9 ms·

Leaflet was created 11yrs ago by Vladimir Agafonkin, a Ukrainian citizen in Kyiv

436 points by tzm 5y ago

radu_floricica 5y ago
Ah, good to see it here. Needs the signal boost. I was on the fence on donating in the first days of the conflict, but when I saw this it firmly pushed me over the edge. We've been using leaflet for free in our product for quite some time, and I think it would be a dick move to ignore this plea in the current context.
- yrgulation 5y ago
  so the loss of a product makes you want to donate but loss of life puts you on the fence. Wondering how’d make you feel if say, Romanians had to flee and no one would care since there isnt much made in romania.
  - drops 5y ago
    [flagged]
  - sva_ 5y ago
    People feel more responsible when they're personally involved. Doesn't seem very surprising to me (this isn't a value judgement.) It has nothing to do with "loss of a product", it is about supporting an individual. That's a straw man you constructed.
  - paganel 5y ago
    I'm not the donation type myself but I think in this instance you chose your target wrong, as us, Romanians (I'm from Romania myself) have genuinely really tried to help our Ukrainian neighbours in these very dark times for them. I'm not going to give links to news stories, google is your friend for that, is enough to say that many of us, Romanians, were very pleasantly surprised ourselves of the whole thing, we're generally a little on the nihilistic side, so in a way that was also good for our national psyche. Back to your question, and I can only answer for myself, yes, I would expect pretty much the same reaction and help that we gave to the Ukrainians from our neighbours if all this had happened to us, no matter if they're Bulgarians, Serbs or Hungarians.
    - mourner 5y ago
      Romanian support is felt immensely. Thank you!
      - yrgulation 5y ago
        See my reply for context. Appears like some are riding the pr wave while not actually contributing. And that ticks me off. We can do more. Stay safe!
    - yrgulation 5y ago
      I am a native of romania, gave up my citizenship for obvious reasons. Regular citizens have indeed stepped in. However, the government actively discourages arrivals from ukraine, and while the prime minister claimed they made preparations for half a million ukranians, that has proven to be false [1]. In effect, its mainly those of us that donated that helped ukranians, because tax payers money surely didnt. The reason i chose romania while not directly stating that op is from that country, at least by user name, is because i didnt want it to turn into a personal thing. I find it appalling that some will show ignorance, considering that romania is essentially financed by the western world. Even during this conflict romania’s only defense is nato, because the country lacks a proper army. We all know why and we all know that wont change. The expectation being that they (nato, us, eu) will “come and do it for us” and i simply dont share that mindset. Having said that, some in romania have contributed to the country’s neighbour aid, while some simply dont care. But they do have a sense of entitlement. For instance, I am not entirely sure why you’d expect help from your neighbours given the above. Romania needs to be able to defend on its own and help those in need on its own before expecting handouts from pretty much everyone else, and now is the time to do it. 1. https://romania.europalibera.org/amp/31720871.html https://romania.europalibera.org/amp/31720871.html Edit: grammar and all sorts. Bored of explaining fellow romanians that contributing to refugees is a duty and not an option. Romania is on the eternal receiving side and sometimes we have to contribute as well. Government wont, thus its up to regular folk. Glad that op and paganel are happy to rip the PR benefits from those that did contribute to this crisis.
      - paganel 5y ago
  - radu_floricica 5y ago
    Uh... didn't even think about loss of product. What moved me was debt already incurred.
- mourner 5y ago
  Thank you so much for your support! Every little donation or even retweet helps.
stared 5y ago
There are also other Ukrainian companies you know and products you use. My top pick is Grammarly - IMHO by far the best automatic proofreader, both when it comes to suggestions and its UI. GitLab is another one.
- shmde 5y ago
  Free alternate open source to Grammarly. Its almost at par with it. https://languagetool.org/ https://languagetool.org/
  - sva_ 5y ago
    It may be a good tool, but that demo on the front page is silly. Doesn't actually show you what errors you made, rather prompts you to pay.
  - emeraldd 5y ago
    How does Hemingway compare?
  - Semaphor 5y ago
    > Its almost at par with it. I found it better for German (though I’ve been using it so long, I can’t remember if Grammarly supported German at all).
- skhr0680 5y ago
