iOverlander

I cracked and downloaded the app when I needed to find a place to sleep in a big city with no proper campgrounds available. If you have Google maps and just look up “National Forest” (or BLM, etc) then zoom in on forest roads - bam…loads of options. Or if you google campgrounds. But for the city, you rely on crowdsourcing information or past experience. My dislike comes from the fact that there were locations out on that map of businesses that said they allowed overnight parking…and that was most certainly not true. One was a Walmart parking lot with “No overnight parking” posted all over lol. Also the other options rely on you being totally self contained, safe, and probably not alone. I don’t usually worry about that specifically but options like the side of the road behind businesses on the outskirts of town, in poorly lit areas…sounds just like the start to a bad story where you get called an idiot for even risking it. So I found this less useful than Google maps and a quick search of “Where can I boondock.” Ah yes…my favorite part was how the app is set up in a way where to send in this information you had to type it in, then scroll down to the “Send” button, but could not see it/press it because it force opened the keyboard on my phone with no way of closing it to reach said button. Excellent work here.

The strength of the original was that anybody could contribute, so there was a rich database. Your circus, but I bring the monkeys and get to watch the show. IOv2 is now an (over priced) subscription or hobbled annoyware. Your circus, but you want me to bring the monkeys and buy a ticket? What devs are missing is that they need to draw users because our data is their product, and without it there’s nothing to sell. In its new format, devs will cut out many CONTRIBUTORS. At some times (traveling for a month mostly thru state parks in the summer) or in some places (northeast) no subscription makes sense because IO is only one tool for finding options, and there are other tools. If they were maintaining a database of verified sites that I could browse (like harvest hosts), sold. But IOv2 asks you to pay and populate. Why? How about dropping me $1 every time I add or update a site since it’s my data IOv2 is selling? The new format will cut out a group of contributors who can’t justify the price and/or won’t bother with the limited functionality and purposeful annoyware, but would still add useful data. $1.99/mo a la carte and I’ll still take a minute to update the database for the months and places I’ll be on the road, even if IO didn’t get me there. Behind annoyware or an inflated subscription, contributing to a product with limited functionality is not going to be something I’m interested in. Nice tent, but no fun without my monkeys.

After using this app on my 3 year around the world journey I’m surprised to see so many negative comments about it. The app is absolute treasure, I was confident to get a good night of sleep before even starting to look for a campsite at 8pm. Every time descriptions were spot on. As for freeloaders complaining about the price: maybe you should have contributed to the community instead of only mooching on others. I sure did put many new places on the map and checked into countless others with updated info and pictures, hence got a paid version for free once the new app was released. This expectation to get something for nothing is shameful, but to complain for not getting free stuff while developers spent countless hours and contributors did so as well, knowing that an empty campsites could be ruined by crowds is despicable. When I started using this app, I could tell that it’ll be ruined by its success and trashy people will follow. Here we are: freeloaders came in droves PS: thank you again developers and volunteers for making my trip around the world more predictable and fun