4 ms·

> What I find interesting to see, and I think it's not just me who can see this - that basically every mention of CoMaps and why it is good and Organic is bad i

> What I find interesting to see, and I think it's not just me who can see this - that basically every mention of CoMaps and why it is good and Organic is bad is it not only seems to be mostly written not by a regular users, but by people who contribute to CoMaps (!) - they all fail to show why exactly anybody should migrate from established app with authors who have years of experience of making Maps.Me and OM - to a basically a no-name (based on downloads) clone who is made by... "community"? We don't even know who that is, original developers and people with experience are not involved. I don't think you read enough, I saw plenty of real problems with Organic maps described.

mikae1 4mo ago
> I saw plenty of real problems with Organic maps described. What problems exactly?
- fizwidget 4mo ago
  Affiliate links being included in the app, despite community objections? The lead dev using donations to pay for holidays? Those are a couple that come to mind.
  - u8080 4mo ago
    > lead dev using donations to pay for holidays What's wrong with that?
    - goobatrooba 4mo ago
      If the donation is framed as a single developer benefitting it should be fine, but at least when I was donating that was framed as donations to the project which suggests something else. I'm fine with this use, rewarding a developer, but neither was this transparent nor was it fair for all others working on the project (and supposedly getting cost claims refused).
      - u8080 4mo ago
        Guys in OM core dev team paying for hosting, app accounts, legal questions, etc(AFAIK, they subsidize all that from their own money because donations are not enough). On top of that, they contribute years of man-hours for free to the project. I believe it is completely fair for hard-working dev to use donated money to have some rest. Imo, consumers of all that good are too spoiled to also require strict discipline or transparency or even hating original authors(as seen on HN).
        pastk 4mo ago
        Hosting etc. expenses are a minor fraction compared to OM's donations inflow. And its enough to hire devs, the first dev was hired more than two years ago, but they have been hiding this fact to look more poor and attract more donations. Even long-term active contributors have been denied even totals information about donations and got to know about first hire by chance about a year since the fact.
        u8080 4mo ago
        >Hosting etc. expenses are a minor fraction compared to OM's donations inflow. How do you know that if they are not disclosing this info?
        einpoklum 4mo ago
        Because he can estimate based on typical hosting costs for similar websites, on one hand, and a lower-bound estimate of the number and amount of donations, on the other.
        pastk 4mo ago
        Because we have similar costs in CoMaps, e.g. the most expensive part is the map generation server and both OM and CoMaps rent the same model from the same provider and its less than 250 eur/month. And according to https://ariregister.rik.ee/eng/company/16225385/Organic-Maps-O%C3%9C https://ariregister.rik.ee/eng/company/16225385/Organic-Maps... in 2025 they got ~120k eur and this figure likely doesn't include all the donation sources (in addition to the main Stripe channel they also have OpenCollective, LiberaPay, crypto...)

mikae1 4mo ago

> I saw plenty of real problems with Organic maps described. What problems exactly?

fizwidget 4mo ago
Affiliate links being included in the app, despite community objections? The lead dev using donations to pay for holidays? Those are a couple that come to mind.
- u8080 4mo ago
  > lead dev using donations to pay for holidays What's wrong with that?
  - goobatrooba 4mo ago
    If the donation is framed as a single developer benefitting it should be fine, but at least when I was donating that was framed as donations to the project which suggests something else. I'm fine with this use, rewarding a developer, but neither was this transparent nor was it fair for all others working on the project (and supposedly getting cost claims refused).
    - u8080 4mo ago
      Guys in OM core dev team paying for hosting, app accounts, legal questions, etc(AFAIK, they subsidize all that from their own money because donations are not enough). On top of that, they contribute years of man-hours for free to the project. I believe it is completely fair for hard-working dev to use donated money to have some rest. Imo, consumers of all that good are too spoiled to also require strict discipline or transparency or even hating original authors(as seen on HN).
      - pastk 4mo ago
        Hosting etc. expenses are a minor fraction compared to OM's donations inflow. And its enough to hire devs, the first dev was hired more than two years ago, but they have been hiding this fact to look more poor and attract more donations. Even long-term active contributors have been denied even totals information about donations and got to know about first hire by chance about a year since the fact.
        u8080 4mo ago
        >Hosting etc. expenses are a minor fraction compared to OM's donations inflow. How do you know that if they are not disclosing this info?
        einpoklum 4mo ago
        Because he can estimate based on typical hosting costs for similar websites, on one hand, and a lower-bound estimate of the number and amount of donations, on the other.
        pastk 4mo ago
        Because we have similar costs in CoMaps, e.g. the most expensive part is the map generation server and both OM and CoMaps rent the same model from the same provider and its less than 250 eur/month. And according to https://ariregister.rik.ee/eng/company/16225385/Organic-Maps-O%C3%9C https://ariregister.rik.ee/eng/company/16225385/Organic-Maps... in 2025 they got ~120k eur and this figure likely doesn't include all the donation sources (in addition to the main Stripe channel they also have OpenCollective, LiberaPay, crypto...)