Hello all,

I bring to you another updated version of the OGF Blue Book:

The OGF Blue Book, linked below, is a document which compiles all of the essential information about rules of the website, territories and mapping, and it is strongly recommended that all new or recently joined users read it.

• CLICK HERE TO READ THE OGF BLUE BOOK
• Google Drive link in case link above not working

It continues to serve as an alternative (in some ways as a replacement) to the OGF Wiki, which at the moment offers limited functionality, and can not be repaired by the currently active members of the admin team.

Quick advice: which territories can new users edit?

More information is listed in the blue book.

Quick advice: what are the basic rules of the website?

• Being realistic — no fantasy, science fiction, joke countries, etc.
• Being original — no copying of real world maps or other people's mapping, no using of real world company names and well known place names.
• Being respectful — no mapping in others' countries, no drawing new islands on the open sea, no vandalism
• Only one account per user

More information is listed in the blue book. Please be aware that violating the rules may result in suspension or termination of your account.

Does this mean no new user diary posts?

No, as long as you copy and paste the following text (including the hyperlink) into your post:

• ATTENTION NEW USERS – AS THE WIKI REMAINS INACCESSIBLE, ALL RULES AND INFORMATION ARE LISTED HERE IN THE OGF BLUE BOOK

Diaries without this text may be deleted. However, even if you do include it in your post, please think twice if what you have to say is really that urgent and necessary before uploading. Now is not the time for off-topic discussions.

Found outdated information? Please let me know in the comments.

From the OGF admin team, this has once again been Eklas.

Hello all,

by now, you are probably familiar with the OGF Blue Book:

The OGF Blue Book, linked below, is a document which compiles all of the essential information about rules of the website, territories and mapping, and it is strongly recommended that all new or recently joined users read it.

• CLICK HERE TO READ THE OGF BLUE BOOK
• Google Drive link in case link above not working

It continues to serve as an alternative (in some ways as a replacement) to the OGF Wiki, which at the moment offers limited functionality, and can not be repaired by the currently active members of the admin team.

Quick advice: which territories can new users edit?

More information is listed in the blue book.

Quick advice: what are the basic rules of the website?

• Being realistic — no fantasy, science fiction, joke countries, etc.
• Being original — no copying of real world maps or other people's mapping, no using of real world company names and well known place names.
• Being respectful — no mapping in others' countries, no drawing new islands on the open sea, no vandalism
• Only one account per user

More information is listed in the blue book. Please be aware that violating the rules may result in suspension or termination of your account.

Does this mean no new user diary posts?

No, as long as you copy and paste the following text (including the hyperlink) into your post:

• ATTENTION NEW USERS – AS THE WIKI REMAINS INACCESSIBLE, ALL RULES AND INFORMATION ARE LISTED HERE IN THE OGF BLUE BOOK

Diaries without this text may be deleted. However, even if you do include it in your post, please think twice if what you have to say is really that urgent and necessary before uploading. Now is not the time for off-topic discussions.

Found outdated information? Please let me know in the comments.

From the OGF admin team, this has been Eklas.

Hello, mappers, a message from Eklas.

Recently, there has been an increase in new users on the website editing the map where they're not allowed to, citing that they couldn't access the wiki About page, where important information about our rules is stored. While the admin team doesn't consider that an excuse for not following the rules (because you can always stop the loading after a few seconds and then read the plain HTML version), it is becoming a problem. This is why I have put together a document which compiles all of the essential information stored on the wiki not only regarding the rules, but also other information and resources. I've named it the User Bluebook, in reference to, well, the usual color of guidebooks.

The OGF Bluebook, linked below, compiles all of the essential information about rules of the website, territories and mapping, and it is strongly recommended that all new or recently joined users read it.

• CLICK HERE TO READ THE OGF BLUEBOOK
• Google Drive link in case link above not working

Quick advice: which territories can new users edit?

More information is listed in the bluebook.

Quick advice: what are the basic rules of the website?

• Being realistic — no fantasy, science fiction, joke countries, etc.
• Being original — no copying of real world maps or other people's mapping, no using of real world company names and well known place names.
• Being respectful — no mapping in others' countries, no drawing new islands on the open sea, no vandalism
• Only one account per user

More information is listed in the bluebook. Please be aware that violating the rules may result in suspension or termination of your account.

The wiki is broken. What now?

As explained before, the admin team is well aware of the issue, but has limited ways of dealing with it, because the one critical member who has all the necessary access is currently away. This post is a makeshift effort to at least somewhat relieve the situation, making the essential contents of the wiki available elsewhere.

Until the situation is resolved, please limit the amount of new diary posts as it is very important that new users see this. The document will be updated and reposted periodically, but I can't promise that I won't hide new entries that I won't consider helpful or relevant in order to make more space for it.

