What induced the fork? Out of the loop, apparently.
this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2025
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Here's an open letter to the Organic Maps Shareholders with the most info:
https://www.comaps.app/news/2025-04-16/1/
Which is referenced in the article here:
https://news.itsfoss.com/organic-maps-fork-comaps/
And discussed on the OpenSource community here:
https://lemmy.world/post/30461779
Basically some drama went down between the devs.
- Organic Maps has remained an LLC instead of transitioning to a Nonprofit.
- The projects finances have not been made public (they're not required as an LLC) and there are concerns about how that money is being used.
- There was a decision made to include Kayak affiliate links in the app: https://web.archive.org/web/20250602163403/https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/pull/6523
- The current board only consists of 3 people: Roman (@rtsisyk), Viktor (@vng), and Alexander (@biodranik). Major decisions can't be made if only 1 person objects.
- The code for their map download service was closed sourced when an MIT license was removed and there were concerns about Organic Maps keeping in line with its open source values: https://web.archive.org/web/20250523094656/https://github.com/orgs/organicmaps/discussions/9837#discussioncomment-11569196
- When these concerns were raised, Alexander (@biodranik) revoked Roman's (@rtsisyk) access https://web.archive.org/web/20250427142515/https://github.com/organicmaps/organicmaps/pull/9860
- The situation was resolved about a week later with the code for the map download service becoming public and With Roman's access being restored.
Edit: 'to' the shareholders, not from
As long as the kayak links can't personally identify the user, I don't see any issue with this.
Setting up a nonprofit is hard. You can setup an LLC and run it like a nonprofit
Honestly none of that seems all that bad. Unless they start actively doing something very harmful I don't see any reason not to use Organic maps.
None of it is "that bad". However its understandable if contributors want to separate out and have a more open governance.
As long as they keep the licenses open where both projects can pick and choose. Some forks do so "maliciously" and change licenses to prevent upstream from pulling changes back.
Honestly, I think it's premature - Organic Maps isn't down the drain yet. But I'm also not 100% up to date. You can see most of the context here and in the open letter linked within: https://community.openstreetmap.org/t/organic-maps-open-letter/128851
I'll be waiting for the fdroid release, thanks!
i'm so excited
Same here. Hopefully I can export and import my Organic maps bookmarks.
I yearn for the days when we just have functional apps and no fragmented drama or centralised corporate shit.
I'm not sure what the problem with Organic maps is. I think dividing the community is generally a bad idea.
Here's the open letter from maintainers.
Summary (direct from the linked post):
Community contributors to Organic Maps have expressed serious concerns about the project's governance, transparency, and the potential for shareholder profit at the expense of the community. They are calling for a shift to a nonprofit structure, greater inclusivity in decision-making, and financial transparency, and are considering starting a new project if these issues are not addressed.
Honestly I could care less if they make money or not.
Right now we really need some strong competition in the maps space.
How much less could you care?
What was wrong with organic maps?
Dont post pictures of text
Enshittification like it happened with maps.me is coming to organic maps?
Probably not for now, but the main devs displayed some bad behavior iirc, so this might be an early fork in preperation for what might be on the horizon.
This is what happened:
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/MAPS.ME_to_Organic_Maps/OM_Crisis
Thank, very insightful!
No, it is just people stirring up drama.
Is it worth a try or is it just a rebrand for now?
As I read it, it's not expected to be very different at first.
i'll keep both apps but i would love for comaps to improve the frequency of osm data, which i found was so slow in organic maps
Yeah, I'm sorry but also the policy of OSM to not update road closures (and also no standard way to do it) until they reach a few months to a half year makes it almost useless for navigation in places with multiple construction projects throughout a year
I can get 20 minutes added to my 30 minute route trying to find a good detour because organic maps just keeps shoving me back to a closed route.
There is construction in different places 6-7 months of the year here. If I can't trust organic maps to get me to my destination, then it is useless as a car navigation tool and I can't switch from map services that update their maps frequently.