Discussion on "Giving Map Maker Automated Systems Names"

[gzub]

Thought I would create a thread to discuss the announcement that Map Maker Bots have gotten named: https://groups.google.com/d/topic/mapmaker-announcements/THzCXf4hDBE/discussion

I thought I would start by sharing some of the Bot's that I have found recently (that are now named):

Map Buildings

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=201806375508017613107

Google Automated Bounds Fixer

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=202178938658923733808

Map Maker Syncer

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=203933405086697465771

Map Maker Revert

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=210916077034799027130

Google Automated Cleaner 2

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=204176718196335676424

Google Automated Wipeout

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=206192795557523046010

Geoff 

[rjhintz]

It would be useful to have a Help article with:

• name
  
• functional description
  
• inception date
  
• termination (if terminated)
  
• periodicity or one time
  
• affinities, if any, with other bots
• replaces [bot name] or replaced by [bot name]
  
• issue addressed (in Issue Tracker)
• unintended side effects

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Rich

[Willy Hrachovina]

It seems like the Wipeout bot doesn't have auto-publish abilities, as I saw it had edits pending review. It also had edits that were denied, though we will never get to see why. It is surprising to see a bot getting moderated like that, but I guess if it is going to start removing stuff, that would be more necessary since it is harder to replace something than modify it.

[gzub]

Although it would be easier if Google did it we could technically do it ourselves either on Map Makerpedia or another wiki.

[Flash]

On Thursday, 9 August 2012 10:20:27 UTC-7, Willy Hrachovina wrote:

It seems like the Wipeout bot doesn't have auto-publish abilities, as I saw it had edits pending review. It also had edits that were denied, though we will never get to see why. It is surprising to see a bot getting moderated like that, but I guess if it is going to start removing stuff, that would be more necessary since it is harder to replace something than modify it.

I'm not surprised at all, I've never seen a bot that can delete things on it's own; that has too much potential for loss of good data.  Bad data can later be removed, but if a bot deletes things, the average mapper would not see it to retrieve it.

Similarly, you'll notice that the Review Bot (I don't think it has been renamed yet) will approve edits, but it doesn't deny them.

[Saikrishna Arcot]

Started a thread a while ago (which I already marked as completed).

Anyways, Google Automated Address Fixer 1: http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=211404368674488312250

[Saikrishna Arcot]

Google Automated Flyover Fixer: http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=217119532762413540357

[rjhintz]

Some of the advantages of Google stating the characteristics instead of us inferring them would be completeness and accuracy.  

There are features in GMM that we might infer are designed as X, when the real intent is Y.  It goes against the culture of obscurity, though.

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Rich

[Saikrishna Arcot]

The obscurity's still there with the categories, but it looks like the wheels are grinding somewhere (for better or for worse, I don't know).

[rjhintz]

You know about Charlie Brown and the football, right?

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Rich

[fhdogs]

Welcome back to me... just wanted to chime in and say that these bot names are a very welcome feature to me. I've noticed a few changes in GMM since my hiatus began, but this was one of the big ones I was hoping would happen at some point. 

-Mike

On Thursday, August 9, 2012 9:57:33 AM UTC-4, gzub wrote:

[Saikrishna Arcot]

Just read about it. :)

[RussOfford]

Any way you can add this suggestion to your initial list?

Google Automated Flyover Fixer: http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=217119532762413540357 

Does someone have a full (updated) list of these bots with their names and a description of what each does ... all in one place... on some blog already? (It would make a great blog post for someone to do!) :)

Russ

[Rahim]

Hey Everyone,

@Rich - Good idea and thanks for your feedback on having this documented on MM Help Center. I have passed on your suggestion to the team for documenting this.

Cheers,

~Rahim

[gzub]

Russ,

Unfortunately they do not allow editing of messages, I have created a Google Doc to list all the "Bots" in...

For now I have made it publicly editable, however if there is abuse I will lock it...

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ajd2hyK6pVbidHNxRTdxR0h4SGREZlkzWTJsblBJQmc

Geoff

[Flash]

The Places bots do not leave histories visible in Map Maker.  The change just shows when the information is transferred over.  The change you then see could be a single bot action, or the accumulation of 10 different bots working on it.  Or the change could be human initiated (such as from the owner's dashboard).  The could be named for all we know; we don't see the actions in our history.

