Hidden Reviews? Read this.

[MortenCopenhagen]

Currently, the review spam filter seems more aggressive than usual. A few Local Guides are very upset that their reviews get hidden by the spam filter. Some believe they know and follow all the rules related to reviews, so the spam filter must be broken.

This might be true for some, but we all can benefit from studying the guidelines one more time and then editing our reviews that are not fully compliant.

Short summary of the review guidelines

The Maps user-generated content policy (that we accepted when signing up as Local Guides) clearly states that suspending the ability of a user to contribute may include preventing uploaded content from being displayed to other users.

Two key documents outline the review guidelines. One is called Tips for contributing high-quality reviews, and the other document is named Prohibited and restricted content.

The Tips document is quite easy to read. Here is an overview of the content:

1. Be informative and insightful.
2. Be authentic.
3. Be respectful.
4. Write with style.
5. Avoid personal and professional information.
6. Avoid general commentary.

From the Tips document I extracted these very essential guidelines:

• Please write about your firsthand experience with the place and not general commentary.
• Review your own experience, and explain what the place was like and the service you received.
• Try to share something unique and new, and make sure your criticism is constructive.
• One paragraph is a great length for a review.

If you follow these simple and helpful guidelines, you may not even need to read the second written by lawyers. It lists all the things we should obviously never share in a review. Examples include spam, swearing, advertising, off-topic comments, rants, and repetitive sentences.

The current review problem

So why are so many Local Guides currently very frustrated about getting their reviews hidden by the spam filter?

Here is what I think:

Google Maps frequently praises all our contributions in a constant flow of emails. This makes us believe we are doing a fantastic job. And it creates a strong expectation that Google will treat the volunteers with respect and fairness. It seems the praise emails are sent even to those adding reviews of low quality.

When Local Guides have contributed for years, and then suddenly discover their work has been removed from public view without warning, notice, or explanation they become rightfully outraged. Affected Local Guides then feel betrayed and find Google treats them with disrespect and our mutual expectations are no longer aligned.

Google has a policy to never explain or specify what we are doing wrong. This is probably to avoid helping the spammers. But this comes across as very impolite considering we are volunteers and we are constantly reminded to let helpfulness guide our actions. Between the lines affected Local Guides are accused of being bad actors and spammers. Leaving volunteers in limbo and doubting if they did something wrong or if the system is failing big time. This is not fair.

From our side, it looks like volunteer work is met with disrespect.

In France Google is currently testing if notifying LGs when contributions get hidden can improve the situation. In my view, this is not helping. Violations are not really explained. I think the test so far mostly made more Local Guides aware of hidden reviews.

It is very difficult to check if our reviews are hidden or not. So many Local Guides are not even aware of the problem. To learn how to check read this.

Google probably made the spam filter more sensitive in the second half of 2022 to counteract increasing spam problems. A more sensitive spam filter will also hide perfectly good reviews. For a more differentiated view, please read No wonder some of our reviews get hidden!

A major complicating factor is that a particular review may not be violating the guidelines, still, the review, all reviews, a group of reviews, or all new reviews are hidden. I have discussed this here. In early 2022 all hidden reviews could easily be made public by simply editing them to remove the problematic words or sentences. This is no longer the case. I suspect that even photo guideline violations now can result in hidden reviews. So hidden reviews are currently used as a kind of general warning prior to further sanctions.

In the big picture, a few unhappy Local Guides are not very important to Google. It is difficult to comprehend, but Google’s actions and inactions speak loudly.

Checklist

So if your reviews are currently wrongfully made invisible, I suggest you run over this checklist:

1. Are you representing a business on Google Maps?
2. Have you been liking your own reviews?
3. Have you been reviewing your current or former workplaces?
4. Have you been writing super short or very long reviews?
5. Have you reviewed businesses belonging to friends or family?
6. Have you been encouraged or paid to write reviews?
7. Have you been sharing opinions or political views not related to services or products from the business?
8. Have you reviewed businesses where you were not a genuine customer?
9. Have you been adding links, phone numbers, or social media references in any of your reviews?
10. Have you been repeating any text or headings across your reviews?
11. Have you included any text copied (=stolen) from elsewhere in your reviews?
12. Have you been publishing your reviews in parallel on other platforms like yelp, TripAdvisor, booking.com, Airbnb, Amazon, or even your private blog?
13. Have any of your reviews been revenge reviews?
14. Have you made sure to include details that prove you visited the place?
15. Has your language always been respectful?
16. Have you been posting a lot of reviews in quick succession?
17. Have you been reviewing places in many different countries without visiting them?

