"Please Read Before Posting" query

[Felicity_Perth]

The "Please Read Before Posting" post says: 

"Special Reminder for Feedback and Feature Requests section:

We welcome feedback and feature requests for Google Maps here, but please make sure you ALSO submit that feedback directly in Google Maps. "

 Then, the first tip is about avoiding duplication:

• "Search the community before posting a question. Chances are someone else has had the same issue or suggestion. It makes it easier on everyone if we unify conversations and avoid duplicates." 

By the very same light - could we not avoid duplicating feedback in two places?  I mean why is it necessary?   And why ask us not to duplicate in Local Guides, but to duplicate feedback to Maps?  That's not cool.

[AnuradhaP]

@Felicity_Perth The Connect and Google Maps are two platforms and run by two teams. There is a connection between them but it is better to inform the Google Maps team directly. 

[JeroenM]

@Felicity_Perth,

I am about to go slightly off topic, because I recognise myself in you, a couple of months ago.  It is clear that you are investing a lot of time in reading posts, trying to learn the ins and outs and asking valid questions. So first of all, a BIG kudos for that!

@AnuradhaP is right with regards to the why you are asked to report to both teams. Our Local Guides team have been saying this for a while, but most Local Guides are still not fully aware that Maps related feedback and feature requests should also be posted to the other platform to reach that team directly. Of course, feedback related to items that are exclusive to the LG program, should only be posted on this platform.

Maps is a Google product with several stakeholder-groups. Google has separate Teams that focus on these different stakeholder groups.  Some of these groups have their own program where you sign up and agree to abide to the program rules, like Local Guides and Google My Business.

Please note, that to be an effective LG Map contributor, one must be "at home" at all of them(!):

1) Google My Business (GMM), the platform and team that focuses on the business owners;

Example: to read the official documentation about which type of business may be added to Maps and what for example the naming rules are, you need to read the GMM documentation.

Please Note: there is also a Google Small Business program, but this is exclusive to the USA to my knowledge.

2) Google Maps Product forum and help-desk, the Google team and volunteers that focus on the users of Maps;

Example: to learn about navigation and how to report problems with navigation, one need to read the official documentation on the Google Maps Product platform.

3) Local Guides Connect (our community here, where the focus is on the participants of this community driven volunteer program)
This is the only place where you can communicate with Google in relation to the LG program (points, levels, meet-ups, unofficial regional communities, etc.)

As people on our LG Connect forums are trying to answer all Local Guides questions, you will often find people referring to those documents on the other platform. It makes it for novice LG very complicated and rather overwhelming. There is a lot to be learned, and it is all over the place.

Until Google sorts out the documentation, we as Local Guides, have to study the help documents and other resources from the various Maps related platforms.

Besides a number of forum threads that plead for better documentation, there are a few community initiatives that are either happening or being discussed, as a result of this documentation issue.

One is that people are talking about the LGpedia, a wiki which would function as a community driven knowledge-bank. Another, is a collaboration project that I am part of, which just started to publish our first unofficial Best Practice Guidelines.

To make the picture complete, I should add a fourth platform and stakeholder group that no longer exists. Many members of this ex-stakeholders group are now Local Guides...and as a novice LG this creates lots of distraction that could probably be best left alone until you are a savvy LG.

The more advanced mappers, like to do things that were previously done with Map Maker (MM). You probably read a lot about Map Maker on the Connect forums and you probably learned it no longer exists.

This was another stakeholder group related to Maps, and whilst Maps is being developed to take over the full functionality of MM (which will take some time), we can report certain map edits that are otherwise currently not available.

In other words we cannot make the edits ourselves (anymore or for the time being), but make Google aware of the need to edit them on Maps. However, as a novice LG, this is very difficult to do, without the knowledge (guidelines and official documentation) that was related to MM and now no longer available.

I hope this post of mine, gives you an overview, that took me weeks to comprehend when I started at the end of February, this year 😉

The good news is that the members of this community are very friendly and helpful and like answering questions to new members to our community. It does happen though, that the helpful experts on this platform forget what it was like when they started. They may throw answers at you, that are still difficult to comprehend without having additional information. I just happened to read a few of your questions in a row this evening and was glad to see that you are not shy to ask when things are not clear.

But what happens to those novice LGs that are not assertive or more introvert...?

Happy Mapping and keep asking!

Best wishes, Jeroen

[JeroenM]

Hi @Felicity_Perth,

I just realised I totally forgot a certain area and showing you my blind spot 😉
I am not much of a photographer as other members of my family have it has their main hobby, but there is also Street View stakeholders group with its own platform and program.

[Felicity_Perth]

Jeroen, Thanks for the comprehensive rundown.  Indeed, I have found people patient and helpful.

My point there was the simple one that if the writers of the "Please Read Before Posting" query are asking people to avoid duplication in posting it is not cool to then in the very first point request duplication of a related sort.  Perhaps you're inured to it but as a new person it really struck me what a two speed system that is - one rule for us, another for you etc.  I'm sure there are all kinds of reasons for it but still...

One way to avoid any mess of duplication is to take feedback about e.g. Map related things in one place triage it and filter it to the right places as it comes in. I am sure there would be staff or willing volunteers to do that.  

But hey, not my place and all that.

(PS - Duplication anecdote: I once gave software training to a bunch of army guys - the most hostile group I ever encountered.   I was surprised because I grew up in that environment and get on with those guys generally.  Eventually, I stopped the training and asked why they were so hostile to the software we'd installed scores of times elsewhere. It isn't the software per se, they said.  It's just that teams from companies like yours have come in time and again to install replacement systems and each time, nobody switches the previous software off....)

[JeroenM]

@Felicity_Perth

Thank you for your reply. Although it might have been helpful that two of us gave you an explanation to the why we have multiple Google teams and thus multiple forums, YOU are so right to give feedback that it is rather unfriendly to expect us to post the same thing twice, whilst your solution is so obvious.

You are not out of line, that is what this forum section is for.

I do apologise and again I am happy you have such great communication skills, because otherwise a LG Team member might read and think, okay that topic answered, no need to add it to the list 😉

So, taken my LONG (harry potter book 4 style reply, LOL) above aside, I fully support your feedback and agree that it should be totally unnecessary to have to post the same future request or feedback twice, because Google has two team that like to hear it. 

[Felicity_Perth]

Crikey, Jeroen, I admire those skills you have of saying one thing by saying another.  And truly, I hear you on the Us/You, Newbie /Savvy thing in your posts.  Cheerio.

[JeroenM]

@Felicity_Perth

...and I stand corrected by you (yet) again (LOL).
In this case the us was actually the people answering versus the one asking the question. Don't get me wrong, I am still a novice in many respects. Like I said, I only joined the LG program in February.

But like you seem to do at the moment, I have spend many, many hours reading posts, trying to learn, as it seems the only way at the moment. I guess, since I promoted myself to the stage where I am answering questions and not only asking them (LOL), I do reach out to you as if I am savvy. But trust me, I am not savvy (yet). As a teacher, you also know that one of the best ways of learning, is trying to teach others, and that is exactly the phase I am in at the moment.

It has been a pleasure, to communicate with you tonight. I am currently on the mainland (Europe) so time for bed. Good night!