Map Submission Policies

Last Updated: February 5, 2017

Required Information

Bold fields on the submit page are required without exception. This includes the Title, URL, Country, State, City, at least one Category and the Thumbnail.

You are highly encouraged to include a Description and a More Info URL for the map.

Please do not copy any content from other sites, such as Wikipedia. Besides potential copyright violations, search engines de-prioritize postings that contain copied content. You are encouraged to re-write content in your own words if necessary.

Inappropriate Content

Thumbnails, titles, descriptions and links should not contain any of the following:

  • Pornography, adult or mature content, including:
    • Nudity
    • Close-ups of breasts, buttocks, or crotches, blurred-out
    • Sheer or see-through clothing or lingerie
    • Strategically covered nudity (includes situations in which genitals are blurred out by camera)
    • Images of men or women posing and/or undressing in a seductive manner
  • Violent content
  • Hate speech (including content that incites hatred or promotes violence against individuals or groups based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, or sexual orientation/gender identity), harassment, bullying, or similar content that advocates harm against an individual or group.
  • Excessive profanity
  • Copyrighted materials

Thumbnails

You must capture and upload a thumbnail of the imagery. The tutorial has info on how to do this.

The thumbnail should not show the push-pin or similar icons. (help)

The thumbnail must match the URL (no Bing Maps thumbnails for Google Maps URLs).

Do not submit a Google Street View thumbnail for a map if it isn't a Street View URL.

Thumbnails should be square, and will be resized to 500 by 500px.

Feel free to upload additional thumbnails for the other mapping services (Google, Bing) even while your map is waiting in the Queue for moderation.

Duplicates

Duplicates of existing maps will be rejected. The first (original) submission is always kept.

Please Search for similar maps before submitting them, or use the Check For Duplicates button.

Exception: A second map can be posted of a location with a Google Street View URL if the first map is not Street View, and vice-versa.

If you think a map could be updated with minor information changes (outdated links, typos), please leave a comment on the map and a Moderator will be able to make the changes.

Submitting Yourself

You are welcome to submit your own home. Please understand the geolocation of each posting is available to everyone else.

Businesses owned by the submitter are accepted, but must not contain blatant advertising.

Categories

  • Buildings - Homes - Celebrity - Business: All maps must have a More Info link to a profile at a well-established website (such as Wikipedia or Forbes.com).
  • Buildings - Residential: Homes that are not celebrity, famous or otherwise historic belong in this category, whether the owner's name is included or not.

Map Changes

Changes to maps may be requested in several ways:

  • Posting a comment on the map's page
  • Using the Suggest Changes and Add Links buttons on the map's page
  • Requesting help in the Map Corrections Forum

Changes will be reviewed by moderators and may be edited or rejected for editorial reasons.

Updates to a map's title and description will be closely reviewed. Please pay attention to the following circumstances:

  • If the owner of a house changes, moves, or the owner becomes deceased, a map title change may be considered. However, in cases where the new owner is less notable than the old owner, it may be preferable to keep the more notable owner as the primary text in the map's title. In these cases, the title may be changed to one of the following:
    • [old owner] (Former) if the new owner is not well know
    • [new owner] (previously [old owner]'s House) if the new owner is well known
  • If you are considering changing a large portion of the existing Description or Title from the original submitter, you are advised to send them a message to make sure they would agree with your change
  • In cases where a large change is made to a title or description that the original submitter disagrees with, the original submitter should start a discussion with their concerns in the Map Corrections Forum

Please help us keep maps updated and accurate:

  • Test More Info links for relevance and function:
    • Notify moderators to delete broken and irrelevant links
    • Use Update Map - Add Link to add new links
  • Review categories: Notify moderators to change or add categories
  • If thumbnails are 150 x 150px, please help us by using Update Thumbnail to a 500 x 500xp thumbnail
  • If the orientation of thumbnails are changed, or map was submitted two or more years ago, update the URL via Suggest Changes

Legal

Submitted information becomes the property of VirtualGlobetrotting.com and may not be used without permission.

Questions or Comments?

Any questions regarding any of these policies may be posted in the forums.