From the admin account — Eklas

We are a worldwide community, one which users in different countries are being subject to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in different phases.

It is unacceptable to role-play this, to project it onto this geofiction. There have been numerous very poorly-judged attempts at this already. This is unacceptable.

The admin team would like to remind editors of the territory request procedure at https://wiki.opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/OGF:Admin_regions

Requests which do not follow the procedure are likely to take much longer to consider. Please help us to help you by making good requests.

Every request this week has failed to indicate the requested territory in the subject line. This makes it hard for individual admins to know if the request is for the continent for which they are responsible.

You are welcome to apply for, and discuss, OGF:AR001b

"a collaborative territory, which is inspired by the real-world island of Timor (shared between Timor-Leste and Indonesia) The provinces are owned by individual users so long as they agree to adhere to to collective territory goals and coordinate on development:

• Low GDP
• Poor infrastructure
• One major city
• Colonial history: TBD (Portuguese analogue?)
• Languages: TBD; assumed Tetum-analogue, Indonesian-analogue, colonial"

Effective today, February 27, applications are being accepted for territories in South Archanta. This is one day sooner than initially expected.

See requirements at:

https://wiki.opengeofiction.net/wiki/index.php/OGF:Admin_regions#South_Archanta

Send request messages to admin, not to Luciano's private inbox.

Happy mapping

Luciano - for OGF Admin team

Finally, the admin team will be able to handle territory claims again soon. However, we made two decisions about the assignment process.

First, we decided not to work through the backlog of messages received during the recent months, but ask everyone to submit their application again. We will however try to give precedence to older claims as much as possible, using the received messages for verification.

Second, we divided the OGF planet into several regions, each being administered by a different team member. These regions will have different rules, and also might not start accepting territory claims before early March.

Before submitting any territory claim, please read the detailed descriptions about the new assignment process and the different regions.

Sorry, we've been really busy recently. Territory claims and other submitted requests will be processed, but it might take 2-3 weeks until we're back to normal, thanks for your patience.

For more information see forum post.

The first round of AR120 discussions and voting are beginning, and coordinators for the collaborative states have been selected. Also, we're looking for someone to take over management of the OGF:Submissions for AR120 page.

For more info see the latest forum posts.

For details visit the forum!

Check out the forum post, info page, and feel free to send ideas to admin.

Mappers who wish to report flooded continents may now do so at OGF:Report flooding.

Please be advised that future flood posts in User Diaries may be removed.

Ever since the beginning of this website, people have been tracking down and redirecting new users mapping in the wrong areas.

Now there's a space where we can share who we've contacted and when we contacted them. This will help us reduce the amount of contacts we make, not only by eliminating duplicated contacts, but also by encouraging others to join the effort.

If you're an experienced mapper and you'd like to help make OGF a better place, check out OGF:New user patrol to find out more.

Many thanks!

For those of you hoping to change your wiki password, it appears to be possible again. Please let us know if you encounter any difficulty.

OGF (including the wiki) will be offline for maintenance on Saturday, September 2, starting at 14:00 UTC, for several hours (4-6 presumably).

Copying/pasting others' mapping, without their permission, has always been against the spirit of our site rules, "Be original" and "Be respectful."

From today forward, copying other users' mapping is also explicitly against the rules: "No copying others' mapping, without their permission."

If our multilingual users can take a moment to add this to the translations of the rules, under the "Be original" header, it would be much appreciated.

Announcing OGF:Photo resources, where you can find photos from other mappers to use in your wiki articles, and you can share your photos for others to use in their wiki articles.

Just read the important guidelines for photos, then set up a photo collection on any photo sharing site, and then link to it on the OGF:Photo resources page. Easy!

(Photos above from Sarepava, Isleño, & Stjur)

Thilo has created a new version of his handy scale tool:

http://tile.opengeofiction.net/util/map_scale.html?map=13/20.73/86.72&map2=x/38.89/-77.04&pxpt=0.277

It's a split screen with the OGF world on one side and the real world on the other, shown at the same scale. Each side can be moved around independently, so you can compare anywhere in OGF with anywhere in the real world. By switching layers on the right, you can also compare any two places in OGF. Comparisons can be shared with other mappers by copy/pasting the URL.

As in the previous version, zooming by mouse wheel or double-click is disabled, but there is a zoom control (& measuring tool) in the upper left corner. You can also set the zoom by entering a value into the "Zoom" or "Scale" input fields and hitting "Enter." If you want the number in the "Scale" field to be accurate, the "pxpt=_____" part of the URL must be adjusted for the pixel pitch of your monitor.