I remember a recent post by @TraciC that photos do get checked and removed. Every now and then there are people here who have had a fast rise in points howling that their points are all gone. Perhaps these things are connected. Karma gets people who game the system @DiAnaUS
@PaulPavlinovich, @DiAnaUS I would think that if the program was run like google does with websites going out of terms of service in search it would fix the problem. If you abuse the system, you lose access. A lot of web masters know that if they go too far they get there site banned from google. If a guide abuses the system they should get banned, not just have some pictures removed. We can affect peoples business positively or negatively and should do it responsibly and know there are real consequences from abuse or points games.
But with Google is the main problem that there is no warning for possible abuse. Pretty often there is accidental abuse. For such cases yahoo, flickr, facebook are sending warnings and advice. Please be aware that humans are making mistakes. I found several LG with level 8 and plus abusing the system. The citation from your previous post - " I do agree with your statements If you abuse the system, you lose access. If a guide abuses the system they should get banned, not just have some pictures removed." @davidcox Should I report those LGs?
I checked your contributions to Maps and I noticed that one photo you published under 5 different POI. The citation from your previous post - " I do agree with your statements If you abuse the system, you lose access. If a guide abuses the system they should get banned, not just have some pictures removed." @davidcox Should I report you?
@Monte Thank you for the input. I was not aware that posting the same exterior picture for multiple different companies in the same building was not allowed. If you let me know what the offending pictures are or listing they are on I will gladly remove them if that is not allowed. I had done a number of posts for companies that were is the same building. My intent was to confirm they were in the building. Take a picture of the directory so you could see what floor they were on. Then I would add out side pictures of the building and repeat that process for other different compaies in the same location. Is that in correct or spam.
This morning I went to contribute to review counts on views on pictures and did find duplicate pictures on the same listing, those I removed by way of contribute. I thought i had cleaned everything up. If you see any that are incorrect I will remove them the same as if a company asks to have a picture removed.
How do you go from the user name to what has been posted by them on google maps?
What if it is not intentional? What I mean is that the new and very interactive app can be very dangerous, if you don't use it carefully, and with the brain running.
We are (or at least I am) receiving a lot of suggestions from the app to add photos to maps, photos that I didn't added because are private photos, even if taken inside a public place. Many time the photos are related to the wrong place. @TraciC
Even if I flag "do not ask me anymore for this photos" the request comes out again, after a few days @GusMoreira
So I honestly think that this kind of wrong photo's proliferation can be a quick reply with a lack of brain usage.
Anyway, from LG at high level, I would expect more attention.
@ErmesT I think that as soon as you connect the concept of spam and points the conversation can get volatile.
Here is a suggestion. In Google Adwords, there is a quality score kept for every AdWords account and advertiser. I have to think there is one on use also as contributors, why not show it or give feed back on the ones that do it right and the ones that are walking the gray area toward points players or spammers. Those that hold close to what Google is looking for and follow the guidelines they get a higher score. If you see it going down (like in AdWords you add more negative keywords to fix the problem) you adjust your behavior. No doubt there are both good and bad in any program.
I have to believe that the system is set up to prevent penalizing mistakes vs abuse of the system. So far being involved with this program I have seen some "spam listings" that are flagrant and some that are small companies trying to get found and maybe not knowing any better. Lots of times you can see the difference. I would hope that as contributors if a very high percentage is accurate then no big deal, make a mistake correct it.
If all in one day 10 - 20 reviews are done on lawyers from Boston, Ri and the Midwest to Utah, then that contributor should get whacked as they say in NY. Looking at a property or business to edit takes a lot of judgment. I am not handicapped, but use common sense and reviewed the post about the qualifications and mark the listings accordingly. If I was a handicapped user I might be stricter.
The goal of the whole deal is to have a richer more interesting Google Maps experience, learn and help others.
2022
