Places: your community's public map¶

At a glance. Places are useful public spots in your area — drinking fountains, cool refuges, public toilets, barbecue areas, sights, parks, emergency points. You find them under Places as a map and as a list — public, no sign-in required. Category and attribute filters plus a radius filter (100 m to 10 km) quickly show what is near you. Signed-in users can propose new places, confirm existing ones as "still current", or report them — every proposal is reviewed by an admin before it appears.

Screenshot: the Places map with category filters and radius — assets/screenshots/places-map.png

What is a place — and what is not?¶

A place is a concrete spot in public space that is useful to everyone. These categories are available to start with:

Category	Examples
Cool place / climate refuge	Air-conditioned or shaded spots during heat waves
Public toilet	Freely accessible WCs, including accessible ones
Drinking water	Drinking fountains and water dispensers
Barbecue / fire pit	Public barbecue and fire sites
Sight / viewpoint	Monuments, viewpoints, local landmarks
Park / green space	Parks, play meadows, green areas
Emergency point / AED	Defibrillators and emergency meeting points

Every place has exactly one category (with its own map symbol) and any number of attributes — for accessibility, cost, or amenities.

Deliberately not supported are private addresses and protection facilities (e.g. shelters): such categories do not exist, and the admin review filters out corresponding proposals. This protects privacy and people at risk.

Place, space, or organisation? A place is a point on the map — no members, no feed. A space is a group with a feed and membership (→ Spaces & roles). An organisation is an actor with its own profile (→ Organisations). Organisations with a stored address additionally appear as a pin on the Places map — their pin links straight to the organisation profile.

Map and list¶

The Places section sits right next to Start in the main navigation and is fully public. There are two equal views:

Map — the primary view: places as symbols on a map, clustered when there are many results. Panning and zooming automatically loads the visible places.
List — all places as cards to scroll through. The list is the full, accessible alternative: everything the map can do, the list can do too.

If the operator of your hub has not configured a map, you only see the list — with no loss of content. Switching between map and list keeps your filters and results. Every place has its own detail page with all its information, which you can also share as a link.

Filtering and finding¶

Category — narrow down to one category, e.g. drinking water only.
Attributes — in three groups: Accessibility (e.g. wheelchair-accessible on the Wheelmap scale, step-free, accessible toilet), Access & cost (e.g. free of charge, seasonal), and Comfort & surroundings (e.g. covered, seating, lit).
Search — free-text search by name or description. Places also appear in the hub's central search as their own result group.

Filters apply to the map and the list alike.

Radius and distance¶

The radius filter narrows results to your surroundings — in steps from 100 m to 10 km. For this, locali asks once for your browser's location permission:

If you allow it, the radius filters the results and you can sort the list by distance.
If you decline (or no location is available), locali says so honestly — "location not available" — and shows all distances again. Nothing is estimated or invented.

Distances are always as the crow flies, in coarse bands — locali promises no walking time and no route, because it cannot reliably know either. Your location stays private: it is only used for the radius query and never appears in a web address.

Honest information¶

locali only shows what is actually on record. If opening hours are unknown, it says "unknown" — there is no invented "open now". Every place also carries a "last confirmed" date so you can judge how fresh the information is — including whether an admin or visitors confirmed it last.

Taking part: propose, confirm, report¶

These three actions require an account with a verified e-mail address — a simple safeguard against spam and manipulation.

Proposing a place¶

Is a place missing? Propose it — a step-by-step form guides you:

Choose a category — exactly one, with its map symbol.
Set the position — by pin on the map (with your location as a starting aid) or, if the operator has enabled address search, by entering an address. You can add a free-text address as well.
Add details — name, description, attributes, optionally a photo. With a photo, an alt text is mandatory (accessibility); all photo metadata (e.g. GPS position, capture time) is automatically removed on upload.

If similar entries already exist nearby, locali asks "Did you mean one of these places?" — you then briefly confirm that you really mean a new place. This prevents duplicates but never blocks you.

Good to know:

Every proposal is reviewed by an admin before it appears publicly. This is the safeguard against duplicates and abuse — please do not propose private addresses.
Your name appears nowhere publicly on the place — who proposed a place stays private.
A limited number of proposals is possible per day (spam protection).

Screenshot: the proposal form with map and duplicate hint — assets/screenshots/places-propose.png

Confirming "still current"¶

On every detail page you can confirm with one click that a place still exists and its information is correct. This updates the "last confirmed" date and helps everyone keep the inventory fresh. The confirmation is deliberately a weak signal: it is limited (rate limit) and never overrides an open report saying the place is gone — an admin decides that.

Reporting a place¶

If something is wrong, you can report the place — with a concrete reason:

No longer exists / closed
Wrong location
Wrong information
Duplicate entry
Inappropriate / unsafe
Other

Optionally you add a short message. The report goes straight to the hub's admins. A reported place never disappears automatically — whether and how to react is always a human decision.

For admins & operators¶

Admins review proposals and reports, maintain the inventory, and can also create places directly — in the Administration → Places cockpit. Operators additionally decide whether the hub offers a map at all, which starting view it shows, and whether an address search is available.

→ Everything about this in Administration → Places.

Frequently asked questions¶

Question	Answer
Do I need an account to see places?	No. Map, list, filters, and detail pages are fully public. You only need an account (with a verified e-mail) to propose, confirm, and report.
Why do I see no map, only a list?	The operator of your hub has not configured a map. The list still shows all places with all filters — nothing is missing.
Why does my proposal not appear immediately?	Every proposal is first reviewed by an admin — as protection against duplicates, wrong information, and the publication of private addresses.
Can others see that I proposed a place?	No. Who proposed a place is never publicly visible.
Is my location stored or shared?	No. Your location is only used for the radius query, never appears in a web address, and is not made public.
Why does locali not show a walking time?	Because locali does not reliably know it. Distances are honest as-the-crow-flies figures in coarse bands — no promise about routes or times.
What is the difference between a place and an organisation on the map?	A place is a public spot (e.g. a drinking fountain). An organisation is an actor with its own profile; if it has an address, it additionally appears as a pin — the pin leads to its profile.