Ideally, you should be able to say No to all of the above - except two. The checklist is not from Google but is based on my experience helping fellow Local Guides.

Google has admitted that the spam filter can be too aggressive by offering a special form called Account investigation for contributions not visible on Google Maps. Please use it, but know that you will not be notified when the manual check is done and what they found. It can take several weeks to get done. If your contributions are found to comply with the guidelines they will be made public again. For Google to have this service for Local Guides is very unusual. If your contributions were not made public after a check, you will need to take a deeper look at the guidelines and how well your reviews comply.

If your contributions disappear again after they’ve been reinstated, then please feel free to use the form again. This was communicated by @DeniGu here.

What more could be done?

What more could we as Local Guides do?

1. Make an effort to find and flag more suspicious reviews and profiles.
2. Organize and participate in a test of the effectiveness of flagging contributions. I suspect flagging is rarely acted upon.

What more could Google do?

1. Improve significantly the communication with volunteers on this issue
2. Let Local Guides know when their review quality index starts falling and share specific tips on what they should do
3. Stop hiding individual reviews that are not violating the review guidelines
4. Stop hiding reviews for other reasons than review guideline violations. Use intuitively relevant sanctions instead
5. Speed up the manual check procedure
6. Ensure manually released reviews remain public if unchanged
7. Hide all reviews from new accounts until they have made at least 10 “good” reviews! To me, it seems that very few reviews from one account indicate it could be a spammer.
8. Hide fewer reviews when relevant photos are attached
9. Mark hidden contributions in our contribution lists (when the current problems have been solved).

This post was inspired by all the recent complaints, and especially @ErmesT 'spost Get Paid for Our Contribution? What could happen?, @Gezendunyali 's post calledCommenting criteria, and @gmapas 's reply foundhere.

I think @gmapas said it perfectly here:

I sincerely hope that the teams at Google are working to reach a common denominator that satisfies everyone - those who contribute with real reports, the companies evaluated (which are often harmed in the process) and the users who consult and believe in the reviews.

I hope you find this post somewhat helpful.

Cheers

Morten

[Gezendunyali]

Hi @MortenCopenhagen It was a great article. Really, there were people around me who stopped commenting because of such incidents. But we should not forget that it is a difficult task to control millions of users. Google tries to do this as well as possible. One of my ideas should be google maps moderators. Google should set up an academy and train local guides chosen from among the volunteers, then give map moderation and give the authority to close spam accounts and delete inappropriate photos. So it can be a very fast process. I report many spam accounts, but maybe until it’s done. thousands of people unknowingly take into account the comment of that account. I think google will find much more specific solutions to these this year.

[StevenBerlin]

Nice post as usual @MortenCopenhagen

I do post photos and reviews to yelp as well, and one thing they do well is if a photo is not posted properly to a store, they actually write you back an email stating this photos is being removed because it dies not reflect that store. So very clear and direct, and also they don’t punish you. This would be nice if Google could do something similar. I do realize the volume is much greater in maps.

2. I wish Google could work with you moderators to go over accounts and simply report back to each other, so there is some form of communication happening.

3. I have been asking for a way for us to see all privately marked photos or reviews, so the users can simply remove dupes or bad uploads quickly and rectify problems.

Most of us are just trying to have fun and help the community with reviews and especially photos. The suspensions are abrupt and without any mention of problems to the user, and the forms don’t allow us to explain any additional information.

I don’t know what clout or input you mods have, but it would sure be nice if they listened to your input.

Thx for the nice article.

