Geofictician Blog – Page 4

Goodgrove

For this week’s low-effort brag-post of my geofiction, I’m taking a detour off the OpenGeofiction site and going to my other map-server, the planet called Arhet. I built this map-server before rebuilding the OpenGeofiction site – it a sense, it ended up as a kind of audition for being considered qualified to take over OGF. Anyway, there are far fewer users on Arhet, it’s a much smaller server, and it’s quite a bit more chaotic – there is no effort to create a coherent “world” the way that we do on OpenGeofiction. It’s just little map-snippets the various users are working on. Unlike OGF, there are no constraints on realism. That’s why I put this bit of mapping on Arhet.

Goodgrove is the “start town” for a MUD (“multi-user-dungeon” – a type of text-based old-school computer game) I was desigining for a while, with a working title of Hellbridge. That work is definitely dormant – I haven’t worked on it in years. The setting is a kind of semi-steampunk, semi-swords-and-sorcery setting. But I had the novel idea that I could create a detailed map of the world, much higher quality than that typically associated with MUD’s, and that I could even go in the direction of having some kind of “player locator” icon on some customized presentation of the map. So you would be moving around the game-world and meanwhile you could be logged into a website hosting a slippy map of the world, and you could see an icon that placed your location in that world.

I still think it’s a compelling and clever idea, and within the realm of what I could conceivably create, but I simply didn’t have the energy or gumption to push forward with it. But the starter town of Goodgrove was mapped down to every detail, and every single node on the in-game map has a corresponding node on this OSM-style map. It’s not meant to be strictly realistic – it’s a game map for a fantasy setting, not meant to represent any verisimilitudinous place.

Here is link to the zoomable map: https://arhet.rent-a-planet.com/#map=16/41.9412/-66.8451&layers=W

Country Club Alameda, Ohunkagan

My low-effort brag-post for this week is a neighborhood called “Country Club Alameda, in the imaginary city of Ohunkagan. The mapping is currently in a time-warp, not yet having reached 1920, but there’s an intersection of two streetcar routes at 63rd Avenue and Melville Street, and a golf course southwest of that.

This neighborhood is found on the opengeofiction map here: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=17/-42.49772/146.04194&layers=B

MundoMar

My low-effort geofiction bragpost for the week is a theme park called MundoMar in the country of Ardesfera.

I’m not as good at what’s called detailed or micro-mapping, but I thought this was a good effort. It’s a maritime-themed theme park, maybe somewhat modeled on Sea World – though I haven’t visited Sea World in about 50 years.

The surroundings to the theme park are not as well mapped, and the farther afield you go, the more embarrassed I am by the work. Much of this mapping is from my first year on the opengeofiction site (2014), when I was still learning how to use the tools and figuring out what was possible in the realm of “slippy map geofiction”.

Here is a screenshot of the spot:

The area shown is here on the map server: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=17/-24.47490/124.33675&layers=B

Quelepa

For this week’s low-effort bragpost, I’m sharing my pre-modern ceremonial capital, Quelepa. The plan that I had, long ago, was to create this circa 1400’s city, in the style of maybe a Mayan or Aztec city, and then overlay a modern city over it, using a historical mapping process. But I never got around to it, so the city is still there, in a kind of anachronistic reservation within the otherwise modern country of Ardesfera. That explains the bit of railroad seen in the lower left of the screenshot.

I was especially pleased with the city because it conformed to the already-drawn contours (topo) for the region. I also did some minor work on a conlang for the culture involved, which I used to name all the various temples included.

Here is a link to the zoomable map: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=16/-21.7931/121.6496&layers=V

OpenGeofiction Aggregate Active User Data (Since Migration)

I decided to try to brush off some very rusty SQL skills and write a query against the OGF database to find out what our monthly active user counts looked like.

This data can only be compiled accurately for dates since the “migration”, which was in August, 2021. Before that changesets are not properly dated as they were all loaded at once from the old instance (Thilo’s) to the new instance (Luciano’s).

