Banned_Google_Reviews

Use the Issues tab of this repo to paste your Google reviews which have been removed from Google Maps because someone (likely) affiliated with the reviewed establishment clicked the "flag" button to ban the review since it was negative.

I need your help!

It seems to me people of establishments being reviewed are abusing the purpose of the "flag" button in order to remove negative reviews. I find that to be pretty upsetting. So, to get my voice back, I'm pasting my banned reviews here for all to see once again, and I ask you to too!

Table of Contents

License

CC BY-SA 4.0

View the Issues Tab to see the banned reviews.

I'll slowly start putting some there as I have time. I'll start with the two above.

Goals

The goals of this repo are as follows:

1. Create awareness that some of your reviews may be banned even when you have no idea.
2. Show and teach you how to find and determine how many, and which of your own reviews are banned!
3. Give you your voice back so you can still have your banned reviews publicly searchable.
   1. You can contribute too: Just go open up an issue. Be reasonable is all I ask. There should be no (or very little) swearing in your reviews. Don't make me ban your already banned review too!
4. Hold establishments accountable when they provide sub-par services or results.
5. Provide the public, and current and potential future clients to these establishments, the ability to see these banned reviews before they go to an establishment themselves--they should know, before they arrive, what quality of services have been received there and how they may be treated if they go there too.

What this repo is NOT:

1. A "freedom of speech" platform.
   1. Don't be socially and civically ignorant! It is NOT a "first ammendment right" that Google, Facebook, Twitter, GitHub, or ANY PRIVATE COMPANY allow you to say whatever you want! It's their private platform. They can ban whatever content they want. GitHub can ban this if they want! What the first amendment grants you are limited freedom of speech rights to be granted freedom from unreasonable suppression of your speech by the government, NOT to protect you from suppression of your speech within organizations or systems owned by private entities.
   2. Therefore, if you WANT the government to force private companies to allow "freedom of speech", what your ignorant self is doing is actually seeking an authoritarian government. Go to Iran or North Korea or Russia to get more of that. Let private companies do what they wish. Keep your suppression of private company rights out of the United States, please.
2. A griping or complaining platform.
   1. While banned reviews are most-likely negative, and you likely will feel cathartic release by contributing to this repo (I know I do!), the purpose of this repo is NOT just to complain. Rather, it's to get your voice back (not freedom of speech voice, as freedom of speech has nothing to do with this private-company-owned-and-hosted repo here), and to help others see the content you felt important enough to share so they can make informed decisions and learn from your experience.

Un-banning your banned reviews

To "unban" your banned review, simply delete your current Google Review and then make a new one.

I recommend copying out the contents before deleting the current one, and posting it as an issue on this repo if it makes you feel better. Then, write your new review. I suspect that short, succinct, to-the-point reviews are less-likely to be banned or deleted. So, give 'em your 1 star rating if that's what they deserve, write something short, and be done.

Seeing your banned reviews

How many of my reviews, or your own reviews, are banned?

To find this out, do the following.

Here is one of my positive reviews, for Bob's Donuts, the best donut shop in the world!. If you click on it and then click on my name (direct link), you'll see this:

IMPORTANT: If you are looking at your own reviews, you must do this in an incognito window where you are NOT signed in with your Google Account, or in an alternate browser where you are not signed in with your Google Account! That's the only way to see this number of not banned reviews.

Notice it shows 37 reviews. Since I did this in an incognito window where I am not signed in with my Google Account, this is the number of not banned reviews.

From there, if you click on my logo, circled in green above, you'll see this:

.

Notice that it shows 54 reviews. That is my total number of reviews. That means that 54 - 37 = 17 of my reviews are BANNED! That's pretty upsetting. 17/54 x 100 = 31% of all of my Google reviews are banned!

If I am logged into my Google Account, I am deceived by Google into thinking that all 54 of my reviews are up and visible, because I see this instead, showing 54 reviews:

Which of my reviews, or your own reviews, are banned?

Chances are, it's your negative reviews which are banned.

To see which reviews are banned, do the following:

Option 1: paste the share link into an incognito window

1. Manually scroll down through all your reviews, and click the "Share" link for each one. Copy the link and paste it into an Incognito Window or into a browser where you are not signed in with your Google Account.

2. In the incognito window, if the review shows up after you paste the share URL, then the review is NOT banned. If you see "This review is no longer available.", however, then the review IS banned, silently, without you being informed of it, and only you can see this banned review (and only while you're logged in) even though you have no indication it is banned when looking at it while logged in.

   1. Here is an example of my banned review for Palo Verde Behavioral Health, 2695 N Craycroft Rd, Tucson, AZ 85712:

      This review is no longer available.

      Here is a screenshot of that:

      

Option 2: side-by-side comparison

1. Scroll down through your reviews, side-by-side, with one window on the left which is open and logged into your Google Account, and one incognito window on the right that is not.
2. Compare the two sides. Any reviews which show up in the logged-in window on the left but not in the incognito window on the right are your banned reviews! Here are a couple of mine. I have circled two banned reviews which show up on the left but not the right: