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The Good
Location: Kansas City, Missouri Gender: Male Total Likes: 56 likes
I see it all
| | | Re: Sharing Location Maps < Reply # 42 on 1/30/2016 12:49 PM > | Reply with Quote
| | | Posted by 2Xplorations
You are correct. Ive noticed this too. I think it has more to do with people not wanting to just add their galleries to a location entry someone else already posted rather than laziness. This I have been told. The UEDB does not require you to post real names or even use exact coordinates or street addresses but if you go to small town XYZ and post a location of the only elementary school in town well..who needs a GPS to find that? I have always used pseudonyms for my DB locations, many of which are in the same condition they were since 2005. Most I kept full member only until recently so the argument non-member taggers and copper thieves can find those through the DB doesn't hold up. The same people that have decried the DB are often the same ones that post all their photos on public flickr pages and some even use the real name! This is far more likely to result in a location being compromised than a full member DB location with a fake or scrambled name. Google does not see those but it does see these photo hosting pages and other social media accounts. Bottom line if want to keep someplace secret don't post it on the Internet, which includes most of these amateur photographer pages. I like the idea of sharing a database though. We actually had one in DFW for years but it lived on one guy's laptop computer there was no Cloud then. I assume you can create a Google account for just this purpose and share access to your Cloud with trusted friends.
| I started exploring on UER, then found NTUE on Facebook and was lured away by the ease of use for about a year. Then in February 2015, I discovered Central Freight in Irving and discovered Public Market in Fort Worth had a POE. I posted with discretion about both places yet one day later Public Market got graffed up and a week later Central was scrapped and glass attacked. That marked the moment that I was finished with wholesale posting on Facebook. It was a closed group, but closed group isn't that secure. I'm writing today because I would really like to meet a few UER veterans like 2Xplorations at the monthly meet and greet to learn from their experiences with location compromise, information security and general history. I belong to a small, tight group that met through the Facebook group, but have largely operated through our secret group for most of last year. Most all of them if not all are members here as well. One question I would like answered is...Is it worthwhile to breathe new life into the DB map via fresh locations (full members only)...because DeeAshley alone could double the map for the DFW area. Myself, I'm at the point where I've seen enough trash, I've bought a Sparrows kit and ready to gain access to secured locations. 2X it would be great to meet you at the February Meet-n-Greet.
| It's better to be Lucky than Good...I'm both. |
| EsseXploreR
Location: New Jersey Gender: Male Total Likes: 1172 likes
| | | | Re: Sharing Location Maps < Reply # 47 on 3/1/2016 6:28 PM > | Reply with Quote
| | | Posted by TD On a different note, I stumbled upon an interesting site called Wikimapia, which has the goal of "describing the whole world." It's like google maps but has addresses, lots, and locations tagged and categorized. One such tag is "abandoned / shut down / defunct." You can search that tag and the map will only show locations pinned as abandoned, shut down, or defunct. Additionally you can click on the pin and get user written articles that sometimes have history or other general info on the location, as well as exact coordinates. Theres more in that database than ours here. That giant abandoned hospital that spans 15 acres is hard to keep secret from anyone who is even remotely interested in finding it. Very very few of our locations are really secrets for the most part. There are other people that do what we do outside the UER bubble, and they have the same valuable information we do with the same ability to distribute that information.
| Sites like this are a big reason why this hobby has lost its appeal to a lot of people, though. There is nothing like walking up to a place you've never seen before, finding your own way in, and spending hours finding things that very few people have seen before. Plus, places are always easiest before the owners have a problem with trespassing. I recently visited a place that wasn't posted very well, had a laughably easy approach and found an entrance in under a minute. The place was untouched. And I'm talking so untouched many of the floor tiles weren't even broken. Place had been shuttered for decades. This particular place is a relatively short car trip away from a place that closed in the last 5 years, which has been posted and shared ad nauseum recently. It has since been tagged and looted, and the owners are now aware that people have been going. Better believe that "no trespassing" signs are going to be one of the first anti-trespassing measures put in place, and that completely changes the game. I know many people who started exploring before the Internet community really developed, and back in those days it took a lot more research to find stuff. And that's exactly why everyone swoons over photos of places from back in those days. I'm not saying that posting, sharing, or naming a place is guaranteed to ruin it. But it definitely contributes. Posted by TD My point? Your location you put on the UE database got tagged or scrapped. Correlation is not causation.
| I see you're new to this site, have you been exploring for long? Because after one sees a cool place they love get brutalized by destructive pricks after getting famous, one tends to get slightly possessive. You say "none of the places we visit are secret". That may or may not be true of the places you visit. I can't say for sure because I don't know you. But it certainly doesn't apply to everyone.
[last edit 3/1/2016 6:45 PM by EsseXploreR - edited 2 times]
| https://www.flickr...62837453@N07/sets/ http://www.tfpnj.blogspot.com |
| ahhntzville
Location: Boston Total Likes: 344 likes
| | | Re: Sharing Location Maps < Reply # 48 on 3/1/2016 7:37 PM > | Reply with Quote
| | | Posted by EsseXploreR Sites like this are a big reason why this hobby has lost its appeal to a lot of people, though. There is nothing like walking up to a place you've never seen before, finding your own way in, and spending hours finding things that very few people have seen before.
