@TraciC or @Corrie I'd be interested in your feedback
Giving rewards for targets is common in all walks of life and there will always be people who try to game the system. However, the problem becomes much worse when cliff edge timetabling becomes involved.
Local Guides has just been thru one deadline, to reach L4 by 17 March and now there is another to reach L5 by 24 April. This is clearly encouraging LGs to make rushed and low quality submissions, some are boasting at the rapidity they have gained hundreds of points in a matter of days, while others ask how they can do the same. Their contributions are often very poor or even suspiciously spammy.
This does Google Maps no favours in the long term, eroding trust in the product and ingraining a systemic mentality of quantity over quality amongst many LGs.
Obviously with something like the Summit you will scrutinise the contributions of applicants, so LGs with low quality contributions will never make it thru. They are wasting their time, though they don't realise that yet. Unfortunately that in itself doesn't remove the thousands of bad submissions.
Would you consider not having points deadlines in future? Here's a suggestion for Summit 2018 (should you have one), when you announce it next March you say, for example: "applications will be open to LGs who reached L5 on 31 December 2017". A retrospective deadline doesn't create a problematic points race.
2022
