Account got unbanned but remained stripped i.e. not fully re-instated (reviews/badges/likes etc)

[Lordy_Lord]

Hi @MortenCopenhagen

Thanks for your input again. (:

I had cleared all history and cache, this made it so I could log into the Local Guides here again.

Atm using an Android on my phone (with the latest version of Maps) and Firefox on my desktop. But there’s the same issues playing on both those platforms unfortunately.

Seems I’ll just have to be a bit more patient, I’ve been waiting for a while so few weeks more won’t matter much. Just though to share the extra info I had, and now some, to the moderators for possible assistance in all this, like you just said yourself (:

Best

Chris

[Carlos77]

Hi @MortenCopenhagen

after checking my profile on my desktop, it was exactly like you said, only 3 reviews.

So it has something to do with my pad and phone that the results are different, anyway thanks for your help, this is a really good way to review yourself;)

I do have the similar result like @Lordy_Lord the number of public reviews are pretty low but you still can scroll to all your reviews you have ever made.

I will wait until I got an answer from the google team.

Thank you,

Carlos

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @Carlos77

It is a step in the right direction that the issue is now only on IOS.

I suspect you didn’t tryClear cache & cookies

Also, please log out of your Local Guides account and log back in, and update your Google Maps app if necessary.

Best of luck
Morten

[InaS]

Hi @Carlos77 ,

Thanks for reaching out and tagging me. As @MortenCopenhagen suggested to you earlier, could you please fill out this form if you haven’t done so already? We will forward your request to the responsible teams to look into your account. If your contributions follow the policies, they will be reinstated. Please keep in mind that this may take some time, and we will not be able to share the results with you.

[Lordy_Lord]

Hi @InaS

Thanks again for your help, sending the form.

It seems my views are back and my badges reinstated. Very happy with this! (:

Only one thing seems off still, and I am wondering if you know something about this, if it’s connected:

There’s some places I reviewed and also added photos, which showed up publicly, but have now vanished it seems. I see them in my profile page but with some when clicking them the screen goes black, like they’ve been erased. It’s not with all photos but the majority are gone it seems from public view…

If this is the case, that I can still view the photos myself, does this mean there’s an error on Google Maps’ side or that the owner of the place marked my photo as not good enough (for business). Noticed that some of the photos currently active at some places where mine have been removed(/deactivated?) are now full of all self-made promotional photos if not straight up advertising of stock and discount codes and dates. These I get, e.g. an hotel hires professional photographers to make shots as to gather more bookings or a restaurant goes for expert food photography (which will outshine my mobile any day of the week ;)) Though some places are just me having imho nice shots of nature, views (many in New Zealand) and the likes, so no people or business whatsoever.

How can I tell what happened and if the error is because of a bug, that I can maybe reupload them? Last thing I want is a business or Google Maps getting notified and agitated about that of course (:

Hope you can shed some light on this. I doubt I’m the only one this is happening too (still) atm(?) (:

Thanks!

Chris

[Lordy_Lord]

To add, it seems like new reviews are again not posted…

A few I made some weeks ago started to show, but others I made later are skipped from getting a public view in the companies’ reviews.

Though everything was back to normal but still not it seems…

What’s going on here with my profile?

[Lordy_Lord]

Hello @InaS

Hoping you see this tag and have some time to respond.

I’m puzzled regarding what I said in my previous msg, and now noticed that my review count is on 573 reviews, though it says 549 on Google maps when logged out and seeing my review/profile.

Would like my account to function the way it did before, this takes the fun out of leaving reviews if nobody will be able to see them.

Can you please let me know what’s going on? Do I need to fill in a report again?

Would be really helpful to have a number to call or email address to sort this out. Been trying to tackle this since July now…

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @Lordy_Lord

From interacting with several suspended and unsuspended LGs I think many will need to use the form called Account investigation for contributions not visible on Google Maps to regain normal functionality related to reviews.

Just do it - it doesn’t hurt.

Cheers

Morten

[Lordy_Lord]

@MortenCopenhagen

Thanks for your reply.

You can read in this thread I have already done that and my account got reinstated (reviews and badges). Though some photos still seem to be gone like I mentioned in a previous message.

I’d like to know what’s up and if I do in or don’t need to take certain actions. Don’t want to fill in a form for every review I leave…

Like I said, this has been going on very long and would like it to be done with i.e. get information why what is happening so I can make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Hoping to get clarification from Inas soon regarding all this.

Seems it’s not been reinstated as in reinstated going onwards…and if that’s the case, that’s somewhat problematic for me…

[MortenCopenhagen]

@Lordy_Lord

Admittedly I don’t read entire threads to try to help you.

If you want someone to help you spot potential contribution violations, the please make your profile unrestricted.

How to change your privacy setting is explained here. Please note, that you need to use an app since this can not be don’t from a Desktop.

Cheers
Morten

[Lordy_Lord]

@MortenCopenhagen

Thanks for your reply.

As you could read my profile got reinstated, so there wasn’t an issue regarding contribution violations.