[MortenCopenhagen]

@StevenBerlin

Thanks for your reply. It is news to me how yelp is helpful. Sounds great.

Just for the record, I’m not a moderator But I still hope the relevant people at Google will care to read and maybe respond.

Cheers

Morten

[AdrianLunsong]

As always, interesting post @MortenCopenhagen ! Who knows what’s happening behind the scenes with Google Maps and how it’s affecting user contributions!? But I agree that some more transparency would be much appreciated. The notification testing in France on hidden reviews is a double edged sword because on one hand, it’s great to know that a review has been hidden but at the same time, when there’s no clear understanding on what the violation may be, it can be frustrating for users. I suspect that most users are not even aware that they may have hidden reviews since most are not as adapt as the members here on Connect and may not know how to check for hidden reviews. As they say, ignorance is (sometimes) bliss.

Side comment, I wonder how much of Timeline affects the validity of reviews? For example, I’ve noticed that the automatic location logging from Maps is not always correct so in the Timeline view, Maps some times think I’ve been to a nearby place that I’ve not been to resulting in a) recommending me to write a review to a place it thinks I’ve been to but I haven’t, and b) I may end up writing a review for a place Maps doesn’t think I’ve been to. Of course, I can go into Timeline and correct it but it’s not something that I do often as the interface is a bit unfriendly (to me) on mobile.

[EliCH]

The spam filter is garbage, as this wonderful investigator on YouTube highlights the issue very well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEj_j-Y-yjs

Her entire channel is dedicated towards this matter. Fake reviewers, payed reviews, they are found on countless listings. And the spam filter does a wack job at actually removing those types of reviews. Meanwhile, longtime LGs are somehow caught and punished.

If a company is unwilling to admit that it’s algorithm has major flaws, then there is no chance of it ever improving.

[ErmesT]

Thanks for this post, @MortenCopenhagen , and for giving the Local Guides the possibility to review their reviews (this remind me of “The review reviewer” series)

Well, more seriously, we all know there is a problem, and with only two reviews hidden you are part of the lucky ones.

What is difficult to explain to the Local Guides is (skipping the part related to reviews hidden for the violation of the rules) why our reviews are hidden. You pointed it our very clearly in your reply here. Fake reviews are a plague, and many times are written very well, with no violations of the rules in the text, so that the reviews need to be caught in a totally different way. Fake reviews can damage a business, or can damage the consumer, and in some case (this seems to be the last strategy, can cause the removal of the business listing from Maps or other site, like TripAdvisor.

In some case this can end in a legal action against the company that do not remove the fake reviews. Against the company that do not remove the fake reviews (this is not a typo, I simply want to be clear).

In short, this situation can potentially end in removing completely the possibility to write reviews.

I saw someone testing the spam filter here in Connect a few months ago, whoever did it probably thought the Maps filter was the same thing. These were perfect articles, beautifully written, too well done to be true. This makes me think that perhaps the problem is the too well written reviews.

I’d also like to reassure anyone who talks about conspiracies to block one-star reviews. That’s not the case: all my blocked reviews have four or five stars.

The messages that Maps is sending in France serve to inform that reviews are blocked, and this is useful, because many do not know that they have blocked reviews, but obviously it cannot tell us how to unblock them.

I honestly don’t know what the solution could be, other than removing the reviews tab from Maps, and I think this is something the Local Guides should understand. Is this what you mean when you say “DO SOMETHING”?

I know this is painful, more as a User than as a Local Guide, but I think this is something that we should have in mind, instead of writing posts about a class action against Google, or suggesting the violation of the First Amendment (they don’t know what they are talking about) or a kind of censorship.

How We Local Guides can help to block fake reviews in Maps? I have seen Level 10 building a system for creating fake reviews, so Level doesn’t mean “Trust”, so please do not suggest to trust people based on the level, like I have seen in many posts (I am a Level X and Google block me).

I think this is the debate, how can we help?

I know, I am a bit strong in here, but after being attacked several times just for trying to explain the situation, I think I should make it clear.