I decided to categorize unique user counts for each month by their “start year” (e.g. a user like myself would be under start year 2014). That way I could also see how old “generations” of users drop off over time.

I started with a nested SQL query, which is basically what I used to do professionally about 20 years ago, but it’s been a while since I wrote raw queries against complex data like this. It comes back fairly quickly though, and this is definitely the result of a little bit of trial and error. I’m working with two tables in the openstreetmap PostgreSQL database: users and changesets. I’m counting changesets by the month they occur and by a breakdown of users by when they started using the OGF site (with a special category for users who are “new” in the month they are active).

Here’s the query I made and ran at the PSQL prompt on the server (these data structures are all public knowledge, part of the OSM specification, so I don’t feel worried sharing it).

SELECT 
 t.changeset_month,
 t.user_first_year, 
 t.new_user_flag,
 COUNT(DISTINCT t.user_id) AS count_users,
 COUNT(t.changeset_id) AS count_changesets
FROM ( 
  SELECT
   i.changeset_id,
   i.changeset_month,
   i.user_id,
   LEFT(i.creation_month, 4) AS user_first_year,
   CASE
    WHEN i.creation_month = i.changeset_month
    THEN 'new_user'
    ELSE 'old_user'
   END AS new_user_flag
  FROM ( 
    SELECT 
     to_char(changesets.closed_at, 'YYYY-MM') AS changeset_month,
     changesets.user_id AS user_id, 
     changesets.id AS changeset_id, 
     to_char(users.creation_time, 'YYYY-MM') as creation_month
    FROM changesets INNER JOIN users 
    ON users.id = changesets.user_id 
    WHERE changesets.closed_at >= '2021-10-01'::date
    AND changesets.closed_at <= '2022-12-31'::date
  ) AS i
) AS t
GROUP BY 
 t.changeset_month,
 t.user_first_year, 
 t.new_user_flag
ORDER BY 
 t.changeset_month,
 t.user_first_year, 
 t.new_user_flag DESC;

Here’s the raw output I got.