  > Grammarly https://hn.algolia.com/?q=grammarly https://hn.algolia.com/?q=grammarly
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
jimaek 5y ago
More open source projects made by Ukrainian developers https://github.com/chernivtsijs/made-in-ukraine https://github.com/chernivtsijs/made-in-ukraine
NKosmatos 5y ago
Here is Vladimir's Twitter feed in case you want to see latest info related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine https://twitter.com/mourner https://twitter.com/mourner
mourner 5y ago
Vladimir Agafonkin here. Thanks for posting this! I'll be happy to answer any questions about Russia's invasion of Ukraine and current Ukrainian reality here whenever I get the chance.
- abc789654567 5y ago
  [flagged]
  - mourner 5y ago
    [flagged]
    - abc789654567 5y ago
      [flagged]
      - femto 5y ago
        [flagged]
      - jaakl 5y ago
        [flagged]
- RivieraKid 5y ago
  Is it just my impression that the Ukrainian government is seemingly very competent?
  - mourner 5y ago
    It's miraculous transformation — I was against the current government, like many of my friends, it did its share of mistakes in recent years, but this huge existential threat seems to have propelled them to rise up to the occasion with intense focus and do the right thing. I'm now quite proud of the Ukrainian government.
zttg 5y ago
ingenieroariel 5y ago
Vlad, I was using openlayers when leaflet was released and have been following your career. Big fan, thanks for always pushing the limits. Lots of love from Colombia, to you and your family. My question is: How have you approached communicating to your kids the current situation? I have been trying to explain to mine what is going on and it is really hard to maintain a balance between educating them and scaring them.
- mourner 5y ago
  We're trying to be honest but optimistic at the same time. E.g. there's this crazy villain Putin who's trying to destroy Ukraine, that's why we had to move to a safer place, but there's a very strong Ukrainian Army that heroically defends against the bad guys, and we will eventually win and come back. My girls are pretty strong-willed and aren't easily scared, so they've been doing pretty well through this ordeal.
bounding_boxer 5y ago
How can we best help from US/EU? Donating mostly to German Red Cross (https://drk.de/nothilfe-ukraine https://drk.de/nothilfe-ukraine) since I think it makes most sense to bring resources from outside Ukraine. DRK volunteers are driving convoys with supplies to Kyiv and other locations. I've advised people to focus on monetary donations, to let charities buy supplies in bulk. Getting goods donated is often easier though -- in that case, what specific items are needed most? What should US/EU citizens request from their governments right now to support Ukraine? Thank you for Leaflet & all your other awesome geospatial projects! We stand with you and all of Ukraine. Slava Ukraini!
- mourner 5y ago
  I personally recommend donating to https://www.comebackalive.in.ua/donate https://www.comebackalive.in.ua/donate, they're the forefront of Ukrainian military help at the moment. For humanitarian donations, Ukrainian Red Cross is reputable too https://redcross.org.ua/en/donate/ https://redcross.org.ua/en/donate/ As for political support — pushing the government to increase sanction pressure, seizing Russian corrupt assets, increasing Ukrainian support, pushing for NATO no-fly zone all helps.
jatorre 5y ago
Hey Vlad, just came to say hi and wish you the best. You are one of the best engineers I have ever met, and one of the nicest persons too. It is really sad to see you and your entire country going through this. Will keep following your advice on how to support Ukraine and if there is any mapping support or anything else, well, you know where we are. We are following you closely. Big hug.
- mourner 5y ago
  Thank you so much for the kind words Javier, hope to see you again soon!
boise 5y ago
Is it worth it to try to get real news to Russian citizens? Apparently people are trying to post about the war in places that Russians can still access (e.g. reviews for high-end restaurants on Google maps). How much impact can this have?
- RReverser 5y ago
  That's been already blocked by Google, with reviews deleted, so not much I guess.
- mourner 5y ago
  It’s important, although hard. Ordinary people have to realize that it’s an actual bloody war happening with thousands killed on both side senselessly, and not just “military operation to defend Donbas”. Personally I’ve been sending Telegram channels with footage to my Russian relatives and friends, because Telegram is notoriously hard to block in Russia. Most non-state media are blocked, so are Facebook and Twitter.
backspaces 5y ago
https://comebackalive.org.ua/donate/ https://comebackalive.org.ua/donate/ worked for me. I tried the original url last night and ran into problems. Note you need to use UAH currency. $250 was 7336.23 UAH .. sorta sticker shock!