Thanks again for this post

[gmapas]

Olá, @MortenCopenhagen

Ótimo texto! Lendo sua publicação me lembrei de algo.

Muitos anos antes de o Google ter um Programa chamado Local Guide, havia um outro, chamava-se Reviewer Place. Acredito que foi o embrião do Local Guide, porém muito menor.

Quando você fazia sua inscrição para ser um Reviewer Place, antes, obrigatoriamente, você passava por uma “espécie de curso”. E o “curso” era basicamente ler e entender boa parte das dicas que você escreveu. Você também tinha que “provar” que era humano. Ou seja, é diferente do que acontece hoje. O visitante do mapa faz uma avaliação, automaticamente é chamado para ser um Guia Local, mas ele não recebe nenhuma “instrução”, nada! As vezes o indivíduo tem apenas uma avaliação ao longo de quatro anos, e aparece o texto “Local Guide”.

Muito bom seu artigo. No seu “Checklist” isso já foi abordado, mas vou acrescentar um detalhamento, principalmente para falantes do "Português Brasileiro ".

A IA, algoritmos ou como seja o nome do mecanismo que faz revisões não considera as nuances da língua portuguesa brasileira, principalmente os regionalismos. Então, também fica a dica, evitar nas avaliações expressões regionais que o IA pode entender como linguagem imprópria, repetitivo, spam, sem contexto ou simplesmente não entender porque não conhece.

Exemplo: É comum o uso da expressão “trem” no estado de Minas Gerais para se referir a qualquer coisa, é um regionalismo que dentro de uma frase, tem um contexto e é totalmente entendível para quem está lendo. No entanto, para um IA, “trem” é apenas um meio de transporte. A palavra “trem” no meio de um texto de uma avaliação, para o IA faz o texto ficar sem sentido.

Exemplo de avaliações com regionalismo que a/o IA oculta:

…eu comi um “trem” muito gostoso chamado “Vaca Atolada”…

Um brasileiro, falante do português do Brasil entende claramente a expressão “trem” no meio da frase acima. A IA não, pois, como alguém come um “trem”?

O regionalismo “trem” é apenas um exemplo, mas existem outras centenas que a IA não entende, não faz sentido, e a IA acaba ocultando também. Então, fica esta dica, evitar usar “expressões regionais”, gírias etc. E o que não falta no Brasil são expressões regionais que com certeza dão “tilt” numa IA.

Abb

Gil

[ivanos]

Threatening that Google may totally remove the review function so we honest and innocent local guides shall support its continuous disrespect to us? Well…

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @AdrianLunsong

Thanks for your reply. I’m happy that we can also have a constructive discussion which is in contrast to many of the more angry posts on this topic.

I chose not to suggest putting a lot more value into the timeline - exactly because I find there are way too many errors on the timeline. And also, the prompts from Google Maps to add photos and reviews are often irrelevant,m so I tend to disregard them.

Cheers

Morten

[ivanos]

@EliCH

A few days ago I just visited a restaurant with over 5,000 reviews. And there has been about 10+ new reviews for that restaurant per day recently. Why so popular with reviews? Because the restaurant gives a side dish for free if visitors “write a Google review” of it. And apparently Google’s AI is useless on this. I have personably encounter quite a few similar cases before. Those “paid reviews” (in some way) are normally short, and many of them are un-hidden. On the other hand, over past week, five out of my six new, unpaid, informative, and authentic reviews are shadow banned.

Now some guy around here asks us honest and innocent local guides who write unpaid, informative, authentic reviews to tolerate Google’s such “garbage” filtering that does nothing to those bad reviews but greatly and falsely damage our good reviews, just in order for its own existence? How pathetic is this?

Ps. About one month ago I wrote a review on my experiences of a hotel. The owner of that hotel wrote a mail to me saying that is the best, and moving, review he has ever seen since it’s opening around three years ago. Now possibly some of my such reviews are hidden. And those bad ones are not. My own reviews were once even totally plagiarized by another local guides and his reviews had been totally visible until I report that. And now even his profile is still there after all those total plagiary (of others review). Now we should continue to tolerate Google’s hiding our reviews?