changeset_month | user_first_year | new_user_flag | count_users | count_changesets
-----------------+-----------------+---------------+-------------+------------------
2021-10         | 2013            | old_user      |          10 |              112
2021-10         | 2014            | old_user      |          17 |             1098
2021-10         | 2015            | old_user      |          23 |              720
2021-10         | 2016            | old_user      |          24 |              448
2021-10         | 2017            | old_user      |          34 |              787
2021-10         | 2018            | old_user      |          45 |             1088
2021-10         | 2019            | old_user      |          35 |              750
2021-10         | 2020            | old_user      |          28 |              557
2021-10         | 2021            | old_user      |          34 |              492
2021-10         | 2021            | new_user      |          24 |              280
2021-11         | 2012            | old_user      |           1 |                1
2021-11         | 2013            | old_user      |           8 |              207
2021-11         | 2014            | old_user      |          19 |              687
2021-11         | 2015            | old_user      |          26 |              697
2021-11         | 2016            | old_user      |          21 |              408
2021-11         | 2017            | old_user      |          36 |              738
2021-11         | 2018            | old_user      |          41 |             1271
2021-11         | 2019            | old_user      |          29 |              663
2021-11         | 2020            | old_user      |          26 |              749
2021-11         | 2021            | old_user      |          28 |              439
2021-11         | 2021            | new_user      |          23 |              498
2021-12         | 2013            | old_user      |          10 |              335
2021-12         | 2014            | old_user      |          17 |              773
2021-12         | 2015            | old_user      |          23 |              892
2021-12         | 2016            | old_user      |          25 |              657
2021-12         | 2017            | old_user      |          31 |              703
2021-12         | 2018            | old_user      |          43 |             1506
2021-12         | 2019            | old_user      |          29 |              769
2021-12         | 2020            | old_user      |          25 |              664
2021-12         | 2021            | old_user      |          45 |              854
2021-12         | 2021            | new_user      |          22 |              250
2022-01         | 2012            | old_user      |           1 |                3
2022-01         | 2013            | old_user      |           7 |              174
2022-01         | 2014            | old_user      |          13 |             1023
2022-01         | 2015            | old_user      |          22 |              805
2022-01         | 2016            | old_user      |          23 |              568
2022-01         | 2017            | old_user      |          32 |              753
2022-01         | 2018            | old_user      |          39 |             1642
2022-01         | 2019            | old_user      |          30 |             1062
2022-01         | 2020            | old_user      |          30 |              878
2022-01         | 2021            | old_user      |          42 |              703
2022-01         | 2022            | new_user      |          24 |              192
2022-02         | 2013            | old_user      |          10 |              397
2022-02         | 2014            | old_user      |          19 |             1251
2022-02         | 2015            | old_user      |          21 |              768
2022-02         | 2016            | old_user      |          22 |              540
2022-02         | 2017            | old_user      |          30 |             1136
2022-02         | 2018            | old_user      |          41 |             1612
2022-02         | 2019            | old_user      |          25 |              617
2022-02         | 2020            | old_user      |          27 |              888
2022-02         | 2021            | old_user      |          41 |              722
2022-02         | 2022            | old_user      |           8 |              117
2022-02         | 2022            | new_user      |          21 |              234
2022-03         | 2013            | old_user      |           8 |               61
2022-03         | 2014            | old_user      |          17 |             1384
2022-03         | 2015            | old_user      |          25 |              927
2022-03         | 2016            | old_user      |          22 |              705
2022-03         | 2017            | old_user      |          35 |             1498
2022-03         | 2018            | old_user      |          41 |             1211
2022-03         | 2019            | old_user      |          33 |              861
2022-03         | 2020            | old_user      |          30 |             1018
2022-03         | 2021            | old_user      |          38 |             1458
2022-03         | 2022            | old_user      |          13 |              491
2022-03         | 2022            | new_user      |          27 |              758
2022-04         | 2013            | old_user      |           7 |              186
2022-04         | 2014            | old_user      |          17 |              871
2022-04         | 2015            | old_user      |          24 |              500
2022-04         | 2016            | old_user      |          19 |              683
2022-04         | 2017            | old_user      |          30 |             1093
2022-04         | 2018            | old_user      |          39 |             1291
2022-04         | 2019            | old_user      |          29 |              833
2022-04         | 2020            | old_user      |          28 |              673
2022-04         | 2021            | old_user      |          32 |              753
2022-04         | 2022            | old_user      |          25 |              900
2022-04         | 2022            | new_user      |          21 |              231
2022-05         | 2012            | old_user      |           1 |                1
2022-05         | 2013            | old_user      |           8 |              214
2022-05         | 2014            | old_user      |          22 |             1093
2022-05         | 2015            | old_user      |          25 |              526
2022-05         | 2016            | old_user      |          25 |              899
2022-05         | 2017            | old_user      |          28 |             1100