436 points by tzm 5y ago

Ah, good to see it here. Needs the signal boost. I was on the fence on donating in the first days of the conflict, but when I saw this it firmly pushed me over the edge. We've been using leaflet for free in our product for quite some time, and I think it would be a dick move to ignore this plea in the current context.

yrgulation 5y ago
so the loss of a product makes you want to donate but loss of life puts you on the fence. Wondering how’d make you feel if say, Romanians had to flee and no one would care since there isnt much made in romania.
- drops 5y ago
  [flagged]
- sva_ 5y ago
  People feel more responsible when they're personally involved. Doesn't seem very surprising to me (this isn't a value judgement.) It has nothing to do with "loss of a product", it is about supporting an individual. That's a straw man you constructed.
- paganel 5y ago
  I'm not the donation type myself but I think in this instance you chose your target wrong, as us, Romanians (I'm from Romania myself) have genuinely really tried to help our Ukrainian neighbours in these very dark times for them. I'm not going to give links to news stories, google is your friend for that, is enough to say that many of us, Romanians, were very pleasantly surprised ourselves of the whole thing, we're generally a little on the nihilistic side, so in a way that was also good for our national psyche. Back to your question, and I can only answer for myself, yes, I would expect pretty much the same reaction and help that we gave to the Ukrainians from our neighbours if all this had happened to us, no matter if they're Bulgarians, Serbs or Hungarians.
  - mourner 5y ago
    Romanian support is felt immensely. Thank you!
    - yrgulation 5y ago
      See my reply for context. Appears like some are riding the pr wave while not actually contributing. And that ticks me off. We can do more. Stay safe!
  - yrgulation 5y ago
    I am a native of romania, gave up my citizenship for obvious reasons. Regular citizens have indeed stepped in. However, the government actively discourages arrivals from ukraine, and while the prime minister claimed they made preparations for half a million ukranians, that has proven to be false [1]. In effect, its mainly those of us that donated that helped ukranians, because tax payers money surely didnt. The reason i chose romania while not directly stating that op is from that country, at least by user name, is because i didnt want it to turn into a personal thing. I find it appalling that some will show ignorance, considering that romania is essentially financed by the western world. Even during this conflict romania’s only defense is nato, because the country lacks a proper army. We all know why and we all know that wont change. The expectation being that they (nato, us, eu) will “come and do it for us” and i simply dont share that mindset. Having said that, some in romania have contributed to the country’s neighbour aid, while some simply dont care. But they do have a sense of entitlement. For instance, I am not entirely sure why you’d expect help from your neighbours given the above. Romania needs to be able to defend on its own and help those in need on its own before expecting handouts from pretty much everyone else, and now is the time to do it. 1. https://romania.europalibera.org/amp/31720871.html https://romania.europalibera.org/amp/31720871.html Edit: grammar and all sorts. Bored of explaining fellow romanians that contributing to refugees is a duty and not an option. Romania is on the eternal receiving side and sometimes we have to contribute as well. Government wont, thus its up to regular folk. Glad that op and paganel are happy to rip the PR benefits from those that did contribute to this crisis.
    - paganel 5y ago
- radu_floricica 5y ago
  Uh... didn't even think about loss of product. What moved me was debt already incurred.
mourner 5y ago
Thank you so much for your support! Every little donation or even retweet helps.

stared 5y ago

There are also other Ukrainian companies you know and products you use. My top pick is Grammarly - IMHO by far the best automatic proofreader, both when it comes to suggestions and its UI. GitLab is another one.

shmde 5y ago
Free alternate open source to Grammarly. Its almost at par with it. https://languagetool.org/ https://languagetool.org/
- sva_ 5y ago
  It may be a good tool, but that demo on the front page is silly. Doesn't actually show you what errors you made, rather prompts you to pay.
- emeraldd 5y ago
  How does Hemingway compare?
- Semaphor 5y ago
  > Its almost at par with it. I found it better for German (though I’ve been using it so long, I can’t remember if Grammarly supported German at all).
skhr0680 5y ago
> Grammarly https://hn.algolia.com/?q=grammarly https://hn.algolia.com/?q=grammarly
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

jimaek 5y ago

More open source projects made by Ukrainian developers https://github.com/chernivtsijs/made-in-ukraine https://github.com/chernivtsijs/made-in-ukraine