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @ErmesT

Thanks for your reply.

I tried my best to stay in constructive criticism mode while preparing this post. I fully agree with you that some of the more aggressive replies are naive and not helpful in facilitating the needed changes. It is of cause perfectly okay to be upset, but only letting the same steam out everywhere possible is not helpful and not following the 5 core values.

When you first responded to my reply documenting the high availability of bad actors selling fake positive and negative reviews, you found it irrelevant and in later replies emphasized that to be the real root of the problem.

The problem is that communication and education are ineffective tools to reach LGs making low-quality contributions. They certainly do not read long discussions like this one and yours on getting paid for contributions. The guidelines need to be integrated into Google Maps, so bad reviews are rejected right after we hit the submit button. Not in hiding and not later.

With new AI tools to write new texts, I guess the spammers will be an even bigger problem. Or maybe this is why the spam filters were made more aggressive?

I tried to come up with suggestions that should be tested before we reach the situation where it will be necessary to block all reviews for good. A milder and equally effective strategy could be to only allow reviews from users who are willing to stand by their reviews = the end of anonymous reviews.

When I wrote “DO SOMETHING” on the cover image, I was referring to the list of 9 suggestions as to what Google can do to improve the situation. At least one of the product managers should step forward and share what if anything they plan to do to keep the volunteers happy and motivated on this issue.

I have also been attacked a few times by upset LGs who don’t like I defend Google. Such outrage is not helpful and we should ask them to come up with concrete suggestions, and be open to the fact that they unintentionally might be violating one or more guidelines. And I completely agree that a high LG level does not always guarantee high-quality contributions.

All the best

Morten

[MortenCopenhagen]

Thanks for responding, @gmapas

With 150 million Local Guides and 12 million daily contributions, I doubt there will be enough volunteers to make a real difference. And motivating people to take a course before they can make reviews would be worth a test, but I fear not many would care to study and take a test.

Thanks for sharing your insights into how different local dialects can trick the spam filter.

Cheers

Morten

[gmapas]

Oi, @MortenCopenhagen

Obrigado por responder.

Eu penso diferente. Para mim não há 150 milhões de Local Guide, penso, há 150 milhões de usuários que tem o título de Local Guide.

Um grande abraço e obrigado por todo suporte

Gil

[MortenCopenhagen]

@gmapas

I see, but the number of Maps users are in the billions

These numbers are too high for me to understand anyway.

Cheers

Morten

[ErmesT]

Thanks for the feedback, @MortenCopenhagen .

I think we need to separate two things. What I wanted to say in my post is that in there the subject was about the Local Guides that are asking to be paid.

That people has nothing to do with fake reviews, or paid reviews. What they are asking for is to be paid because they believe the content they are providing is great. Most of the average of their contributions is quite bad, sometimes stolen, but I don’t think they are selling fake reviews. Sometimes they copy the reviews from a text in the web, but the basic concept is: Google is rich + I need a Job (or at least I need money) = Google should give some money to me.

On the meantime I wanted to highlight that the issue (the plague, I said) with the fake reviews is probably the root of the choice of making a stronger algorithm to fight with them.

A few weeks ago in one of my replies I wanted to make a suggestion to reverse the paradigma: “if Google wants to be able to really teach the AI they must have a team at work to identify active and trusted reviewers, and to flag them as “trusted”. In this way the AI can really learn from us, and this will feed the AI more than a team of Googlers at work every day to release good reviews”.

However I don’t know if this can work. The reasons why the reviews are blocked, at least mine (I am reporting what I know personally, as I am of the ones who received the email from Google) is Fake engagement. The funny part is that my reviews were about Historical Landmark, that belongs to the Castle of Versailles, and not about some business

A link in the email sends us directly to the help page: Prohibited and restricted content

"Fake engagement

Contributions to Google Maps should reflect a genuine experience at a place or business. Fake engagement is not allowed and will be removed.

This includes:

• Paying, incentivising or encouraging the posting of content that does not represent a genuine experience.