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Yup. Using a map like that isn't exploring; it's being a tourist. Also, I had been collecting locations for my own purposes on a Google map created under my own login, and it ended up somehow being publicly searchable (an explorer on another forum, or maybe it was this one, PMed me to compliment me on it), so I deleted the whole thing. So, even if you don't mean to share, Google maps is tricky like that.
[last edit 3/1/2016 7:37 PM by ahhntzville - edited 1 times]
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| TD
Location: Indiana Total Likes: 50 likes
| | | Re: Sharing Location Maps < Reply # 50 on 3/2/2016 4:26 PM > | Reply with Quote
| | | Posted by EsseXploreR You say "none of the places we visit are secret". That may or may not be true of the places you visit. I can't say for sure because I don't know you. But it certainly doesn't apply to everyone.
| You're right in a way but wrong in a way too. Yes, some locations are definitely not widely known about, but anything you have found, someone else is perfectly capable of finding in just the same way that you found it. Exposure, especially on the internet, is never good for the preservation of a location, that is true. But a private database on UER is not going to be a significant source of that exposure. Sites like Instagram and Flickr are. But you raise a good point about the benefit of a proper, filled out, "complete" UE database. Ahhntzville said it best: that's tourism. You pick a place, know everything about it, you go, and thats the end of it. I'm currently in a period where I can't really do much exploring, and I shouldn't be doing any. And what have I done during this time? I've researched and found (potential) locations, and even though I won't shouldn't be visiting them any time soon, I still enjoyed the process. The grind to find is part of the experience and a "complete" UE database would eliminate that aspect of exploring.
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| Dee Ashley
Location: DFW, Texas Gender: Female Total Likes: 1378 likes
Write something and wait expectantly.
| | | | Re: Sharing Location Maps < Reply # 51 on 3/4/2016 4:23 AM > | Reply with Quote
| | | Posted by ahhntzville Yup. Using a map like that isn't exploring; it's being a tourist. Also, I had been collecting locations for my own purposes on a Google map created under my own login, and it ended up somehow being publicly searchable (an explorer on another forum, or maybe it was this one, PMed me to compliment me on it), so I deleted the whole thing. So, even if you don't mean to share, Google maps is tricky like that.
| I was browsing the google earth gallery and wondered about this. I noticed some maps had titles like, "Places the kids will like on way to Family Reunion," or, "Company Assets." I can't remember the real examples (which were probably way better examples than these two), but I found several "urbex" maps on there, though I'm fairly certain a couple of those weren't meant for the public either... One map even had waypoints from a UER road trip group (that's what the title said, anyway). I keep a "my maps," with google, since it will let you label places. I like it because of the layers option. I recently pulled all my San Antonio spots off my main map, made a new layer with them, and shared it with my road trip group. I think the mix-up occurs when you go to save or share the map. A pop up box at the bottom asks if you want to make the map public, or "make this map visible to only those with the link." Make sure you check the latter option! Google doesn't make this clear at all, IMO, and it makes me nervous having a map that's so easy to make these kinds of mistakes!
| I wandered till the stars went dim. |
| Dee Ashley
Location: DFW, Texas Gender: Female Total Likes: 1378 likes
Write something and wait expectantly.
| | | | Re: Sharing Location Maps < Reply # 52 on 3/4/2016 4:44 AM > | Reply with Quote
| | | Posted by 2Xplorations the argument exploring vs not exploring will continue call me crazy but getting directions then getting permission to go inside some place that you could find on your own and infiltrate on your own simply isn't as much fun
| I think that people's feelings about this aspect vary greatly by their primary objectives while exploring. Are you a primarily involved in this hobby for the excitement? The rush that comes from successfully infiltrating that unknown and super high-risk location? Or is it more aesthetic? Are you a photographer that likes to explore as a means of discovering abandoned places with aesthetic appeal? I suspect that the latter group isn't as turned off by the getting directions or asking permission part. I also suspect that the majority of us have a little bit of both of these in us, but one of the two has a stronger pull than the other. I'm a pretty good mix, slightly favoring aesthetics over adrenaline, but not always by any means. Tonight is a great example of my priorities shifting from the usual "photographer first," mentality in favor of, "holy shit, this place is awesome, I can wait to check out all of this untouched stuff!" I didn't take one photo for the first two hours there. But, this is really, really rare for me, while others simply snap a couple mobile shots for the sake of posting and concentrate almost exclusively on the exploring. Another aspect that draws people to UE is the historical value of many of these places. I imagine that these people are also not as concerned with their entry method (permission vs not), or how many people have been before them, provided those before didn't vandalize the hell out of the place. I'm usually scouting these places out with photography on my mind. The "exploring vs not exploring," debate seems pretty pointless, honestly. When I say I'm "going to go explore the Swift ruins," am I really exploring? I don't know, probably not, especially since I've been there thirteen million times. I guess I just never gave that much thought into the semantics behind those words. Honestly, I don't I care very much. Sorry, I think I've strayed a bit from the main topic here with this one!
| I wandered till the stars went dim. |
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