This seems to be a bug, somewhere in the reactivation it seems to have been partial or temporary. I don’t know, which is why I’m here asking a mod.for clarification or where I can get some.

It’s all very tiresome but still want to put in the energy to try and get this all resolved.

Maybe somebody else won’t have to go through it then if it happens to others too

[Carlos77]

Hello @Lordy_Lord

I know exactly how you feel.

I had the same story already behind me and gave up on a certain way.

It all has started around 2 1/2 years ago, I was exploring the world, I still do.

I wrote a lot of reviews, and at some certain point I realised that some of my reviews and photos didn’t got published. I was traveling with a mate, so it was easy to proof, his would be published mine not. I did also a lot of tests about this issue.

I found this forum and asked around, I got some good help. These days back, you haven’t had the opportunity to use the form. It was a google moderator who helped me out all the time.

But to be clear, they will never tell you what is the problem with your account. Even when you do have no penalties at all and you’re writing everything like it should be, you will realise that there still will be some reviews that wont get published after all. You can test this very easily with a friend who will review the same place as you.

I think it’s some kind of algorithm and they also flag your account somehow, that some of your reviews wont get published, maybe because of spam protection. Or at least the algorithm thinks its kind of spam, especially if you’re writing a lot of reviews in a row. Maybe they could also unflag the account if thats the case. From what I have found out, there’re some accounts there tend to be more restrictive and some others aren’t. So that would also mean it could be reversed somehow.

I write a lot of reviews, not the same day I have visited, mostly I will write at the weekends around 10-20 reviews of the spots I have visited, maybe this triggers the algorithm in some way.

I do had a lot more problems then this, but wont bore you with details. At the end I found a google moderator he could help me. So long story short, he never told me what was the problem with my account, he also would never got into details of my specific questions, so its all guess work here.

Google wont show your their cards, maybe he also had no idea or they wouldn’t tell him.

Once a month, after I checked my profile, how many of my reviews are hidden, I contacted him. And after a while all my reviews got published. That also means, there was no violation at all with my reviews.

I know, it’s totally silly and that shouldn’t be the way how google maps should work, but I accepted this kind of solution and made it a my monthly routine.

At some point, the google moderator quit his job and I was where I had started. I decided to quit writing reviews, because of this silly issue. Why should you work for free and help the community (which is totally fine and good) but the rest sucks hard.

After a couple of month I realised my account got banned, don’t know why, nobody knows not even google.

So I complained and after a week, I got reinstated, of course with all the same problems you have experienced so far. Lost badges and photos etc. etc.

I wrote and ask for help, I filled out a lot of forms and after a long time, everything went back to normal. And with that I mean not like a normal profile without any problems, I mean like my somehow broken profile like it was before:)

So not all of my reviews got published, even if the reviews of some mates I travel with are got published. It’s funny, you can test a lot of things by yourself and you will wondering, how this works. It must be something with our profiles after all…

At then end you need to decide for yourself if you still want to participate with this kind of problem or just stop with your reviews.

You can still fill out the form once a month and then your reviews would be published again, but yeah thats kinda not optimal

OR maybe, somehow, someone at google would finally bring some light into this problem and will fix it once’s and for all!!!

Until then, happy writing:)

Carlos

[Carlos77]

Hello @Lordy_Lord

one more thing, even after all your reviews and photos got reinstated, you will loose most likely the views on your photos. I had a lot of views on my photos, it all has started from 0 again.

And for the reviews I wrote a couple of years ago, after I got reinstated, the owner of the shops and restaurants are giving some feedback of my reviews. And this to reviews I wrote a couple of years ago, its a bit confusing:)

Cheers

[Lordy_Lord]

Hi @Carlos77

Thanks so much for sharing your story.

I don’t find it boring at all and am curious to some further details you might still have to share.

I would be gutted if my photos for reset, I almost made it to 10 million views, which I find kind of a cool thought

Really hope the ones that are still missing pop up with the views they had. Still remember some made it as the head photo of a place of business or a piece of nature.

I’m glad you were able to find a moderator who could help you out. I really hope Inas will still read and reply to this thread and possibly be able to help the both of us.

I understand things can happen though it’s very frustrating if we’re not told how to solve it or why things are happening the way they are.

It’s funny you mention old reviews getting comments from owners. I have the same thing happening to me now too.

Some reviews I’d left were negative because of a negative experience and now some of those owners are claiming I was never a customer with them because they can’t remember. One company is even trying to claim I’m being paid to write bad reviews because the information was dated and the date of my review did not match the date that Google maps had.

So like you say the reviews are still in the database but kept on hold or blocked and when the profile got reinstated they just got readded to Google maps using the date of the reinstation, but still also the date they were originally published so it’s confusing and back to front for both in parties of those reviews.

Hoping for help here. If anybody pops up I’ll let you know mate!

Best,

Chris

[Carlos77]

Hello @Lordy_Lord

Im happy that I found someone, who’s sharing their experience and do have the same problem like me.
I was always thinking its only me, but its good to share, so that anybody who’s reading this, will know what they eventually could face in the future.

