Challenge points not granted

[bfaloona]

Greetings @MortenCopenhagen , @DeniGu -

I've joined the "Colors Of Fall challenge" shown on the contribute section of my Android Google Maps app.

 

The "challenge info" link says my contributions will generate points but points are not consistently counted. This seems to happen a lot in the guides program. We are offered points as motivation but they are granted inconsistently (check the facts, ratings), or held back for unclear reasons (your review was not posted), or delayed for an extended period of time (reviews improperly hidden).

Are points only earned by links from the challenge page?

Are all contributions included in the challenge, or only those that are linked from the challenge screen? The challenge info instructions state that step one is to visit a place. The actions I took from the challenge page did earn some challenge points. However, I rated, reviewed and posted photos of several local places yesterday that were not listed on the challenge page and I did not earn challenge points for those. Is this expected? If so, it would be very useful to explain that on the challenge info screen.

If all challenge points come from the challenge screen then I'm stuck waiting as currently none are offered:

Best,

Brandon

P.S. One complicating detail is that my old reviews are currently hidden. My appeal was successful but I am waiting for the improperly hidden reviews process to complete. 😵‍💫

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @bfaloona 

I can confirm from your public profile that you have added 238 reviews and only 11 of them are public.

After being unsuspended you likely need to use the form called Account investigation for contributions not visible on Google Maps.

Best of luck
Morten

PS I know nothing about challenges - I was never invited to join one. 

[bfaloona]

Thanks @MortenCopenhagen , yes I have already posted that form.

[DeniGu]

Hi @bfaloona,

Thanks for your question! We'll reach out to the challenge team to check this and get back to you.

[JustJake]

@DeniGu @bfaloona @MortenCopenhagen 

I'm having the same issue. The instructions suggest that all contributions will be counted towards the challenge, but I am only getting an acknowledgment through the 'Your Posts' status bar when I post within the challenge screen. Very rarely are suggestions appearing within the challenge, and several of them were duplicates of posts I'd already made. 

I did notice that the Milestones were drastically reduced, could that be because so few people have been able to get a post through the challenge? I searched Connect for any announcement or guide for this challenge, but I could not find anything when it first appeared. Any guidance would be appreciated!

Thanks,

-Jake

[Hana_K]

Hello everyone,

This is the first challenge I have noticed in the app, but I am confused as well.

I have found this link in the Google Maps app which describes how to participate in the challenge, but I don't see any "Join others" button. 

https://support.google.com/maps/?p=comm_challenge

In summary, I have no idea how to participate.

Also, I see other guides' photos that were posted, but some of them have nothing to do with autumn (buildings, food, etc.). Shouldn't they be related to autumn?

Thank you for any guidance.

[MortenCopenhagen]

@DeniGu 

The Fall challenge also reached me. I hit the join button, which takes me to the local status page, but my contributions are also not counted. I waited a few days to see if the contribution stats needed to be updated before my points would show up under the challenge. But I don't think it is working as reasonably expected. 

Let me know if I can be of further assistance in documenting this issue. 

Cheers

Morten 

[Hana_K]

Hello @MortenCopenhagen 

Can you guide me on where I can find the "Join other" button in order to join the challenge?

Thank you.

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @Hana_K

I thought I joined the challenge by hitting the blue text Join shown below.

 

But now I realize that any edits does not count in this challenge. We need to make contributions to one or more of the places shown on the challenge page. 

I added a review to a place I added a photo to maybe a year a ago. And voila! I now have 11 points counted in the challenge.

So my error reported above is solved with this discovery.

I wonder how these places get selected. 

Cheers 

Morten 

[DeniGu · Accepted solution]

Hi again @bfaloona, @JustJake, and @MortenCopenhagen,

I confirmed with the team that only contributions inside the challenge screen count towards this challenge and earn challenge bonus points when a milestone is achieved. However, a contribution still earns points as usual toward your Local Guide status regardless of whether it is done inside the challenge screen or not.

I'll mark this comment as the solution as it answers @bfaloona's question in the main post of this thread. Thank you!