I take photos too, yay! They're my only source of points.
In the 58 days since the Local Guides Disconnect (or is it "The 2017 Great Distrust"?), I've uploaded 600 pictures, wrote 200 reviews, and answered hundreds of questions. Some of those reviews are along the lines of, "This store isn't where it's shown, but actually at <location so-and-so>", which seems silly, but what can we do.
I hope those pictures, reviews and answers help people using the maps. If Google no longer wants my input as to editing the map itself, that's fine with me.
A most excellent idea. Do you mind if I copy you? LOL
I'm going to add as many photos as I possibly can. May as well do something.
I take photos too, yay! They're my only source of points.
In the 58 days since the Local Guides Disconnect (or is it "The 2017 Great Distrust"?), I've uploaded 600 pictures, wrote 200 reviews, and answered hundreds of questions. Some of those reviews are along the lines of, "This store isn't where it's shown, but actually at <location so-and-so>", which seems silly, but what can we do.
I hope those pictures, reviews and answers help people using the maps. If Google no longer wants my input as to editing the map itself, that's fine with me.
A most excellent idea. Do you mind if I copy you? LOL
I'm going to add as many photos as I possibly can. May as well do something.
Thank you @micdes for those kind words. Of course I must admit that the tone of such suggestions have been exceedingly piercing, but that's because someone won't necessarily read something so passive and dandy.
That's correct. The majority of this function was embedded in Google Map Maker, which the whole community resounded with criticism and concern as the announcement to close it was. This was mainly due to abuse. Not only that as well, but there were two issues in particular that chime out to me that elicited its removal:
The fact that even spammers could be open to the received feedback, and then abuse it (which was a mentality that was often thought of subconsciously by regional leads, Googlers and top contributors and even to this day), and
That even regional leads were being questioned for their moderation and verification ability, even they were not infallible and caved into humour/satire and resulting in extremely questionable listings that still exist to this day.
As for the second half of your post, I'm already on it. I haven't had much people look at my proposals, but time and time again I get told that they look extremely familiar to the legacy of Google Map Maker. It's been a month since I contributed to that post, I think Part III should go up today, which is pretty much in progress anyway. All in my mind, needs to be on paper.
@Briggs, I've been thinking about the GMaps versus Wikipedia thing after our last exchange. One of the biggest differences is that on Wikipedia you can watch a page. That means you get a notification whenever that page is edited.
Imagine if we could do that here! Any POI you keep on your watchlist will pop up whenever someone edits it. Spam attempts to those places will be reverted within minutes. Popular restaurants and such will be on the watchlist of dozens of LGs, which makes vandalism almost impossible. And when you edit a POI, it is by default added to your watchlist, so you don't even have to do that manually.
This one single change would choke out most non-GMB-based spam, and doesn't require any fancy algorithms. Just one extra line item in the "My places" menu, "Watched", where you can see all POIs on your watchlist that changed since you last edited them, sorted by time since latest change.
That even regional leads were being questioned for their moderation and verification ability, even they were not infallible and caved into humour/satire and resulting in extremely questionable listings that still exist to this day..
It bothers me I can't even locate my Regional Lead.
@OStr, are we to be as pedantic as your post makes it out to be? Actually I think so.
I am extremely scrupulous, and I watch listings all the time get converted to something contrary to the guidelines especially when I check back on how many views a place has accrued. I noticed a week ago Sushi Rio turned into SUSHIRIO. I really hope that Google might be listening and reading our suggestions, because they are stellar and excellent thoughts and ideas. But I think this is pretty much a no-go zone for pretty much anyone who isn't complaining about the algorithms.
Right now the 'edits' tab tells me nothing. I'm sick of seeing "not applied", so much more needs to be fleshed out in that area. How does other open source projects flourish the way that they do and yet Google Maps fails quite intently? There needs to be transparency in who makes what edits to which.
As for the second half of your post, I'm already on it. I haven't had much people look at my proposals, but time and time again I get told that they look extremely familiar to the legacy of Google Map Maker. It's been a month since I contributed to that post, I think Part III should go up today, which is pretty much in progress anyway. All in my mind, needs to be on paper.
I just read through your post and all I can say is... "Wow!". It's pretty much what I had in mind.
You've certainly given it a lot more thought than I have and everything I mentioned and more was included in your idea. I wanted to comment on that thread, but there was really nothing I could think to add. It was also very articulate, objective, balanced and constructive (as highlighted by your phrase "I'm going against the urge to vent and instead harnessing it into something that might be useful for a change").
I hope your ideas got some traction or, at least, some official feedback. If not, then, at least rest assured that imho I think they're great ideas and fwiw, I've worked over a decade for a Fortune 500 tech company (nothing related to Google or Mapping though).
If you keep hitting a wall despite these great contributions... hmm... it may be time to move on to something else where you are more appreciated. Just saying. (sorry if that sounds at all patronizing. It stems from solidarity, not superiority).
2022
