During these sad days we have encountered DDOS attack for the first time since the beginning. Our equipment cannot stand such brute force. Wikimapia was down for 7+ hours and probably will not be working during attacks.
Attack parameters for 300 sec interval:
Threshold Packets 200.000 packets/s
Sum 81.190.000 packets/300s (270.633 packets/s)
After the years of oblivion the code of this app was found on an old floppy disk in a dusty garage and is being updated with the help of Wikimapians, special thanks to a code master Andrey Borodin, he took the disk, wiped out all the dust and helped with the code renewal and update. I present view only version, codename 'Zombie release'. Map edit and user functions are blocked at this moment and will be available in later releases as it will take more time to fix everything. The reason of this update is that iOS itself is getting updated and starting to block some app functionality, same problems in Android OS.
I have plans that all code of Wikimapia will be open source, some fellow Wikimapians already got access to iOS and Android apps code through Github. The Wikimapia code will be published as open source, part by part, as it has to pass security reviews so untrustworthy people won't bother us using security bugs in the code.
If you are willing to participate in code update or help to guide Wikimapia to the future you may use these links:
Main Wikimapia Coordiantion Channel https://t.me/wikimapia_org
A place where to store and organize ideas about evolution and development of Wikimapia https://github.com/korint/wikimapia.evolution
Wikimapia iOS app https://apps.apple.com/us/app/wikimapia ... d826543747
Email is contact@wikimapia.org
As this is new activity for me, please be patient, I don't have things well organized for now and we are not in rush.
Hi everyone!
Yesterday we received a monthly bill for Google Maps layer calculated with new pricing system - we had 1500% rise (15X, from $1400 to $21000+). As it was stated, Wikimapia cannot spend so much as it has much lesser income.
Sorry, we are starting to restrict use of Google Maps layer. We are working on one solution that will allow anyone use it's own key from Google maps for personal use on Wikimapia, I hope it will work without breaking Google Maps TOS (https://cloud.google.com/maps-platform/terms/).
I will publish personal key for WM guide.
The Best,
Alex
Dear friends,
Starting from May 2018 we received letters from Google Maps about changes in prices for its services. We didn’t have any worries as these letters noticed significantly discounted price for our big volume.
-“You are eligible for a significantly discounted price on your monthly bill, based on your usage over the last three months.”
When it comes closely to the date of price change we contacted Google maps representative and found out that the “discounted price” will have 800% increase (8 times) compare to the current payments. The “discount” had meaning that we won’t be paying 1500% more, but only 800%. We tried to convince Google Maps representative to leave the payments unchanged offering collaboration and data. We had no success.
Unfortunately, from July, 16 we won’t have Google Maps satellite or map images on Wikimapia as we could not afford paying for them.
We are not desperate, Google may come that it was a bad move to raise prices so high, or we will, sooner or later, find out other satellite providers with lower usage costs.
Also we will try to find solutions on how to bring money resources to Wikimapia for its development and satellite imagery.
Again, we are sorry for this situation, we are doing our best,
Alexandre Koriakine and Evgeniy Saveliev
P.s. “There’s no point in acting surprised about it. All the planning charts and demolition orders have been on display at your local planning department in Alpha Centauri for 50 of your Earth years, so you’ve had plenty of time to lodge any formal complaint and it’s far too late to start making a fuss about it now.” @Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
[UPDATE]
We (all who uses Google Maps) were credited by Google for two more months, so the Google imagery layer is not going to be turned off today.
Today, 27 march at 17:00:00 UTC/GMT (20:00:00 MSK UTC+3) we will have server upgrades, Wikimapia will be set to read-only for 5-6 hours.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Yesterday Google finally introduced load limits for Google map layer. We faced these limits and even on simple paid account we will continue to have limitations until we find a way to remove the limit.
Reset time for Google map limit is midnight Pacific Time (00-00 PT, 09-00 Paris, 10-00 Msk).
Thank you for your understanding.
AK
Starting from May 13th at 7:00AM PDT UTC-7 (17:00:00 MSK UTC+3) we will have server upgrades, Wikimapia will not be accessible for few hours.
Sorry for the inconvenience.