Trails.com Sux

“Trails.com represents the worst of the internet - money grubbing!

Now they've gone and destroyed one of the best things on the internet - Topozone, which was free.

The greatness of the internet is free access to information. There will never be anything on Trails.com that you can't find for free somewhere else, but they are doing their best to try to make their service essential. Fu@# them!”

“LOL”

“WTF? I used to use topozone all the time to get quick reference info for work.”

“LOL, they have to make up the money for accidentally sending me two sets of cumberland gap maps when i only paid for one”

“Wow!

Amen to that Toejam!”

“Here's a nice alternative:

http://mapper.acme.com/
last edited: 4/11/08 8:19:38 AM”

“Thanks Ped”

“That's great Pedxing! Thanks!”

“Next thing you know, there will be a membership fee for TT.

The trolls and the trolling have ruined this place. I wouldn't pay to post here.”

“My favorite scam is the sign up for a free 30-day trial.

Oh wait, in order to get a free trail we need your credit card info. We just know your gonna love us so much that after 30-days you will probably to wonder what you did before you met us and completely forget to register.”

“Have you always believed the world owed you a living? It won't be long when sites like this will be access by paid membership only. You know, just like the porn sites. When that happens a lot of deadbeats on this site will be gone. At the same time the site will have to get a lot better too. That would be a win-win situation. No trolls and no unemployeed slackers sitting at their computer screens tying up bandwidth.”

“Who let this troll back in?”

“and since when have you had to pay for porn on the internet?”

“Why are you calling me a troll? I don't even know you.”

“You have an "L" in your name and so does "troll." It's basic math.”

“Plus I remember when this troll started posting here.”

“I think you people have been smoking some Lefty Luckies. Lumberzac has an 'L' in his name so I guess he's a troll too?”

“Exactly!

Nimbefoot”

“Okay I have an L in my name. I'm a troll like just about everyone else in here. What next?”

“Dance for us.”

“Thanks for the link, Ped! Funny how the first map it showed was my neighborhood. Or maybe scary?”

“That concerned me even though it was off about 35miles south when I pulled in.Is it zip or IP?

Safebored
last edited: 4/11/08 11:40:59 AM”

“The first time I clicked on in it it was zoomed all the way out.”

“I would pay an annual fee if it meant better service and better care from the owners.”

“like FIXING THE EMAIL TRIP ATTENDEES FUNCTION”

“Thanks for the link, Ped! Funny how the first map it showed was my neighborhood. Or maybe scary?”
kleetn
3:20:26 PM
4/11/08

So what were you doing out back after midnight all those nights?”

“If everything on the internet required a paid subcription I'd be happy to go back to reading books and newspapers and having a real life.

Google knows whats up. They can offer acme maps, picasa photos, youtube and hotmail for free because they know they will get tons of users, and can therefore charge plenty for advertising. And how's that working for them? They dominate.

Trails.com could dominate their corner of the market if they changed their short-sighted, money-grubbing ways.”

“Well I agree it is terrible of them to put all that time and money into a service and then actually expect to make a profit. Terrible.

Hey... The idea is that you put your time, energy and money to take a bunch of parts (servers, code, etc in the case of web services) and produce a product worth more than the sum of it's parts. The margin above what you put in is profit and it's a measure of how much value you were able to add.

In the case of trails.com just remember... it ain't easy being cheezy.”

“The other side of that coin is you could have all the maps you wanted if you would change your money-grubbing ways and pay for them.

Back before the internet if you wanted a map you went down to your local outfitter and BOUGHT a USGS topo quadrant. They weren't cheap either. No one complained in the pre-internet days because people understood that if you wanted something you had to pay for it. Now along comes the internet generation and they think the world owes them something for nothing. My suggestion to you toejam is now that you've reach the age of 25-35 years (?) maybe it's time to move out of your parents' house and see how the real world operates.”

“Now thats a direct approach!”

“White man need map-real hiker start out lost and just get way more loster.”

“Who owns Trails.com?”

““Who owns Trails.com?”
chili36
9:32:50 PM
4/12/08

Three guesses. Of course I'll probly get an email for that.”

“Demand Media, I believe.”

“Creek Dancer wins the ceegar”

“Why thank you rev!”

“Oh, don't they own this site too?”

“"Trails.Com sucks!" Just found out about this yesterday. 8(


TopoZone IMO was the best thing to happen to online maps, USGS Topographic Quadrangles, that is. And I don't have to explain why to you guys.

I thought Topozone could offer USGS maps for free because they aren't (weren't) theirs to begin with, they just offered many other different ways to look at the Earth's surface and in different formats, and to give that ability to their customers was what they charged for. How Trails.Com gets to charge for viewing something they don't technically own is beyond me, maybe they bought rights to use them and the USGS is getting a cut of the money. I dunno, but I assume that is the case? But it sucks, nonetheless!

btw - A BIG THANKS, Ped, for the link. I can't thank you enough!!!”

“They may be violating the terms of use for the usgs maps if they don't give them for free. It is sort of like gpl licensed software. Chili is a lawer and I bet he or pros could figure this out.”

“Said another way you can do whatever you want with the maps as long as you give the originals away free. I thought this was why TopoZone did what they did. They sold services on top of maps they gave out for free. I am going to email USGS to see what I can dig up.”

“Ok... I'm confused. If I go into my local map store and ask for the Asaph quad I pay a good price for it. Always have. You mean that;s not the way it should be?”

“The USGS website charges $6 for the maps as near as I can tell. Maybe I didn't look at it rightly”

“You are paying for the printing. I bet if you call them they will tell you where to get the free maps. They might even be required to do this for you. You already own the map...”

“Digital topo maps available free !

It's now easy to find, get, and use topographic maps on your computer! And it's free! Search anywhere in the US by place name or zip code or mark a place on a map. Then download the PDF file or order the paper map.

It's all available at the new Map Locator and Downloader in the USGS Store!

Found it. That's from the USGS website. So you may very well be right.”