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Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map Hosting

openfreemap.org

151–160 of 243 posts

Re: Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map Hosting

#151

If it does a good job, somebody should get paid for it. I wouldn't rely on using this if it depends on donations (I call this begware). People expect to pay for services and products.

My main project is MapHub, it gives me my income. It's not an income like you'd get in a FAANG job, but still, I'm running it for making a living. For MapHub to work, I had to invest in my own tile server infrastructure: there is no way I could have made MapHub financially profitable with a 3rd party tile provider. So I kept iterating and iterating on the tile server infrastructure and after 9 years I arrived at a st…

Have you been running this for long? I've looked for something in this space for the last couple of years but only came across MapTiler /AGOL and a few others, that were either pretty expensive (for small datasets) or restrictive functionality.

If so I'd say you need to work on the SEO and findability side.

Re: Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map Hosting

#152

Neat! We used to host our own mbtiles map for like $11/mo, but the problem was (this was prior to planetiler and people generating public worldwide mbtile dumps) there wasn't a free/cheap source for regularly-updated mbtiles. The dump from OpenMapTiles was not updated for years. So we gave up and went to mapbox, where we regularly exceed the monthly free tier for web, but they give us a discount. Because that is a sc…

If your application allows for it, I also recommend checking out Protomaps / PMTiles. Brandon has some insanely cool work making a tile format and related infrastructure that scales nicely.

Re: Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map Hosting

#153
post #133

Something I'd be willing to pay for is historical tiles/data. I'm writing an application that lets you view historical data, and the problem is that most/all map services show only current data. It would be nice if the map reflected the year of the data we're layering on top. So if you want to make some money, there's an option for you!

Have you heard of: https://www.openhistoricalmap.org I don't think you can pay for it, but I'm sure they'd accept donations!

Interesting but not entirely accurate. Moldova has not existed as a state until 1991, after the dissolution of the USSR but it shows up on the map after WW2.

Re: Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map Hosting

#154

If it does a good job, somebody should get paid for it. I wouldn't rely on using this if it depends on donations (I call this begware). People expect to pay for services and products.

> (I call this begware)

This only reflects how fucking stupid you are. If you read the post in any detail, you'd realize the author has been running a paid service for a while (9 years) and does not need your help.

Re: Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map Hosting

#155
post #133

Something I'd be willing to pay for is historical tiles/data. I'm writing an application that lets you view historical data, and the problem is that most/all map services show only current data. It would be nice if the map reflected the year of the data we're layering on top. So if you want to make some money, there's an option for you!

The key problem here is a lack of accurate data. OSM is amazing, but is constantly getting improved and closer to realtime "ground truth." Historical OSM data is usually worse all-around, rather than "equally good, but as of year XXXX"

Perhaps there is a different dataset with better historical accuracy than OSM, but I do not know of one. You'd likely have to reduce your scope: trails in a specific park? Roads in a specific city?

As another commenter notes, there is a sister project OpenHistoricalMap that focuses on mapping historical data. It is rather sparse compared to OSM, but super fun to explore around e.g. NYC.

Re: Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map Hosting

#156
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you heard of: https://www.openhistoricalmap.org I don't think you can pay for it, but I'm sure they'd accept donations!

Interesting but not entirely accurate. Moldova has not existed as a state until 1991, after the dissolution of the USSR but it shows up on the map after WW2.

The great thing about open map projects is that they can be updated, and store a historical edit log along with discussions and sources for each change.

Re: Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map Hosting

#157
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you heard of: https://www.openhistoricalmap.org I don't think you can pay for it, but I'm sure they'd accept donations!

Interesting but not entirely accurate. Moldova has not existed as a state until 1991, after the dissolution of the USSR but it shows up on the map after WW2.

As with other community projects such as Wikipedia or OSM, OpenHistoricalMap relies on keen-eyed volunteers such as yourself to improve their database!

Re: Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map Hosting

#158

About displaying the vector tiles, which project goes well with it? I like Leaflet and worked extensively with it, but it has some compatibility problems with vector tiles and other small issues when dragging vector tiles for example. Is Maplibre the gold standard for vector tiles now?

Yes. It's active. But it's imperative. I didn't find a good React interface to MapLibre.

See Streetcomplete switching to MapLibre.

Re: Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map Hosting

#159
post #88

Related : I'm building https://github.com/laem/cartes , an alternative to Google Maps. On top of a custom protomaps tileset and a few other MapTiler options (such as satellite and hiking), it packs a search engine, a basic OSM place UI, transit calculators (walk, bike with profiles, transit, car), small features like ruler and favorites, transit maps, photos of places, place search by categories, and the French open…

I see you're sourcing images from Wikimedia. Have you found any other good sources? I'm working on indexing images by place taken for my own project and am primarily very slowly and jankily enumerating the flickr API. (You can see https://plantopo.com/geophotos for a pre-alpha view of where I have coverage. Zoom in where there are blue dots and click the map to search. Don't click Oregon or Washington because of a bu…

Wikimedia is a totally underrated source of photos.

The problem is filtering good ones. See my PR of the day, where I'm using only the images that are featured on Wikipedia pages. It gives better results than google maps in lots of places. Also some weird pictures like logos but I'm confident they can be ruled out.

Your map is cool !

https://plantopo.com/geophotos#13.92/50.91621/-1.37752

https://cartes.app/?photos=oui#13.92/50.91621/-1.37752

With this second link you'll understand the why of my PR : there's just too many Wikimedia photos ^^

Edit : PR merged, you'll see less photos in 1 minute https://github.com/laem/cartes/pull/611

Re: Show HN: OpenFreeMap – Open-Source Map Hosting

#160
post #88

Related : I'm building https://github.com/laem/cartes , an alternative to Google Maps. On top of a custom protomaps tileset and a few other MapTiler options (such as satellite and hiking), it packs a search engine, a basic OSM place UI, transit calculators (walk, bike with profiles, transit, car), small features like ruler and favorites, transit maps, photos of places, place search by categories, and the French open…

I see you're sourcing images from Wikimedia. Have you found any other good sources? I'm working on indexing images by place taken for my own project and am primarily very slowly and jankily enumerating the flickr API. (You can see https://plantopo.com/geophotos for a pre-alpha view of where I have coverage. Zoom in where there are blue dots and click the map to search. Don't click Oregon or Washington because of a bu…

> Are you using opentripplanner for routing?

No, Motis. I picked the first I could install on my computer at the time. Turns out, it's a very promising project.

But switching to OTP wouldn't be such a problem. GTFS in, JSON out. It's a one day work change for basic functionnality.

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