Anyone can contribute and add their own themed maps as new CSV files which can be imported later in GeoGuessr. People can also contribute to existing maps by adding more locations that fit the theme or deleting locations which they believe don't fit the theme.
The main purpose of this is that certain themes may have thousands of locations, each of which would ideally need to be handpicked. This is too time-consuming to do for one person. If the community all contributes to it though then it's much easier to have maps with solid themes with the ultimate goal that each map is "comprehensive." By comprehensive I mean that it includes 99% of all locations in the world which fit the theme (and also have Street View or a Photosphere of course).
The themes have to be very specific and ideally not very commonly done. For example, a country would not be a valid theme because it's too broad and plus it already exists in Explorer mode or in hundreds of maps. "Major cities of X country" is also very commonly done and would not be specific enough. I uploaded one map already to showcase an example theme. It's "Islands Inside of Lakes Worldwide." To my knowledge based on searching, there's only 2 other potential similarly themed maps that currently exist in the game. In my opinion this is an example of how specific the theme has to be and how uncommon it has to be. Some other theme ideas that I came up with off the top of my head:
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Drone shot photospheres
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Natural arches/natural bridges/rock bridges of the world
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Treehouse photospheres of the world (if these even exist)
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Gothic cathedrals and churches of the world
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Sinkholes of the world
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Roundabout monuments of the world
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Rollercoasters of the world
If the goal is to get 99% of the locations that fit each theme, then you can see it's a difficult task for a person to do by themselves. However, as a community if we are, let's say, just playing GeoGuessr normally, and by chance we get placed next to a random rollercoaster, then hopefully we can remember that there's a rollercoasters of the world themed map and then add that new location to it. The community is also from all around the world, so each person can contribute a rollercoaster from their hometown for example. Slowly over time, each map gets closer to becoming comprehensive.
Anyone is free to download the CSVs and publish a map of it on their GeoGuessr account. The plan is that if you want to play a map you have 2 options:
- Search the map name in GeoGuessr and play someone's map. This however requires trusting that the publisher used the CSV file from the GitHub repository and that it is also the most up to date version.
- Download the CSV yourself, publish it on your own GeoGuessr account, and then play it. This way, you can be 100% certain that you are playing the GitHub version and that it's the latest version.
Not everyone may know how to use Git and GitHub. If you don't know how to use GitHub, then you can send a private message to my Reddit account /u/geozontus with the coordinates from the CSV file copied and pasted and I will add the changes to the repository. I don't know if there's a better way to do this for people who are not familiar with Git, but I am open to suggestions of different solutions.