3 - Moving Up & Down the Leaderboards
As well as tapping into the element of gamification in the Local Guides program, with aims of showcasing the Local Guides having metrics such as the top 100 points or photo views, the leaderboards include a bit of fun! You can think of this like the ancient Indian board game ofSnakes & Ladders, however, as depicted in the image here, in our case it’s a 3-dimensional version of this popular game. We have a set of Snakes & Ladders leaderboards, one stacked above the other. There’s one for each Local Guide level and there are additional advanced boards for different metrics.
Determining your position on the Top 100 leaderboards
The leaderboards are dynamic in that they are regularly updated and at each update your Maps contributions (photo views, points and LG level etc) as well as that of all other participating LGs, including new entrants, will determine your position on the leaderboards and because of this, at any time you could climb a up ladder or slide on a snake down the leaderboards. Also, because of these factors, even if you make a massive contribution in a given month, your position on the newly updated leaderboards may not be what you might expect! You might even not appear…read on.
Dropping off the leaderboards
Because there are only 100 places on each board, as new Local Guides enter above you, you might drop off that board altogether, shoosh!.
Jumping from one leaderboard to another
When you move from one Local Guide level to another, you will also jump from one Top 100 leaderboard to another, for example, from the Level 7 to the Level 8 leaderboard! Now, if you were on a crowded board (say the LG Level 8 leaderboard) this might be a blessing as you might jump up to a less crowded board, in this case the Level 9 board and being less crowded there, you will have less chance of dropping off the bottom of the board. However, if you were to jump onto a crowded board (say from the Level 7 to the Level 8 board) then this might not be such a blessing because when you jump up onto the next level leaderboard you will generally be at or near the bottom of that leaderboard and this makes you very vulnerable as you there you will more likely drop off altogether during a future update as other LGs jump above you!
Popping out of the top of a leaderboard
An even worse scenario is if the next leaderboard above is full, you might not even make it onto this higher board. Now that’s a bit of an irony given that you have increased your Maps contributions resulting in say more photo views and more points yet the result is that you don’t have enough to make it onto the next leaderboard, you just pop out of the top of the leaderboard you just levelled up from 
Ping-Pong!
So what do you do if you pop-out of the top or drop off the bottom of your current Local Guide leaderboard? If you pop-out of the top of your current leaderboard do you delete one or more of your photos to drop back down onto the lower Local Guide level leaderboard? No! Just keep on contributing until you do make it onto the higher up leaderboard and someone else will drop off the bottom of that one haha! This could well end up in a game of ping-pong, and sadly, I do foresee the day when this will happen has happened 
What happens if I close down my Local Guides/Connect account?
If you decide to close down your Local Guides / Connect account and leave the program altogether then you should let me know privately and I will delete you totally off the system. In this case all your history as stored on the System will also be deleted and therefore, while you would continue to appear on any historically posted leaderboards, you would not appear on any future leaderboard posts. If at a future date you wished to return, then you would need to start from scratch again, including going through the whole registration process.
What happens if I don’t update my data?
Your data will most likely remain the same as your last previously updated data and in this case, each month when the leaderboards are updated, the leaderboards’ inherent built-in self-cleansing feature would drop you lower and lower and eventually completely off the leaderboards. To prevent this from happening and to maintain an as correct as possible history, you should update your data every month.
Final comment
As you can see there are different ways you can move up and down the Leaderboards as well as dropping off altogether. It’s very much like Snakes & Ladders; we roll the dice each time there’s an update, and both the changes in your photo views, points and LG level etc, as well as that of all new participating Local GUides and those already on the leaderboards, will determine where you end up! Your changes could bump others off one or more of the leaderboards and similarly the changes of other LGs could bump you lower or even totally off the leaderboards!
Keep in mind, even if you should drop off the leaderboards, there are advantages of continuing to update your data because the leaderboards are more than just about rankings! Yes there is the fun and friendly competitive side to the leaderboards but using the System’s powerful extensions, tables and charts can help you better manage, monitor and improve the health and quality of your contributions and the outcomes achieved in terms of points, views and impact on your community. This is what gives the biggest return on your 5 minutes or so investment each month in checking and if necessary updating your Maps contribution data. And of course, when you do gain the necessary points or views, you can get back onto the leaderboards, with up to date history, System tables and charts etc.
If I drop out of the Leaderboards can I get back on?
Yes you can, see the FAQs