Nothing is more annoying then putting a lot of effort into something and at the end, you will be let alone with your problem and nobody could really fix it. Unfortunately it’s just fixing the issue without going to fix the cause of it all.

The “All-time photo views” in your “contribute” tab wont be back to 0, but the photo views in your reviews itself will be back to 0, after they’re reinstated your profile. That’s also the same for your “Your contributions have” info, it wont be back to 0. (I will share a screenshot at the end)

I know thats really bad, I had myself “views” on my pictures that was already over 100K.

It’s hard to see how its all went back to 0 and you start from Level 1 again:)

Yes, I hope she could bring some light into this, I think they’re more people like us who have the same problem, but maybe already gave up on this.

That’s right, Im totally agree with your point of view and it would be great if google could also honour their local guides a bit more and would be more helpful/supportive. But mostly they keep you in the dark.

That’s the funny part but in the same way bad for us reviewers and also for the business owners themselves.

This will cause a lot of trouble for them and at the end maybe also to us, as your experience shows.

The business owner couldn’t remember that you were there, because it was already 2 years ago, but your review got posted a couple of days ago. (Because the profile got reinstated and all the reviews after all)

So he thinks you did it, because someone was paying you or you’re just a spam bot, he would probably contact google. And most likely one department didn’t know what the other is doing and this could result in a new ban of the profile.

I do need to fill out the form again, like always, I already got 44 reviews hidden that I wrote the last couple of weeks:)

And for my photos there’re still 5584 photos hidden, but I think this one will take longer or maybe forever.

(I will put a screenshot at the end. MortenCopenhagen, has some pretty good guides, where you can find out for yourself)

Overall its still not satisfying that we still do have these problems and the fact, that our profiles got reinstated shows, that there were no violations in the first place. Especially if you just complained without changing anything and you got reinstated straight ahead, that shows that the process has some flaws. Especially the banning itself in the first place, don’t know if thats a human who’s doing that, (which I cant believe, because too many users) or its an algorithm that get somehow triggered and this one will ban you. Means also, this one didn’t work well at all:)

So hopefully the long struggle will be worth at the end

Carlos

[Carlos77]

Hello @Lordy_Lord

I will write you next week a PM with everything I know so far.

Cherrs

Carlos

[Carlos77]

Hello @Lordy_Lord

there’s also an additional downside, before my ban I was always keen to edit places, when there’re in the wrong place or just permanently shut down. But after the ban I really hesitated to do that again, right now I’m in El Salvador and there’re many place that need an edit, some places are couple streets away from their new location. I think businesses in El Salvador are not that fast l, when they’re changing something. Also there’re not a lot locations on google yet, still growing though.

Anyway I did an edit, because I was a bit angry searching for a place an hour and couldn’t find it on the google location. I did at the end and I decided to do an edit, but since a week nothing has happened. Normally these things take never longer than a couple of hours, max a day. It used to be, when I did it before my ban.

so looks like it has something to do with my profile, but I will double check with a friend, if he can do it and it will go through fast, then I know it’s something again with my profile.

And nowadays I’m seeing myself struggling to write more authentic reviews I would have written before, cause of fear that my reviews won’t get published or more worse I got a ban again. so at then end google will harm their own platform.

[Lordy_Lord]

@Hi@ @Carlos77

Thanks again for your in depth replies and screen shots.

It really hurts putting in work and then photos and reviews get either removed or reset. I see what you mean there.

I’ve made edits to help ppl out, new business hours and locations which move or close but like you said, the approval is now taking so long and sometimes just says “Google couldn’t verify your edit”. So it really feels that everything I add is being checked under a microscope.

This of course takes the fun out of it a bit I’m hoping this will be resolved. Like you said we can’t be the only two people this is happening to.

It’s probably very complicated in an algorithm or some scripting error which I hope can be located and fixed so we can all get back to using Google maps like we used to.

You have a valid point that’s if there is an algorithm in place that the person who activated that could be doing this again and again meaning we go round in circles never knowing where the start is. I’m also sad that the good reviews are being left out to help out and be bring more customers.

Let’s wait and see what the moderators can say,( @InaS , you still with us? :))

No rush on your private message just see when you have some time to type it all out, thanks Carlos. Enjoy El Salvador!

[Carlos77]

Hello @Lordy_Lord

there’s also an easy way to find out, if your reviews got published right away, without using your friends phone/acc.

The counter under the review section will always raise, doesn’t matter if your reviews goes public or not. So normally you can check the real number of your reviews, only with the incognito mode, there’re lots of infos here, how to do it.

But if you write a review that has more then 200 characters, you can check the counter under the section “helpfulness”, this way you can find out very easy and fast.

If it won’t rise after you wrote a review with more than 200 characters, then you know your review didn’t got published.

I did a couple of test today and I could prof that 100%.

That also means my profile is somehow flagged again, cos my last 40 reviews didn’t got published, I got used to it;))

I will also try to do the “edit” test with the help of my friend, so I can tell you next week, how the results are.

Cheers,

Carlos

[PaulPavlinovich]

The algorithm is somewhat more complex than scripts @Lordy_Lord its a neural network (AI). Are you Stephen?