Local Guides has a fundamental flaw in the way it's designed

[AidanH]

I have put many hours of work into Google Maps, sometimes even making a special trip to a place just to take a photograph or check information. However, there is a fundamental flaw in the way Local Guides is designed. Correct edits, that can take time to create, are sometimes not approved. A while ago, I exhausted all the places I could easily edit in my city, but I found a big hurdle to creating more edits was that, even though I could spend time finding out the correct information, my edits are sometimes not approved due to them being unverified by others. This disincentivizes me from wanting to spend more effort on the Map - what's the point if I can't be sure the edit will ever be approved? I've now resigned to attempting to make the same edit to the opening hours of https://goo.gl/maps/ZWJ7YfV7PAR2 countless times. It should be called "The Cheese Stall" and it is open Mon-Sat 9am-5pm (the opening hours changed last year). I've attempted to edit this information several times, but each time the suggested edit is not verified by other people (I now use a different Google account, so I'm not sure if reputation points are to do with it).

In a nutshell, I've lost faith that useful edits will be approved, so I feel that Local Guides has become a waste of time. I don't dare put effort into verifying information that is harder to find, because there is such a big chance I would end up having wasted my time.

[AidanH]

I hope this feedback was informative.

[PaulPavlinovich]

Hi @AidanH everyone gets some edits not applied. I would advise against trying to edit the same place over and over again as it may affect your trust score which will lead to even more not applieds. As a Level 9 you'd imagine my trust was pretty reasonable but I get not applied as well. I just don't worry about it and move on.

Google try to keep Maps clean by rejecting spam edits but sometimes this can also affect legitimate edits. It is like balancing on a tight rope - you can't have good spam protection without some false positives.

I fine the things that generally help to get edits through are:

• Have Location turned on in Maps
• Either be at the place you're trying to edit, or make sure you have been there and the place is mentioned in your timeline
• Make a single complete edit - some people try multiple edits one attribute at a time and in my experience this has poor outcomes

Good luck with your future edits and while I accept and agree a not applied can be frustrating its not the end of the world, just move on to another contribution.

Regards Paul