Placespotter nieuws

[threesome]

Ik kwam vandaag weer op de Placespotter-pagina om een cache op te lossen (XCtrails). Las ik daar het nieuws dat deze website waarschijnlijk gaat stoppen. De kosten worden te hoog:

https://www.xctrails.org/news/posts/post-35/
MapSpotter End of Life
Jun 12, 2025

It’s not easy for me, but after more than 10 years and now over 16000 puzzles, google’s pricing and billing policy now makes it impossible or too risky for me to continue operating the site free of charge.

The whole thing had actually started in 2018, but with appropriate daily quotas, the site could be operated “somehow” - and above all without having to provide a billing address and credit card number. However, the API key which was used for that has recently stopped working and, as I understand it, new keys are subject to a limit of 10,000 accesses per month - which we exceed by a factor of 10 and more here.

Theoretically, this could perhaps be “controlled” by reducing quotas in the somewhat complex google cloud console - but some mistake in this configuration could lead to 4 or 5 digit cost per month. I cannot and will not take this risk.

This means:

•     the site will continue to run in the familiar restricted developer mode for the time being
  
•     the creation of new puzzles is no longer possible
  
•     in the worst case, the site may “disappear” from one day to the next
  

I am really sorry for the many puzzles and geocaches that are affected by this. My approach has always been to create an offer for the community that gets by (or had to get by - Groundspeak guidelines) without advertising and financial cost. I also have no interest whatsoever in having to switch to a paid solution, so I now sadly have no other choice.

If anyone is interested in running the site independently or taking over the software (2014 web technology, backend Java J2EE …), please let me know.

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NL: Waar moet een eerste bericht in een nieuwe discussie aan voldoen? / Na het plaatsen van de oplossing, mag het eindcoordinaat worden gegeven!
UK: What requirements should the first post in a new topic meet? / Placing a final coordinate is allowed after the solution is placed first!
D: Welche Kriterien muss eine erste Nachricht in einer neuen Diskussion erfüllen? Nach dem Platzieren der Lösung kann die endgültige Koordinate angegeben werden!

NL: Opgeloste of gearchiveerde caches kan je melden met de Rapporteren button. / Een foto kan worden toegevoegd met de Add image to post knop.
UK: You can report solved or archived caches with the Report button. / A photo can be added by using the Add image to post button.
D: Sie können gelöste oder archivierte Caches mit der Schaltfläche Bericht melden. / Mit der Schaltfläche Bild zum Beitrag hinzufügen kann ein Foto hinzugefügt werden.