[Graham Ginsberg]

Can someone (other than 'Flash') makes heads or tails out of this profile of mine
http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=55&editids=4fM3urSEug3qDTFdHv&iwloc=0_0&t=h&dtab=history

Reading the history you'll see several changes accepted by 'volunteer staff', then reverted back by Google bots.
I'm not sure of where those who claim that the Google bots map maker cannot revert changes, find this. They do appear to make changes and incorrect ones.

The profile "Naples Florida Real Estate"   appears with an 888 toll free number, which is a competing realtor's number and not my  239-404-4221 number

Your input would greatly be appreciated and a repair of the profile would give us peace of mind

[gzub]

I updated my spreadsheet to query the profile page of the bots to get the stats as well as the current name as I think Sai noticed that one of the bots had its name changed to "Deactivated Map Maker Account"

Geoff

[Russ Offord]

@Geoff, thanks for the updated spreadsheet info and column additions.

FYI, I added those empty 'date released' and 'description' columns the other day to encourage others, who have time, to flesh it out more.

It would be nice to get a quick idea of what each bot does so that people who discover their listing was changed by one of these can easily have an idea of what they are dealing.

Anyone want to continue to contribute to filling out the Google Bot spreadsheet more?

Russ

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[Saikrishna Arcot]

First off, you should have created a new thread, as your issue isn't relevant to this thread's topic.

Second, the first approval I see by anyone is on the June 5 edit made by GR Shashi. That was approved by an unnamed GR. If you are talking about your edit which has been denied, the only people who can see the changes and approvals/denials in a denied edit are GRs (because they have special tools) and the editor of that edit; no one else can see them.

One reason why any Google bots would be changing the info here is because your competitor's feature was/is merged into this feature by the Places bots. If this happened, there's no way to undo the merge. You might have to delete this feature and start anew. The Mapmaker Syncer is just synchronizing the information across the multiple products (Places, Google+, Maps (?), Map Maker) so that all info that is part of this feature is in Map Maker.

Thirdly, this feature should be split into two listings: one for the business (Naples Florida Real Estate) and one for you (Graham Ginsberg). If the business is something along the lines of a Dentist Office, Lawyer, Insurance Agent, or Real Estate Agent, then there should be a listing for the business and a listing for each person there. This was brought up in the May 29th edit by Andrew Sawyer.

Fourth, there are two edits that you have made to the feature: one on June 28th, and one almost an hour ago. You'll have to undo one (or both) of these edits (I suggest the June 28th one, since some info has changed since then).

For the record, Flash is quite knowledgeable about places (both the places features in Map Maker and Google Places).

[Flash]

Sai, I would warn you about helping this guy, I already did on the Places forum.  He was tracked me down and phoned me at home.   He has fully admitted that the issue is NOT Google's, but rather that his competitor was illegally posting his info on her site to try to steal his business, and when caught simply changed the text to match the background colour to continue to make it available for the Google bots.  He fully understands SEO (he does his own for his sites), and thus knows that Google's bots find that info and act upon it.  He fails to tell you that when he demands answers as to why the changes happen.  I have told him that the number will constantly be changed back, and being knowledgeable about the subject he agreed and 

He took my advice to delete this feature and set up a Graham Ginsberg only feature (what do you know, about the same thing you told him to do; except you didn't have the knowledge that they current feature has been purposely sabotagued, thus my recommendation for a complete rebrand to his name only.  BTW, he works for a bigger realty company, so they should have the agency POI, not him).  He marked this one to be closed, and was told it would take a while for a volunteer or a GR to come along and approve that, and that he should not touch it in the meantime.  He also set up the new POI through Places, and was told that he would have to wait for the PIN to be mailed to him and then wait another couple of weeks before it went live.  He understood and stated he was OK with it being down for a few weeks to finally get this resolved, stating he knew there was no other choice since someone else was feeding Google false data.

The next day, frustrated that all the changes had not completed overnight, he started again to request changes to the phone number on this POI.  Very soon his "Close" request was buried within other requests, even though he was told this POI should not be touched as it needed to be deleted.  His posts in the Places forum make it clear that he expects this POI should now show only the info of his new POI that still awaits publishing.  When told that his impatience has made this a POI that no one wanted to untangle, he blamed us; he now puts "volunteer" in quotes each time he says it as he figures that is no excuse, we should be jumping to serve him.  A direct quote when told his impatience was a problem is:

On Wednesday, August 8, 2012 1:25:33 PM UTC-7, naplesfl wrote:

The Google helpers for Florida are obviously dropping the ball

Hey, if you do the Florida area, the Google Map Profile area for Florida, do me a favor and wake up. Other 'helpers' are trying to take up your slack around the globe.

