventually led to the Top 100 Most Viewed Photos and the Top 100 Photo Views leaderboards posts. Once again the first of these is dedicated to āstar photosā. The second, took a different direction and looks at the photo view performance of all the photos of each participating Local Guides! Both these streams continue today!
While different, each of these two posts look at photo views and have nothing to do with Local Guide points. Over the past year and just recently, I have repeatedly been asked about Local Guide points based leaderboards. To my knowledge there are none. In the past, I thought about creating this and today, on the first anniversary of the my first leaderboard post, Iāve decided to give this a shot.
So how will it work?
It will basically take the same structure as the current leaderboard posts but the focus will be on points and not on views. Keeping the same structure across all three posts will make it much easier for participants to follow and possibly much easier for me to describe and document how it all works. If youāre new to these leaderboards then have a read of the notes mentioned below which relate to the existing photo views leaderboards and when you read the words photos or photo views replace these in your mind with points. In time I will generate specific notes for the new points based leaderboards:
- Structure of the Top 100 Photo Views Leaderboards
- FAQs and the Participation Rules, Terms & Conditions
- What other Local Guides say about the leaderboards
When you read these notes you will see that on the current leaderboard posts, there is an effective limit of 100 Local Guides at each Local Guide level. In this new post, I am going to start off with just 100 Local Guides overall with 10 at each Local Guide level; hence why Iāve called this post, the Top 100 Local Guides! Iāll refer to this as a beta test and if this idea works out and Iām able to manage it all, and there is sufficient interest, then I will expand this. If it doesnāt work out then it will at least have been fun trying 
Is this only about points?
Good question! Now Iāve said that the focus of these new leaderboards will be on points and not on views and perhaps I have oversimplified this a little because I think we can learn a lot more by deeper analysis so I also want to try and include analysis of what type of contributions generated those points (i.e. Reviews, Photos, Edits, Roads etc).
But Iām in a small town and not in Paris, London or New York!
Yes I understand and if youāre new to my leaderboard posts then check out the current photo views and star photo leaderboard posts mentioned above and you will see they have been specifically designed in such a way as to create a bit of a level playing field so that Local Guides at any level can participate. Yes even Level 1, 2 and 3 Local Guides!! In this way you donāt have to be a ātop gunā Level 10 Local Guide to get on the leaderboards! Having said that, in these new leaderboards, we are going to try a few new ways of improving this. If possible, Iād like to see if I can take into account where in the world each participating Local Guide is located as yes this could be an important factor as some Local Guides are guiding in smaller countries, villages or cities where there are many less Places of Interest that they can review, take photos and post about. And thereās more!
Health Check!
As many know, and well covered on many posts here on Connect, it is quite often very difficult, in fact near impossible to find historical issues with our contributions even after using some complex searching techniques as mentioned in various Connect posts. So if you agree with the terms and conditions of participation and correctly provide all the information requested, where possible I will provide you with a Health Check on your contributions that will show you any issues found with and where you can improve your Maps contributions! Furthermore, this is not a one time health check, it will be done monthly! So I will monitor the health of your Maps contributions month by month and the big advantage of this monthly health check is that while your contributions are still relatively newly added on Maps, unhealthy situations such as any violations of Googleās Maps User Contribution Content Policy will be much easier to find and will enable you to correct them in a much more timely and efficient manner Where possible, you will be referred to relevant clauses of the policy 
So what do you think?
From all this you can see that this project is much more than being just about points? Is this ambitious? It sure is! Can we do it? Well lets give it a go.
Is this just a competition?
While there is an inherent competitive element within them, the current photo views and these new points based leaderboards aim to motivate us, help us to monitor our contributions and performance, and show us how to improve and make better contributions so that we can achieve better results, in a fun and enjoyable way! If this can be done then these leaderboards will have achieved their objective, mission accomplished!
How to participate?
To join simply submit the Join the Top 100 entry form and you will be listed in the Whoās next to be added? table. There you will see more details about the process from thereā¦
Conclusion
Finally, from the above it should be clear to you that these leaderboards are more than just a place to brag about your Maps contribution achievements. The leaderboards have proven to be fun, competitive, motivational, educational and full of interesting and different ways of looking at our Maps contributions. In this new series of leaderboards, I will try to show how your points have changed overall and from one period to the next, and how the mix of your contributions (i.e. Reviews vs Edits vs Addition of Roads etc) have changed! As well as all this, from a health check, I will try to show you how you might be able to find issues and improve on your contributions! Exciting!
If you would like to make any comments or suggestions, then please do so in the comments below.
If you would like to join a small team of beta testers to test out the next stage of this project then please read this invitation. Beta Testing has now been completed and this project is now live.
Thanks for reading.
Adam
against your name indicating that you are ready to be added during the next update of the leaderboards at the beginning of the next month.
. Huge efforts indeed, and you never cease to amaze us with your additions and dedication to keeping these boards live and happening!!!