2022-05         | 2018            | old_user      |          40 |             1097
2022-05         | 2019            | old_user      |          30 |              873
2022-05         | 2020            | old_user      |          30 |              673
2022-05         | 2021            | old_user      |          34 |             1328
2022-05         | 2022            | old_user      |          27 |              558
2022-05         | 2022            | new_user      |          30 |              348
2022-06         | 2013            | old_user      |           7 |              249
2022-06         | 2014            | old_user      |          17 |              979
2022-06         | 2015            | old_user      |          26 |              605
2022-06         | 2016            | old_user      |          26 |              593
2022-06         | 2017            | old_user      |          30 |              988
2022-06         | 2018            | old_user      |          39 |              941
2022-06         | 2019            | old_user      |          27 |              985
2022-06         | 2020            | old_user      |          26 |              783
2022-06         | 2021            | old_user      |          36 |              919
2022-06         | 2022            | old_user      |          44 |              606
2022-06         | 2022            | new_user      |          31 |              523
2022-07         | 2013            | old_user      |           8 |               84
2022-07         | 2014            | old_user      |          19 |             1414
2022-07         | 2015            | old_user      |          25 |              630
2022-07         | 2016            | old_user      |          24 |              558
2022-07         | 2017            | old_user      |          29 |             1209
2022-07         | 2018            | old_user      |          39 |             1199
2022-07         | 2019            | old_user      |          27 |              632
2022-07         | 2020            | old_user      |          29 |              796
2022-07         | 2021            | old_user      |          35 |             1082
2022-07         | 2022            | old_user      |          41 |              750
2022-07         | 2022            | new_user      |          38 |              632
2022-08         | 2013            | old_user      |          10 |              165
2022-08         | 2014            | old_user      |          17 |             1236
2022-08         | 2015            | old_user      |          24 |              687
2022-08         | 2016            | old_user      |          25 |              636
2022-08         | 2017            | old_user      |          29 |              961
2022-08         | 2018            | old_user      |          41 |             1145
2022-08         | 2019            | old_user      |          35 |              808
2022-08         | 2020            | old_user      |          25 |              585
2022-08         | 2021            | old_user      |          38 |              847
2022-08         | 2022            | old_user      |          50 |             1049
2022-08         | 2022            | new_user      |          40 |              589
2022-09         | 2013            | old_user      |          10 |              175
2022-09         | 2014            | old_user      |          19 |             1534
2022-09         | 2015            | old_user      |          20 |              604
2022-09         | 2016            | old_user      |          24 |              750
2022-09         | 2017            | old_user      |          23 |              735
2022-09         | 2018            | old_user      |          41 |             1302
2022-09         | 2019            | old_user      |          28 |              841
2022-09         | 2020            | old_user      |          24 |              503
2022-09         | 2021            | old_user      |          30 |              609
2022-09         | 2022            | old_user      |          54 |             1035
2022-09         | 2022            | new_user      |          25 |              261
2022-10         | 2012            | old_user      |           1 |                3
2022-10         | 2013            | old_user      |           8 |              231
2022-10         | 2014            | old_user      |          18 |             1112
2022-10         | 2015            | old_user      |          22 |              433
2022-10         | 2016            | old_user      |          25 |              789
2022-10         | 2017            | old_user      |          25 |              809
2022-10         | 2018            | old_user      |          39 |             1267
2022-10         | 2019            | old_user      |          28 |              895
2022-10         | 2020            | old_user      |          30 |              736
2022-10         | 2021            | old_user      |          27 |              382
2022-10         | 2022            | old_user      |          54 |             1040
2022-10         | 2022            | new_user      |          17 |              173
2022-11         | 2013            | old_user      |           8 |              248
2022-11         | 2014            | old_user      |          16 |             1164
2022-11         | 2015            | old_user      |          22 |              357
2022-11         | 2016            | old_user      |          23 |              675
2022-11         | 2017            | old_user      |          25 |              927
2022-11         | 2018            | old_user      |          37 |              897
2022-11         | 2019            | old_user      |          25 |              702
2022-11         | 2020            | old_user      |          25 |              679
2022-11         | 2021            | old_user      |          25 |              577
2022-11         | 2022            | old_user      |          49 |             1100
2022-11         | 2022            | new_user      |          31 |             1641
2022-12         | 2013            | old_user      |           6 |              317
2022-12         | 2014            | old_user      |          18 |              981
2022-12         | 2015            | old_user      |          23 |              543
2022-12         | 2016            | old_user      |          20 |              541
2022-12         | 2017            | old_user      |          25 |              941
2022-12         | 2018            | old_user      |          34 |              973
2022-12         | 2019            | old_user      |          28 |              935
2022-12         | 2020            | old_user      |          22 |              500
2022-12         | 2021            | old_user      |          29 |              432
2022-12         | 2022            | old_user      |          59 |             1623
2022-12         | 2022            | new_user      |          25 |              317

