Betreff: How to handle fake edits epidemic

[#1]

I am writing this after advice @GeorgesHR given in the LGconnect discussion about the epidemic of fake/joke edits on the google maps in Ukraine and some other Eastern European states and Central Asia.

This epidemic was covered multiple times by local press and media and seriously affects the reputation of Google as the company and the LGcommunity!

The main suggestion was to limit editing rights to LG with lower than level 8.

Provide editing right only to LGs with 8+,

and do not block or delete the numerous qualified edits done by highly ranked LGs in 'spam attack' as their work are being lost forever after this because of such rough approach to problem-solving.

the link to the discussion in the local community 

https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/General-Discussion/%D0%A1%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8C%D0%BA%D0%BE-...

Now after collecting feedback, there is My suggested solution:

I think some weighted score should be established. 

for example, to enforce edit, place owner (manager, creator) need to approve it, OR 500 points (votes) from LGs needed to confirm this fact.

and Level 10 LG has 100 points, and level 1 -  only 1 point to contribute.

so we need 5 LG Lever10 to vote, or 500 Lever 1 LG to confirm the edit.

Some scoring system should be established what can become a part of a filtering algorithm which prevents fake edits and spam attempts.

[StephenAbraham]

@Oleksandr we have our share of false or spam edits in our parts of the world. I wish there was a much better way to filter these. In my opinion, a level of a Local Guide doesn't guarantee quality of contributions. But at the same time, I personally cannot think of alternative reliable measurements for a quality of a Local Guide. Let's see if others can give some suggestions.

[Oleksandr]

 Dear @StephenAbraham, Thank you for supporting the idea "But at the same time, I personally cannot think of alternative reliable measurements for a quality of a Local Guide"

AND, do not blame yourself and your geo region, in East.Europe this spam/jokes done mostly by just mart kids with plently of free time 😞

[thex]

@Oleksandr

@StephenAbraham

TBH I'm also not very happy to generally limit certain actions to a specific LG level because it would exclude many people from participating in the LG community also it is no quality indicator. I still believe that my Idea Exchange request would help more. Because it reduces the amount of points gathered which increases the probability that the person who plays LG as a game to stop it earlier. Moreover the damage is reduced in the approach I suggested because a person cannot do 100 or 1000 of actions in a specific time frame. We can't fight single malicious requests easily with any other way except manual intervention. Limiting the community is a way to reduce the issue but I think this is something that Google doesn't want. But we really have to target spamming which is actually possible with some of the measurements it outlined.

[Pilepina]

I want to add my experience and thought.

Personally I, before adding the place take photo of this place, and photo of signs. 

After my locations are approved I add this photos. Sometimes they are not approved but the place is real and have photo approve. 

It will be also cool to allow add changes with the photos added all together at the time to the offers to make changes. 

[Oleksandr]

 @thex spamming and rolling up LG score it a different problems than discussed in our case. It is about renaming and making not a good jokes like in case described by @degutant

[Oleksandr]

 @thex  spamming and r@

[thex]

@Oleksandr

Yes I do understand that and I also laid down why I've a problem with that idea. Moreover I told you why my idea also targets your problem ;).

[Oleksandr]

 @thex it is not my idea, it is the community suggestion. We are in idea competition and who is best. I am not willing to comment your and say why it might not work.

For the particular case of ranaming some limitations should be enforced.

P.S. imagine situation where 30 kids register as LG and sibmis only one request for renaming, or when this 30 kids register 30 accounts each and repeat. Therefore some actions should be allowed to the mature LGs

[thex]

@Oleksandr

I have the strong feeling that you don't understand the meaning of Idea Exchange. But the word already tells it, I suggest to read more on that here. But to summarize it, it's about exchanging ideas and so you have the chance to put your opinion in my thread and hence I do have the opportunity to put mine here. If you think it is a competition your totally getting things wrong, we are cooperating in getting a better community and not competing who has the better idea. Your example is far from a real world example and probably happens once every billion actions so yeah...I know what you mean however limitation of freedom isn't part of Googles policy. I already said that and that's why Local Guides works as it works. If 0,001% of the user base behaves malicious you take away the right from the rest 95-98% which are below 8+, that is really not a very sophisticated solution, sorry.

And yes it's part of the Idea Exchange to discuss why things might work or might not work. That's part of the whole deal. If we won't discuss it's senseless to have a public thread. Moreover, that's also why it is named "Exchange" and not "Feature Request".

[YerlanB]

I think that limiting rights by Levels can discourage people from keeping contributing to Maps. I hope Google will find some better way