• Discouraging or prohibiting negative reviews, or selectively soliciting positive reviews from customers.

• Content that is not based on a real experience and does not accurately represent the location or product in question.

• Content that has been incentivized by a business in exchange for discounts, free goods and/or services.

  This includes merchant requests for revision or removal of a negative review through offered discounts, free goods or services, or other incentives.

• Content that has been posted by a competitor to undermine a business or product’s reputation.

• Content that has been posted from multiple accounts to manipulate a place’s rating."

That message is clear enough, to understand what Google is trying to fight: not copied reviews, nor reviews that are not following the rules. It seems they are looking for well written reviews, exactly the ones that can be generated by a system like the one you highlighted in my post.

I fully agree that Google must be clear and must do it ASAP, because a lot of good reviewers are giving up, and this will give even more space to the fake reviews.

Some of these bad actors, as I mentioned before, is already trying a different action, by covering some businesses with a lot of Five Stars reviews, with the purpose of having the AI flag the company as responsible for incentivizing (paying for) false positive reviews. The aim is simple, and the increased upsurge of AI works in their favor.

This is why I’m very worried, and I think the risk is actually that Google can completely eliminate the possibility of writing reviews, by removing the Reviews tab from Google Maps. How can an AI fight with good, well written reviews.

I like the suggestion of @AdrianLunsong to increase the function of the timeline, at lest to detect if I have been there, because I don’t think spammers or boots will use their time to visit the the places where to write a fake review

[gmapas]

Olá, @MortenCopenhagen
Obrigado por sua resposta.

Eu disse anteriormente" …Para mim não há 150 milhões de Local Guide, penso, há 150 milhões de usuários que tem o título de Local Guide."

Não expliquei minha colocação adequadamente. Sei que o tema está fora da sua publicação inicial, então antecipadamente peço desculpas

O número de 150 milhões de Local Guide é impressionante. Porém, quanto destes 150 milhões de perfis são realmente Local Guide? Esse foi meu ponto. Ter a insígnia de Local Guide no perfil - opinião muito pessoal - não faz de alguém Local Guide, diz que o perfil tem o título de Local Guide.

O que o Google espera de um Local Guide? Ele mesmo responde:

"As the people who bring Google Maps to life, Local Guides write reviews, post photos, and gather facts that make it easier, tastier, and more fun to navigate the world. The badge symbolizes on-the-ground expertise and a commitment to sharing everyday experiences that inform real-time decisions across the globe. From photographing a must-order dish to adding a small business, Local Guides capture stories that lead neighbors, travelers, and everyone in between toward a better understanding of the places around them. The community takes that mission seriously.

"It’s in the details. Always include notable information about a place and your experience. Avoid vague, generic, and repetitive comments like reviews that just say “ok,” “good,” or “yum.”"

Mas o que encontro com muita frequência, sem esforço no Google Mapas é, perfis que tem insígnia de Local Guide. Mas posso reconheçê-los como Local Guides? Não, não posso, pois estão longe de atender o que o Google descreve e espera de um Local Guide.

Se o Google filtrar perfis, usando seus próprios critérios mencionados anteriormente, acredito com sinceridade que este número impactante seria muito menor. E porque digo isso? Pois vejo com frequência no mapa comportamentos que não representam o Programa Local Guides.

1- Há contas com o insígnia Local Guides que fizeram apenas uma avaliação há cerca de três, quatro anos. Contas que não avaliaram nada desde então ou fizeram qualquer outra contribuição e são consideradas Local Guides. Estas contas são de fato Local Guides ou só tem a insígnia Local Guides? Compreende meu ponto?

2 - Há contas em que o usuário repete indiscriminadamente avaliações por vários locais para ganhar pontos na gamification do Programa. E as avaliações estão públicas. Isso é ser Local Guide? Na minha opinião pessoal, não.

3 - Há contas que o usuário faz justamente o que o Google pede que um Local Guide não faça, ou seja, comentários genéricos, etc.

4 - E claro, uma infinidade de contas claramente spam, etc.

