Count your hidden contributions (Desktop)

[MortenCopenhagen]

This is a post in the miniseries called Getting In and Out of Trouble as a Local Guide. You can find the main post here or scroll down to find an overview with links to more posts in this miniseries.

This post will help you find out how many of your photos and reviews are made private by Google if you are on a DESKTOP. If you don’t have access to a desktop, follow this link: Count your hidden contributions on a Mobile.

How many of my PHOTOS have been made private?

Steps:

1. Go to https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/ in your browser.
2. Make sure you can see your profile picture to the left. If not, please log in.
3. Then select the long URL shown in the address bar. Copy it.
4. Now Click on the 3-dots in the top right-hand corner and select New Incognito/private window/tap.
5. Then paste the long URL and hit ENTER.
6. Decline to log in if asked.
7. Click on your profile photo to open your Contribution stats. Now your screen should look something like this:

1. On the right-hand side of the screen please find how many Photos and Videos you have uploaded. See yellow markings above. Add those two numbers together. In this example it is 13288 + 61 = 13.349.
2. Then find the number of public photos under the Photos tab to the left. See the green markings. In my case, this is 13.092.
3. To calculate the number of hidden photos use this formula: Sum of yellow minus green. In this example this is 13.349 minus 13.092 = 257 hidden photos.

Having 257 * 100% / 13.349 = 1.9% hidden is not a problem. I believe it is OK if you have less than 4% hidden.

If you don’t see any photos listed on the left side of the screen under the Photos tab this means ALL of your photos are made private. This is NOT good. You are in trouble.

Later in this series, I will explain what you can do to try to fix this problem.

How many of my REVIEWS have been made private?

Steps:

Repeat steps 1 through 6 from above if the incognito screen is no longer open.

Step R7:

Click on REVIEWS under your profile picture.

Step R8:

Now click on your profile photo to reopen your Contribution stats. Then your screen should look something like this:

Step R9:

Find how many reviews you have uploaded on the right-hand side of the screen. Marked with yellow = 572 in my case.

Step R10:

Then find how many reviews are public to the left on your screen. See green marking. In my case, the number is 571.

Step R11:

Use this formula to calculate your number of hidden reviews: Yellow minus Green. In my 572 - 571 = 1. So I have currently only one hidden review.

If you don’t see any reviews listed on the left (Green = 0) this tells you that all of your reviews have been hidden. This is NOT good. You are in trouble. If more than a few reviews are hidden your need to take action and fix the problems ASAP. Keep on reading to learn what you can fix some of the problems.

This is the end of Count your hidden contributions on a Desktop. I suggest you continue here: Typical Violations where I will explain some of the most common violations that get Local Guides in trouble.

Cheers

Morten

Miniseries overview

How to Get In and Out of Trouble: The Main post

Sanctions Explained:

Count your hidden contributions on a Desktop (= this post)

Count your hidden contributions on a Mobile

Typical Violations:

Review Violations

Photo Violations

Other Violations

How to AVOID Getting in Trouble

How to Get OUT of Trouble

[MortenCopenhagen]

This comment is left empty for now. Future updates will appear here!

[potaro67]

Hi, @MortenCopenhagen ,

Thank you for providing a lot of valuable information.

Well, I also checked my profile.

Looking at this, it seems that only the number of video rejections is high.
I’ve attached a lot of videos over 30 seconds when posting reviews, and it makes sense to think that they’re all rejected.
Until now, I’ve only seen them when I’m logged in, so I had thought they were published with them cut to 30 seconds.

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @potaro67

I’m not sure you are looking at the correct numbers. Should the numbers to the right be your public count?

Not having one of 51000+ photos hidden is unbelievable. Are they all 360 shots?

Videos normally just get truncated and not hidden for being over 30 seconds.

Morten

[MortenCopenhagen]

Now I looked further at your profile, @potaro67 .

You have uploaded 417 reviews and 5 of these are hidden. So you are not looking at the right numbers.

More concerning is that none of your 51.036+8 pics+videos are public. But I see some of your photos under your reviews.

So what we are seeing could be a simple timeout blocking all your photos for the contribution page. It a known issue that people with that many photos can experience problems in viewing them due to there being so so many.

We should check at a few POIs if your photos are really hidden. I doubt it.

Cheers

Morten

[potaro67]

Thank you, @MortenCopenhagen ,

I agree that the numbers in this statistic are unreliable.
There aren’t so many flat photos I’ve attached to reviews, at most hundreds.
Also, the number of posts of my Street View photos is not so small. I have already posted about 4 million 360-degree photos.

I think the number of “Places Added” is correct.

The number of “Published Lists” is incorrect. I have published two or more lists as below.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1uBwjAjtCjGmc_XPiK1ZF1SrMJGAc7SGL&usp=sharing
https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1rsq7sO76VjLEnQdyE0-OdAj_uq4JR-Y2&usp=sharing

I don’t trust Google’s stats at all. They are always displaying the wrong number.
Or maybe the aggregation criteria aren’t the way I think.
However, those numbers are not my status at all but can be used as a status that shows the operating status of Google’s system. When the number increases or decreases abnormally, something wrong has happened.

Even on Mapillary’s system, the statistics are not displayed correctly.
Even if the development team admits that it’s wrong, it doesn’t seem easy to fix it.
https://forum.mapillary.com/t/the-shooting-distance-has-not-been-updated/4698?u=potaro67v

Even the handling of images, which requires the most correct behavior in the system, is deleted by the current system against the intention of the user.
In that, I don’t think that only statistical information can be displayed correctly.
So I think that the error in the statistics is also just a parameter that indicates the health of the system, not my status.