NKosmatos 5y ago

Here is Vladimir's Twitter feed in case you want to see latest info related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine https://twitter.com/mourner https://twitter.com/mourner

mourner 5y ago

Vladimir Agafonkin here. Thanks for posting this! I'll be happy to answer any questions about Russia's invasion of Ukraine and current Ukrainian reality here whenever I get the chance.

abc789654567 5y ago
[flagged]
- mourner 5y ago
  [flagged]
  - abc789654567 5y ago
    [flagged]
    - femto 5y ago
      [flagged]
    - jaakl 5y ago
      [flagged]
RivieraKid 5y ago
Is it just my impression that the Ukrainian government is seemingly very competent?
- mourner 5y ago
  It's miraculous transformation — I was against the current government, like many of my friends, it did its share of mistakes in recent years, but this huge existential threat seems to have propelled them to rise up to the occasion with intense focus and do the right thing. I'm now quite proud of the Ukrainian government.

zttg 5y ago

ingenieroariel 5y ago

Vlad, I was using openlayers when leaflet was released and have been following your career. Big fan, thanks for always pushing the limits. Lots of love from Colombia, to you and your family. My question is: How have you approached communicating to your kids the current situation? I have been trying to explain to mine what is going on and it is really hard to maintain a balance between educating them and scaring them.

mourner 5y ago
We're trying to be honest but optimistic at the same time. E.g. there's this crazy villain Putin who's trying to destroy Ukraine, that's why we had to move to a safer place, but there's a very strong Ukrainian Army that heroically defends against the bad guys, and we will eventually win and come back. My girls are pretty strong-willed and aren't easily scared, so they've been doing pretty well through this ordeal.

bounding_boxer 5y ago

How can we best help from US/EU? Donating mostly to German Red Cross (https://drk.de/nothilfe-ukraine https://drk.de/nothilfe-ukraine) since I think it makes most sense to bring resources from outside Ukraine. DRK volunteers are driving convoys with supplies to Kyiv and other locations. I've advised people to focus on monetary donations, to let charities buy supplies in bulk. Getting goods donated is often easier though -- in that case, what specific items are needed most? What should US/EU citizens request from their governments right now to support Ukraine? Thank you for Leaflet & all your other awesome geospatial projects! We stand with you and all of Ukraine. Slava Ukraini!

mourner 5y ago
I personally recommend donating to https://www.comebackalive.in.ua/donate https://www.comebackalive.in.ua/donate, they're the forefront of Ukrainian military help at the moment. For humanitarian donations, Ukrainian Red Cross is reputable too https://redcross.org.ua/en/donate/ https://redcross.org.ua/en/donate/ As for political support — pushing the government to increase sanction pressure, seizing Russian corrupt assets, increasing Ukrainian support, pushing for NATO no-fly zone all helps.

jatorre 5y ago

Hey Vlad, just came to say hi and wish you the best. You are one of the best engineers I have ever met, and one of the nicest persons too. It is really sad to see you and your entire country going through this. Will keep following your advice on how to support Ukraine and if there is any mapping support or anything else, well, you know where we are. We are following you closely. Big hug.

mourner 5y ago
Thank you so much for the kind words Javier, hope to see you again soon!

boise 5y ago

Is it worth it to try to get real news to Russian citizens? Apparently people are trying to post about the war in places that Russians can still access (e.g. reviews for high-end restaurants on Google maps). How much impact can this have?

RReverser 5y ago
That's been already blocked by Google, with reviews deleted, so not much I guess.
mourner 5y ago
It’s important, although hard. Ordinary people have to realize that it’s an actual bloody war happening with thousands killed on both side senselessly, and not just “military operation to defend Donbas”. Personally I’ve been sending Telegram channels with footage to my Russian relatives and friends, because Telegram is notoriously hard to block in Russia. Most non-state media are blocked, so are Facebook and Twitter.

backspaces 5y ago

https://comebackalive.org.ua/donate/ https://comebackalive.org.ua/donate/ worked for me. I tried the original url last night and ran into problems. Note you need to use UAH currency. $250 was 7336.23 UAH .. sorta sticker shock!