Opengeofiction Reviews 11

For someone very interested in fictional mapmaking, this project is great! However there is a bit of a bar to entry in terms of getting your own territory, but there is a beginner zone for people to map in and improve their skills and experience. It seems the disconnect and poor opinion of the site comes from the perceived "coldness" from admins towards new users who may misunderstand the purpose and direction of the project or try to jump into a canon territory too soon (as in, without a good set of mapping examples) and get rejected.

The actual map itself has existed for over a decade now, going through many changes both large and small. Many countries and regions have a pretty well fleshed out history involving multiple different mappers. Collaboration is a VERY important aspect given that each country or territory has one (or more) people driving its creation, it is probably one of the site's biggest strengths, but on occasion can also be its biggest drawback especially if you want to create something with a rigid story or concept. Flexibility with your creation is definitely something that is needed, though its not always necessary to yield to every outside idea.

If you have an interest in this genre of creation and want to have a community of others who do also, its a great project to work with!

I’ve been mapping in OGF for quite a while now, and I want to offer some honest advice. If you’re considering joining, please make sure you reach out to the right people—those who are genuinely helpful. Unfortunately, there are users like wangi who will argue with you just for being new or making beginner mistakes. I’ve seen it happen. Some members will harshly judge your country just because it’s small, and some may even refuse diplomatic relations regardless of how long you’ve been part of the world—even over a year.

If you do choose to map here and end up finishing your territory, be aware that you'll be expected to continue mapping until it reaches the quality level considered "archivable." This means potentially spending years refining your work. Unless you're truly passionate about cartography—so much so that you can’t imagine life without it—I’d strongly advise against letting this site consume a huge chunk of your time.

Not worth investing time over.

Note:
I will still continue mapping, mostly because I don’t want to be singled out or shunned by the community. I've met some genuinely kind people through this journey, and I truly appreciate the time they’ve spent helping and reviewing my work. That said, I still wouldn’t recommend this site overall. If your goal is to contribute meaningfully to the world, I suggest joining OpenStreetMap instead. It’s a much better platform.

very cool website for mapping

also I'm pretty sure there are strict rules because it is very easy to vandalize things (like Wikipedia). Idk about the admins, but most of the community is nice.

the actual tool itself is one of the best I have seen for city mapping.

the community is welcoming and gives great advice. the site may not be for some people though, as the whole world has a shared history, i.e you cant say your country owned others around you, but the countries around you each say they owned you in the past. if you enjoy creating cities and viewing others cities, whilst having a consistent canon/lore shared by all, then this is by far the best (and basically the only) place for that.

The site is great for what it does, but the admins are abusive and strict. They flat out refuse to give me a territory and have responded to my request in a narcissistic manner. time for a mirror site!

I've mapped on OGF for years. Very cool place

One of the things you should know before starting this site, I want to tell you about my terrible experience about this site and yes the admins don't welcome you with open hands but once you read the site rules you can start mapping but with many restrictions how for example, do not map in territories that do not belong to you or do not extend your territory more than necessary, because unfortunately, I was scolded once for something I had never done, like putting up fictitious companies, and still the admins didn't believe me, to begin with, you can't start companies in real life or invent something fanciful because they scold you,the other time they caught my attention was because I addressed a server in a "rude" manner, when in fact I had only questioned him about a mapping issue he had, To conclude with this, I never imagined that the admins would permanently delete my account without any explanation or reason why I did wrong. It is not worth working on a site that is more inactive and useless than the maps from which they can ask for a territory. Do what you do, I STRONGLY WARN YOU TO STAY AWAY FROM THIS WEBSITE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!

PRAISE WANGI

I map on this site regularly and once you get to know the people it's a very lovely site. You can express realistic country mapping and coherent history and cultural. Often finding very detailed and comprehensive mapping with cultural and social backing. And with global member base we experience different styles and languages even conlangs are used here which helps create a world similar to Earth but with its own customs and cultures. It is truly unique as a website in itself and even some members have built better renders and another website to facilitate the community's needs.

Many online bash this website because either they don't read the rules or they believe the rules are too strict, well it's mostly to avoid any legal issues as the owner isn't active and is mostly run by community members. The reason overwikification and vermislitude exist is to create realism and ensure that the website isn't filled with country's with no mapping but lots of wiki, the wiki isn't the main site the map is.

They banned me from this site because i gave feedback about their site. You start off with mapping in a blue area for about 7 days because they are SUPER overprotective with their site. When you do finish mapping in one of these blue areas you can make a country of your own they also boss you around saying you can’t name your country this or that. When i created my Fictional country the told me to rename it because it was “unrealistic” they also have a wiki which is worse than the main site.

They also gave me a copyright strike for abusively no reason after I posted an image of my operating system that I made.

After I got banned I tried to contact them (in an angry tone) asking them why I got banned but they IGNORED MY EMAIL! What the heck? I content them asking for a reason for my ban and they just ignore me?

Anyways I had enough of ranting on this site. So, my conclusion is. Do not sign up for this site.