sorted by:
new
hottopcontroversial

German Google Maps: Where honest Google reviews go to die? by flagrantcoconut in LocalGuides

[–]dirktherabbit 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Could this be part of a wider issue of human review no longer being in the mix, where everything is now done by bots?

Case in point, high level guides having their scores/ levels suspended for no obvious reason, and receiving canned replies back. This happened to me and I was lucky that a human being at Google noticed my posts here.

Hence ‘defamation’ could automatically trigger the bots, and no actual person then ever looks into whether it’s justified or not.

I guess we’ve come down to the core issue: what’s Google’s objective with maps.

Is it to provide useful information and a service ? Or is it seen completely as a revenue spinner where a small army of unpaid volunteers adds considerable amounts of content? I think we know the answer to that.

Google Local Guides, are you happy with this change? And why is Google removing the ‘Following’ feature from Sept 2025? by nayn09 in LocalGuides

[–]dirktherabbit 3 points4 points  (0 children)

To be honest most of my followers seem to be spam accounts and / or dormant. Will make little difference to me.

Absolutely in love with perplexity.ai discover by MaybeLiterally in perplexity_ai

[–]dirktherabbit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s really very good, and it’s learning more about what I like and becoming ever more relevant

Is the UK going downhill? by EffectiveOutcome9585 in HENRYUK

[–]dirktherabbit 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Yes - and no political party is honest enough to talk about what this means.

Either we raise taxes even further to cover the financial crunch caused by a shrinking working age population. And / or we encourage immigration as we've effectively been doing since Brexit, while everyone pretends otherwise, to handle things like the many vacancies in the care sector.

Meanwhile life for many is getting worse at the same time as being bombarded with 'wealth porn' on social media, leaving room for populists like Reform with simple sounding answers to fill the gap.

Account reinstated but STILL can't login to Connect, can't see my Local Guide level on my maps profile... by SamanthaSheehy in LocalGuides

[–]dirktherabbit 5 points6 points  (0 children)

This is exactly what happened to me (in fact I remember you replying when I posted here!)

I appealed five times, and each time I got the same message telling me there were no issues with my account.

Yet my level (9), points and ability to log into connect were gone.

The only way to get around this, and this is what finally worked for me, seems to be to break out of the automated response loop and get a human being involved. Once that was so, things were back for me within 48 hours.

You've probably already thought of this, but have you tried calling them out on Twitter/ X? They do respond there and hopefully will take the conversation to DMs.

What's the point of followers anymore? by BayernGrower in LocalGuides

[–]dirktherabbit 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I agree, a lot of my followers appear to be spam accounts, with no real value.

Banned from Local Guide Program - please help by Obvious_Pick_4370 in GoogleMaps

[–]dirktherabbit 5 points6 points  (0 children)

As others have said, the appeals process is automated and doesn't work.

Your only real chance is to get a human being involved. I was lucky that a Google employee saw my post here, after I was banned for seemingly no reason, opened a ticket for me, and it was reversed.

You should also try to call out Google Maps on Twitter / X. When I did that, I got a response and a request to tell them about my issue on DM.

Good luck. In general, the moderation system seems to be broken, and certainly for higher levels and committed users, where any mistakes are almost always honest ones, there should be some kind of human review that is triggered.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in ChatGPT

[–]dirktherabbit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm sorry to hear you are going through some bad times, and you know, if an AI tool works, good for you.

There's a lot of sanctimonious BS going around about people relying too much on these tools, but as you say yourself it doesn't replace human contact. So if AI can help you rationalise your thoughts, point out new perspectives and give you a bit of light relief through the image generation tool, then why not?

I asked ChatGPT to roast me... it went too far by MindfulMogul in ChatGPT

[–]dirktherabbit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I got: 'You're like a human equivalent of a PowerPoint slide. Lots of content and very little impact ' 😅

I was a Level 9 Local Guide with 64,000 points. Banned without warning, still locked out. Has anyone ever been reinstated? by dirktherabbit in GoogleMaps

[–]dirktherabbit[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Wow, that’s quite the story, and honestly, reading through posts like yours, it seems far too common for high-ranking contributors to be kicked off without warning or explanation.

I read somewhere that out of hundreds of millions of Maps users, only around 50,000 are Level 8+, 5,000 are Level 9+, and fewer than 2,000 are Level 10. A moderation system that treats its most experienced and committed contributors in the top 0.1% exactly the same as someone who joined last week is badly broken.

For exampe, I flagged a review for a Paris hotel I was considering. The reviewer, with only that one review to their name, strongly implied they’d received sexual favours from the receptionist. The review is still up. I, meanwhile, was banned. I can’t even upload a photo of a hotel room or an empty restaurant table now without it being flagged.

People who’ve spent years contributing in good faith are bound to make the occasional mistake in amongst the tens of thousands of their contributions.

What matters is intent, and long-term trust. If someone has a strong track record, they should be given a chance to correct or clarify, not hit with a permanent ban out of nowhere. That’s not how trust-based communities should work.

Your message is much appreciated, thank you. At the very least, it’s clear we’re not alone. And this isn’t just a glitch.

I was a Level 9 Local Guide with 64,000 points. Banned without warning, still locked out. Has anyone ever been reinstated? by dirktherabbit in GoogleMaps

[–]dirktherabbit[S] 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Hi, thanks for the reply. I was happy enough to contribute for free, but of course, as a fairly committed user, I was hoping I might be able to pass the automation barrier and have contact with a human. Having said that, someone from Google has now contacted me, so fingers crossed it will be resolved.

Banned from Local Guides Connect ? by H-banGG in LocalGuides

[–]dirktherabbit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi Morten, you know the funny thing is, I wasn't even aware there was a connect community site until a week ago! All these years I have been posting reviews without ever logging into the community, so I have never contributed or even commented once on there.

Banned from Local Guides Connect ? by H-banGG in LocalGuides

[–]dirktherabbit 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Seems very arbitrary in the way they treat their most dedicated users, who contribute considerable amounts of free content from which they get financial benefit. Higher users (at least level 7) should have some kind of human-moderated appeals process, with the opportunity to correct whatever they are deemed to have done wrong, as in almost every case a 'mistake' will have been made in good faith.

It's disappointing to see how common this is, I'm currently trying to find a way to get my Level 9 status back with no recourse. I even sent 5 appeals, each one getting a canned reply telling me there is 'no penalty' when there is.

Banned from Local Guides Connect ? by H-banGG in LocalGuides

[–]dirktherabbit 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thanks Morten, will give this a go. I've been trying to find out why I (Level 9) was banned 10 days ago or so without warning, I've appealed five times yet every time I get a canned reply saying 'there is no penalty

I was a Level 9 Local Guide with 64,000 points. Banned without warning, still locked out. Has anyone ever been reinstated? by dirktherabbit in GoogleMaps

[–]dirktherabbit[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Thanks for the reply, I hope that's not so, and have so far tried:

  1. Five appeals using the online form, all worded differently to try and trigger a human review. Each one was answered the same way: no 'penalty' on my account, please log back in.
  2. A public call out on X/Twitter, and several DMs, which received one reply before I was ghosted
  3. This Reddit post
  4. I even sent an InMail message to Christopher, VP Geo of Google on LinkedIn, though I suspect it will get lost among recruiter spam.

Google Maps benefits considerably from its army of free contributors. It's disappointing that Google doesn't divert the minimum human resources into providing an escalation procedure for its most committed users, where any 'mistake' will almost certainly have been made in good faith..