That would be directed at you, Sai, and the other US RERs.  If someone wants to close that POI, they are free to do so, but I am done helping this person.  And in all likelihood it will reopen as both he and his competitor keep feeding new info into it, making the bots feel it is alive.

Oh, and he's already been told in that forum to quit hijacking threads. 

[RussOfford]

Hi Saikrishna,

Would you mind weighing in on this in my new GMM discussion called "Unmerge a GMM POI vs Unmerging a G+ Local Listing?"

Thanks,

Russ Offord

[Graham Ginsberg]

@Saikrishna Arcot

Thank your for your insight. I have posted the problem of this messed up google map profile on another google forum. There are so many its easy to be confused.

If you cater to the Florida USA area, please look at it. Not to worry, I won't be the demon Flash makes me out to be. Its easy to blame everyone else but yourself, but I don't see Google or it helpers or its employees losing no sleep over this. As Flash so eloquently put it " we should be jumping to serve him"

It's Google losing business, but me.

If someone would want to suggest where one can PAY to get this fixed, this is always an option. One Google 'volunteer' eluded to payment in exchange for repair. Is this what you are asking for? Payment to fix a Google Profile that I verified as correct in the mail, and Google changed? Please offer suggestions, along a more simple line, remembering that we are not all graced with the intellectual prowess of a Google Mapping Volunteer

[gzub]

Found a new one...

Mapmaker Instant Syncer  http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=205976664484614572487 

Up only 1 day...

Geoff

On Friday, August 17, 2012 9:22:11 AM UTC-4, gzub wrote:

[DdDave]

Looks like "Map Maker Syncer" is now "Google Automated Reconciler 3".  I thought it was a new bot and was going to add it to the spreadsheet until I realized it's the new name for the same account.

[Saikrishna Arcot]

We both realized it at the same time. :) I had actually went on to add it and checked the active days and saw it was the same for both of them.

[gzub]

Thats why I put the column with the name retrieved from the profile as a formula and as plain text so we can see if a name has changed and record the old one...  I think we should get T-Shirts made with "Bot Watcher" on them...

[Saikrishna Arcot]

Speaking of which, cell B8 was using the formula. I updated it to make it static.

[Saikrishna Arcot]

Should unnamed bots be added to this list as well?

[gzub]

I would say yes, it sounded like they were planning on naming all of the Map Maker Bots so these may be places bots or some other groups...

Worth tracking anyway...

Geoff

[RussOfford]

Does anyone know if this might be a bot?

http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=209109305305390750540 

Stats: 897 days, 54108 edits, 55525 reviews

Feature edits: 58194

[Willy Hrachovina]

Something tells me this is a person, as I have not seen bots that make edits AND review edits. I saw a review where the user left a comment (for their own edit, though), and I don't think bots do that, either.

[Saikrishna Arcot]

The Google Automated Flyover Fixer actually made 2 reviews in addition to it's usual editing, but that was last year. I'm willing to bet that was a human.

[lovetour]

Anonymous6662
906 days, 9682544 edits

[Flash]

On Friday, September 14, 2012 12:04:15 AM UTC-7, lovetour wrote:

Anonymous6662
906 days, 9682544 edits

That is a well known bot, we generally call it the Places bot, but it has yet to be formally named by Google. 

[gzub]

That one was named to Google Automated Migrator...  There were a bunch of other changes to Anonymous & Named bots that I updated on the spreadsheet too...

Geoff

[RussOfford]

Is this a BOT?  I added it to the bottom of the spreadsheet in case it is (but I don't know how to insert the data correctly.)

Google Automated Super: http://www.google.com/mapmaker?gw=66&uid=216845028505966477393

Stats: 560 days , 15018 edits, 1 reviews  (If you click the 'reviews' tab, you see there really are no reviews.)

Points of interest 1

Feature edits 13206

Russ

[Andrew Sawyer]

It says 'Automated' so I think that's a safe assumption.

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Subject: Re: Discussion on "Giving Map Maker Automated Systems Names"

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