[TerryPG]

I’m so glad you revisited this idea @MortenCopenhagen with so many businesses closing down because of Covid related closures, its a great time to update our reviews and photos. So many guides may not due it , due to fear of losing points.

It reminds me of your great post How good of a google guide are you?

That has always been one of favourite post here.

Cheers.

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @TerryPG

Thanks a million. I renamed the old post based on your inspiration: How good of a Local Guide are you?

All the best

Morten

[SholaIB]

Hello @MortenCopenhagen

Thanks for this post. I have checked out mine. It is easier on the desktop as you pointed out earlier,I got around to it after a few hassles;

• On my photos I got -7 after using your formula
• On my reviews the number is the same on both left and right hand side so there is nothing to add or minus.

Now please sir what’s my verdict or diagnosis of I may ask?

Thanks and kind regards

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @SholaIB

Your own verdict is much more valuable than mine!

I find you have 10 hidden reviews out of 484 = 2 percent. I believe it should be zero. It can be time-consuming to fix. But finding and fixing the issues is a great learning process.

You have uploaded 2029 + 34 pics/videos, and only 1919 are public. This is 7% hidden. I believe this should be no more than 4%.

If you ask me I would try to fix your photo issues first.

Somehow you must have looked in the wrong place.

Best of luck

Morten

[SholaIB]

@MortenCopenhagen

Thank you for the prompt and kind reply of my verdict. I suppose been a local guide the diagnosis is free .

I succeeded in checking on my mobile now, and I found out 1886 for the photos and 474 for the reviews !!!

How do we go about fixing the photo issue like you suggested I wonder and the reviews if possible?

Thanks.

[MortenCopenhagen]

If you keep reading my tutorial, you will find steps and tips needed. Reviews are easier to find and fix.

Cheers

Morten

[TerryPG]

Damn you @MortenCopenhagen and this is meant in nice way. You have drawn me in again and now I have to find my hidden reviews and photos. It’s going to take me a while but I will do it.

Reviews private public Difference %

1898 1878 20 1%

Photos 4560 4542 18 .4%

Not high at all, but you know me… I have to find them and remove them, I think I know some of them, they are closed.

Wish me luck.

I do wish guides would go thru this experiment, to help them become better guides.

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @TerryPG

Thanks for your reply. Having a few photos hidden is practically unavoidable. So finding and fixing your reviews is probably where I would start. If you decide to find you 0.4% pics I would love if you would share your experience with finding them.

All the best

Morten

[D_G_K]

Hi Morten,

thank you for the good explanation of how to find out my hidden reviews. My reviews are supposedly all visible, but when checked by a local guide friend, the reviews of the past 5 months are not displayed. The pictures and videos belonging to the reviews, however, are visible at the rated locations. I continue to receive my Google Maps Timelines and other Local Guides messages every month, such as today the invitation to the Guiding Stars 2021. Nevertheless, dozens of ratings are missing and my commitment to continue writing reviews on Google Maps is currently very limited. My ratings are well-founded, do not consist of just three or four words and the many positive ratings of my reviews confirm this. In addition, the added own (!) pictures and videos prove that I actually visited the rated locations, especially since Goolge Maps keeps asking me to review the visited locations and thus the authenticity can be checked using the algorithm. What options do I now have to make my reviews visible?

Greetings from the Palatinate and thank you for your efforts

D.

[MukulR]

Hello @MortenCopenhagen Thanks a lot for this nice post. After reading this post I was trying to check my profile and got a little confused. In the detailed statistics, the total of my photo and video is 3834+384= 4218, but, in the summary (left corner) the total viewing is 4230. It seems I have no hidden photo (as I understood from your post). But, why the summary number is higher (12+) than the breakdown in the statistics. I think public view should be equal or less (if hidden) to the breakdown. I have no problem with the number of reviews, both places have the same number of 918. My understanding may be different than that of you, that’s why I am asking to get a clear idea about it. Thanks once again for this nice post. Regards.

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @MukulR

When I look at your profile I find 4123 public photos + video. This is lower than the 4218 you calculated. So I would conclude that only 5 of your photos/videos are hidden.

You can find the 4123 figure by looking at your profile using an incognito browser/window.

I hope this helps. But I also have to mention that a few profiles I have looked at seem to have more public photos/videos than listed privately. And this is not something I can explain.

Cheers

Morten

Let me add: 5 hidden out of 4000+ photos/videos is nothing to worry about.

[MukulR]

Thanks for your prompt reply dear @MortenCopenhagen . I will work on it more. By the way, I always use incognito mode on my laptop even though getting a different result. Anyway, thanks a lot once again for your valuable time to reply to my question. Regards.

[The_Driver_Sensei]

Hello @MortenCopenhagen

I was at 71 reviews and deleted all most al of them except 17. yet, when I got to incognito mode, it says, “This user hasn’t written any reviews yet or has chosen not to display them.” How do you know if you’re in trouble, as stated in your article, or simply user error? How is it that zero of my reviews are public but they have views, some have about 1000 views? Thanks a lot for any feedback.

[MortenCopenhagen]

@The_Driver_Sensei

All your 17 are private as you probably know.

When I wrote this tutorial Google had not started hiding all reviews as they do now.

It seems that this new sanction is not always directly linked to your reviews. I wish I know what caused it, but I don’t.

I noticed that quite a few of your photos are taken at night time. This is not recommended. You also shared images with recognizable faces. Please delete.

Reviews can get views prior to being hidden.

Cheers

Morten