I plugged these data into a spreadsheet, did a few changes and a pivot table. Here’s a graph of the result.

The top band, in light blue, is the “new users” band – these are users each month who are active in their first month of joining OGF. The lower bands represent each year back to OGF’s founding, in 2012 (there were only 2 users in the first year, Thilo and Joschi).

Based on that graph, I would say really OGF is quite stable. We acquire a certain number of new users each month, we lose about an equal proportion of old users, but some subset of long-term users stick around.

Springfield

I felt that my faux-midwestern state, Makaska, would need a “Springfield” – doesn’t every real US state have a “Springfield”?

For this week’s low-effort brag-post of my mapping on OpenGeofiction, I’ll post this view of Springfield. Unlike most other parts of Makaska where I’ve mapped, this is not being done chronologically. It’s meant to represent the modern state of the map. I don’t feel it’s complete, but a lot is done – at least 65% done I’d say.

Here is a link to the map: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=14/-41.5031/148.4594&layers=B

Faux-midwestern, rural Makaska

This is my low-effort map-brag of the week. This is quite recent work – mostly done in the last year or so. It’s in the central-south of my imaginary faux-US-midwestern state of Makaska. Like most of Makaska, this region is being drawn “historically” – which is to say, I’m trying to add features and such in a rough chronological order. As such, this still incomplete mapping is stuck somewhere in the very early 1900’s right now, and still needs quite a bit of work before I’d even feel comfortable to advance the calendar.

Here is a link to the location on the map: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=12/-43.0508/145.6341&layers=B

Still my proudest accomplishment

For this week’s low-effort post reviewing my geofiction work on opengeofiction, I’ll present what I still consider my “masterpiece” – it’s the best bit of geofiction I’ve created for any OSM-style platform (i.e. opengeofiction.net or arhet). I did this work mostly in 2015-2016.

That’s my island city-state called Tárrases. It includes a well-wrought contour layer.

Here’s the link: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=12/-58.3003/83.9568&layers=B

Provincia de Amor

As I said last week – I’m going to try to do a low-effort post of past or current geofiction work once a week.

For this week, I’ve been feeling nostalgic for my years living in South Korea. So I decided to post a geofiction I did while living there, in 2015 or so. It’s not the greatest – there are aspects I can even say I feel a bit embarrassed by, but at the time it was the best I’d done so far, and I was quite happy with it.

Here’s the link to the map: https://opengeofiction.net/#map=15/-20.7997/124.2137&layers=B

It’s a little bit tongue-in-cheek, linguistically. My Korean language skill isn’t that good, so the naming is probably amusing or cringey for those who are better with Korean. The whole idea is that this is a quite small, touristically-oriented, Korean-speaking exclave of my imaginary country called Ardesfera (Ardisphere). Bear, in mind, therefore, that anything outside of Sarang-do’s borders is not my work – and there’s been quite a bit of turnover by the neighbors, too, so I don’t actually know who’s currently mapping in the surroundings nor what their concept is – it’s clearly incomplete.

Long time, no update

I have neglected this blog for the last 6 months. That’s bad.

I occasionally think of things I’d like to blog here, but I get lazy or distracted with other, non-geofiction stuff, and never get around to it.

For now, I’m going to try something different. I’ll try to do a “low effort” post once a week. We’ll see how long that lasts.

One of these low effort posts will involve pointing to something I (or someone else) has mapped on one of the map servers (Ogieff, Arhet).

This week: yesterday, I uploaded some work-in-progress on the city of Saint-Raphaël, Ooayatais. It’s far from complete, but I decided that instead of hoarding the work on my desktop computer, I’d go ahead and post it in its incomplete state. Even so, yesterday’s upload was about 70k objects. (https://opengeofiction.net/#map=14/-46.6363/146.7445&layers=B)

Note that in the screenshot, coastlines are not yet updated. There’s something going on with delayed coastline updates, which, as admin for the site, I should probably look into.