Do you know who's getting nice perks?

[danigamezfranco]

Well, not us, obviously...

But it looks like some users contributing to Google Help Forums get some really amazing perks: https://topcontributor.withgoogle.com/benefits

Search "Top Contributors Summit", if we only had a fraction of that... Yes, we have our own Summit, but let's be honest, that's just for a really small fraction of us, maybe not even all Level 8+, which I think it is a reasonable amount of work, if its quality is also good enough, to be rewarded somehow...

 Ironically, that's part of a program called "Top Contributors"... Aren't we contributing too? Are we just "normal" contributors? 

I think the very least Google could do is include Local Guides there. And considering how crappy our perk system is, why not just remove it completely and make room for us in that one? While we get points, badges, a summit for a small fraction of us and a couple of random perks/discounts that a lot of people don't use and that have actually little to do with what we do as LGs (except for the free storage that was removed, maybe), they have a large Summit, exclusive beta-tester invites, direct access to Googlers and invitations to regular Meetups (11 events with 650 attendees in 2016, I guess without counting the Summit)...

Don't you feel neglected?

[Jagadeesh_Reddy]

OMG ! this is something which I never heard about 😞 thank you for bringing this discussion  here @danigamezfranco

[danigamezfranco]

@GenerolHavoc you might want to check this thread, as you mentioned something in another post that is quite similar to what Google Help Forums Top Contributors get.

Sorry if you get tagged in a second message at some point, I actually tagged you in a post on that thread, but somehow it is now showing up...

[PaulPavlinovich]

Hi @danigamezfranco you can always join the Google Maps Product Forum and work to become a Top Contributor if you want to. It's open to anyone. It's fair to say a TC does a bit more than your average Local Guide, most of them spend hours every day on the boards helping and supporting people. 

It's also worth noting that it would take a couple of years of helping on the forums to be recognised and promoted to Rising Star then another long time before ascending to Top Contributor. It's a challenging path.

Rememberthere are over 50 million Local Guides and only 700 or so Top Contributors.

Regards Paul

[GenerolHavoc]

@PaulPavlinovich

There are also the TF's + as you mentioned TC's within Youtube.

And yes we do, do serious amounts of work with supporting the average user with account related issues , video and software issues , monetization issues etc.

[PaulPavlinovich]

You must be enjoying monetizing questions since the recent change @GenerolHavoc I imagine you've got lots of grumpy people. I sort of shrugged when I got my note about my change.

Regards Paul

[GenerolHavoc]

@PaulPavlinovich

Yea, there's not so many now asking about the 10,000 life time view restriction to Monetization though there now asking about why their stuff is being age restricted due to the tougher controllers to hopefully stop adult content from making it on Youtube Kids + the thing that's been in the media the last few weeks ( his name shall not be mentioned ).

[GenerolHavoc]

@PaulPavlinovich

Yea, there's not so many now asking about the 10,000 life time view restriction to Monetization though there now asking about why their stuff is being age restricted due to the tougher controllers to hopefully stop adult content from making it on YT Kids + the thing that's been in the media the last few weeks ( his name shall not be mentioned ).

[danigamezfranco]

Hi @PaulPavlinovich,

I'm not suggesting all the perks/rewards should be for all Local Guides. The same way they run that Top Contributors program in Product Forum, which does not include all the contributors, but just the ones that work the most, they could do it here. I would doubt there are many more level 8+ Local Guides than there are Top Contributors anyway.

Also, things like content moderation permissions, contact Google staff, get beta versions of some products... benefit Google more than the LGs themselves. The very least they could do is show some appreciation for our work by improving our workflows and communication channels. How come I have to come here and manually write a message with evidence in order to report another user's account when they post random irrelevant pictures or report all the pictures, one by one? How come sometimes I have to send edits/new places over and over in my area, where I have contributed more than a 100 times, just because they keep getting rejected?

I think asking for this kind of things is more than reasonable.

[PaulPavlinovich]

Hi @danigamezfranco

---

I'm not suggesting all the perks/rewards should be for all Local Guides. The same way they run that Top Contributors program in Product Forum, which does not include all the contributors, but just the ones that work the most, they could do it here. I would doubt there are many more level 8+ Local Guides than there are Top Contributors anyway.

 

As far as I'm aware there are less than 1,000 TC's - this is based on the numbers going to TC summits that I've seen published. Currently in Local Guides there are 4,365 L8+ Local Guides with new people coming into the levels every day.

Breakup as at 9.38pm AEDT 21/01/18

L8 3,468

L9 650

L10 227

Regards Paul