Foi com relação a isso que falei, ou seja, estas contas, no meu entendimento totalmente pessoal não são Local Guides, pois não praticam os “fundamentos” do Programa. São contas que tem o título de Local Guides. E para mim faço essa distinçao entre ser Local Guide e ter o símbolo de Local Guide no perfil.

Veja abaixo alguns exemplos que encontrei sem dificuldade no mapa em pouco mais de 15 minutos de busca para mostrar aqui junto a esse texto.

Lista do Perfil de um Local Guide. Avaliações públicas com cinco e três meses. Está escrito “ótimo atendimento” e “bom atendimento”. E no mesmo formato havia várias avaliações em outros lugares.

Lista do Perfil de um Local Guide. Avaliações públicas com seis e dois anos. Está escrito em ambas “onde moro”.

Perfi Local Guide. Avaliação pública há um mês, está escrito “cash only”.

Outro perfil Local Guide. Avaliação pública há cinco meses, está escrito “duck not fresh”. Mas o local não era um restaurante.

Outro perfil Local Guide. Avaliação pública há dois meses, está escrito “otima”.

Eu poderia passar o dia inteiro fazendo isso mas, temos uma IA em ação. Torço com sinceridade que ela aprenda a ocultar ou deletar esse tipo de contribuição que não acrescenta nada para nós usuários.

Com muita frequência, sem procurar, encontro o que enumerei e mostrei anteriormente, e não sou tão ativo como outros colaboradores. Com base nisso, se filtrar, esse número impactante de 150 milhões de Local Guide, posso estar errado, talvez seja bem menor.

Anteriormente denunciava com frequência estas contas, comportamentos etc. Mas geralmente nada acontecia, então parei de fazê-lo, desisti.

Algo que me deixa muito “triste”. Quando encontro uma avaliação ruim, uma foto ruim ou qualquer outra contribuição fora das Políticas e no perfil tem uma insígnia do Local Guides, é muito decepcionante, pois o que espero de um Local Guide? O mais alto nível de contribuição nas áreas que se dedica no Google Mapa. Mas isso é apenas minha opinião pessoal.

Oi, @ErmesT
Obrigado por compartilhar a imagem do e-mail. Eu ficaria muito grato se isso se tornar padrão.

Obrigado pela atenção e todos.

Gil

[Berno_Foodoso]

Hi @MortenCopenhagen ,

I agree with you on most points, but it is difficult to believe that, with all the data available on reviewers, an AI would continue to make so many false positives. Furthermore, it seems unlikely that the AI would not evolve and be capable of correcting past mistakes. It raises the question of whether the issue lies in a lack of investment in advanced AI technology and instead relying on poorly trained machine learning.

[mirekl]

Hi @Berno_Foodoso ,

I have seen a lot, just like @gmapas .

Unfortunately this AI seems not to be learning anything, even if it is given on a plate.

The most remarkable example, that I remember is about a Local Guide, who probably was running a small transport company.
He had a little toy truck with an advertisement of the company printed on it.
This was a regular advertisement containing the company name, logo, phone number, web address, etc.
This toy truck was exposed on vast majority of photos, that this Local Guide was publishing, and those were literally thousands of photos.

I was impressed by his creativity, but reported his photos a few years ago, providing all necessary details.

You know what?

This Local Guide is still doing well, although I’m pretty sure he broke a few rules listed by @MortenCopenhagen .
He is currently a Local Guide level 8 and soon will reach level 9.
A few photos, that I reported, are still publicly visible.
The only change that I have noticed is that he switched his profile to restricted to hide his creative idea for free advertising.

Or maybe I’m wrong and he is not breaking any rules?
In such case this post will be a good inspiration for others who want to advertise for free in a creative way.

[vladimir_butov]

I was on vacation and spent a lot of time on walks and different places, on some days my activity was maximum - I left dozens of reviews a day. After that, my reviews stopped being published. I sincerely try to develop the service, interview owners and visitors, take high-quality photos and write real reviews. it demotivates when you are treated like a robot and very imperative.

@MortenCopenhagen thanks !