Map Maker Community will be moving to Google Product Forums!
Lori Savageau
Hi there, Map Makers -
We have some exciting news! Map Maker is introducing a brand new forum. Beginning Wednesday, March 27, 2013, we will be joining the ranks of other Googler products, such as Google Maps, with an official Google Product Forum.
Why we’re making the switch
Google Product Forums offer countless benefits to community members, including the following:
Improved user-to-user engagement: We will now have Top Contributors! TCs are experienced mappers and proven leaders in the forum community. They will be actively responding to all of your questions and concerns, in addition to Googlers.
Badges: You can now earn badges based on your forum participation. This includes the Rising Star program, for forum up-and-comers. Learn more about TCs and Rising Stars here
Ranking posts: You can easily mark a post as helpful, unhelpful, or spam (though hopefully we won’t be seeing much from now on!)
Visibility across Google products: We will now be able to cross-share posts on other product forums when applicable, including Google Maps, helping to further enrich the Map Maker Community
Spam protection: Google Product Forums have a vastly improved system to help prevent spam, improving the overall value of the forum
Language support: Google Product Forums support more languages, with auto-translation capabilities to make forum engagement even easier, around the globe
Improved searchability: Post types will be easily distinguished by a clear badging system:
What else to expect from the new forum
The new and improved forum will offer the following discussion categories:
Top Contributors, Rising Stars, and Googlers will be easy to spot by their badges:
Participating in the forum will be as simple as it is now. For any help or insight in posting to the forum, check out the Getting Started Guide and Forum Posting Guidelines.
What this means for the current Map Maker Community
In order to complete the transition, we will be archiving the General forum. To date, your contributions have been valuable to new and seasoned mappers alike. As such, the existing content on the archived forum will remain searchable, though mappers will no longer be able to post here. The link to the new Map Maker forum will be easily visible right at the top of the current forum, and we’ll be also be sharing it as the final announcement before the archive. Stay tuned!
Regional forums
The existing Regional forums will also be archived in an effort to unite all Map Maker Community members. The improved language support will make this easier than ever.
We hope you’re as excited about this change as we are, and look forward to your future contributions in the new Google Map Maker Community forum!
Thanks again, and - as always - happy mapping!
Lori,
on behalf of the entire Map Maker Community Team