Ontario Abandoned Places will be rebranded as Ominous Abandoned Places

Levels System & Member Elections

You might have already encountered some level badges around the website. If you intend to become an involved member of this community, user level is something you must know about. Please read on to learn more about location levels and user levels

What are location levels?

Location levels determine access permissions. Generally, locations with higher levels are better preserved or more dangerous. Conversely, well known public locations have lower levels.

How to determine location levels

Location levels are not random. Their levels can change over time. Below is a general guidelines on how levels should be assigned, viz., the location level criteria

Level 1 Historic places, demolished places, cemeteries, low risk ruins.
Level 2 Well known locations, heavy vandalism, relatively low risk to visitors.
Level 3 Some decay, more interesting locations. moderate risk to visitors.
Level 4 Fully intact locations. Sensitive locations.

What are user levels?

Each account has a level assigned. These levels vary from 1 through 4. Guest users and brand new accounts have a level 1. User levels are used to determine access to locations. All locations in the database have a required level to have access. Level 1 locations are publicly accessible but any level above is only available for members who have been promoted to respective levels.

Purpose of user levels

Publicly available locations tend to draw attentions of vandals and arsonists. To preserve these locations, only members with reputation in the community will gain access to higher level locations.

What is my current user level?

Your current level as Guest User is Level 1

How to get considered for promotion

To get considered for level promotion, you must at least fulfill the minimum requirements. Refer to minimum requirements table. When you are ready, request a new user level promotion election. The community will anonymously debate & vote to either approve or deny the request. If denied, the mods will provide feedback on areas of improvement.

Minimum requirements for promotion

Users must meet the following minimum requirements to hold a community wide promotion election. Achieving the following requirements does not entitle one to receive a promotion. The user must receive community wide approval of their promotion. The admin team is continually working to improve and clarify the requirements to set clear expectations of our users.

Level 1 Guest and brand new accounts default to level 1.
Level 2 Contribute meaningful (quality) content to 10+ locations.
Submit at least 3 new locations of any level.
Must not have record of vandalizing
3 months of activity as Level 1
Level 3 Contribute meaningful (quality) content to 40+ locations.
Submit at least 20 new level 2 or higher locations.
Submit quality write ups with history or details and risks when possible.
Must not have record of offense and abuse of irresponsibly sharing locations
6 months of activity as Level 2
Subject to further qualifications
Level 4 Provide a full write-up on why you should be promoted.
Contribute meaningful (quality) content to 80+ locations.
Submit at least 40 new level 2 or higher locations.
Submit at least 20 new level 3 or higher locations.
Having a trusted member explore with you and vouch for you.
12 months of activity as Level 3
Subject to further qualifications

Application fee for promotion election

Our servers are very costly (thanks heroku) and requires ongoing financial support from the community. All promotion elections, starting in 2023, will require an application fee to be authorized on a credit card before an election is held. When your promotion election is approved, the card will be charged. Conversely when your promotion election is denied, the card will not be charged. The application fee amount is subject to change without notice. Please contact a member of the admin team with any questions you have.

Ongoing Elections

In progress

indeed1  •  4 days ago

Well, here I am, applying for Level 3! Time flies. Prepare for a 'I'm not reading all of that' novel! Since getting Level 2, I've started going to much better locations, and contributing what I can, where I can. I've only gotten more and more enjoyment of discovering and exploring new places to walk through and take pictures of. I like to think I've contributed a good chunk in my time as Level 2. Not that I intend to slow down or have that change in any way, but I think it goes without saying that I'm interested in climbing my way up to Level 3 so that I can see some more consistent locations and continue my journey into the hobby. In the last few months I've talked with a lot of you and gotten a much better understanding of things. I've made a good handful of friends and had some fun discussions with people. Unrelated to the site, but the Discord is always a fun time LOL. Whenever I upload my albums I try to label every image of what every room used to be / is, I share my opinion on some things in the image descriptions whenever I can, and just in general I try to be as detailed and accurate as possible in the things I write about, whether it be about a location **or** just on an image description. I like judging bathrooms :) On top of that I'm always trying to capture a lot of good, wide angle images of the places I explore so they can be viewed exactly as they are before they inevitably either decay more, or get demolished, since that's basically always what happens in this scene. I'm not incredibly artsy or creative like some of yous, but I think I defintiely do a good job of 'documenting' in a sense exactly what I see, as I see it. Also, I have no history (and no plans) of vandalism or really as far as my knowledge goes, any offences in the community. I like to keep it calm and at least semi-professional :) **Now I will point out something that may be of important value if you're taking the time to vote for me and you're only Level 2**. You'll only be able to see 12 of my 26 locations. 9 of those you'll only see exteriors. Not exactly a lot to work off of in terms of voting, so unfortunately the best I can do for yous that meet this exact criteria is list out what you can't see (and these are all in terms of my 'new locations', as in terms of actual album contributions I'm well past requirement): 1x L1 location - 1x (all) has both interior & exterior 11x L2 locations - 2x have interiors, and (unfortunately) 9x are exterior only 7x L3 locations - 5x have interiors, 2x are exterior only 7x L4 locations - 7x (all) have interiors This might be valuable information for some of you so, figure I will write it out in case you can't see it and check yourself. Most of the places I visit (at least recently) are L3/4 so if you can't see them it may not look like I have much. So, with that, I hope my current contributions are enough to be promoted to Level 3, but I'm always open to constructive criticism and am (regardless of the outcome of this election) going to continue adding new locations and new albums to the site. Unfortunately, not having the time is my biggest issue currently. Can only get a few every few weeks. Also, any questions or comments you've got for me, go ahead and put 'em in this thread and I'll respond when I can. Thanks for considering and/or reading (if you read all this)

Past Elections

Denied

abp10  •  2 weeks ago

I won't sit here and try to gaslight anybody that I've reached the full requirements. I am applying 3 weeks early. But before you downvote me, let me explain why I am applying now, rather than 3 weeks later. I'm an urbexer, based in Toronto, that has found a great passion for exploring. But overtime, this passion of exploring, has branched out into exploring abandoned places. And then that passion, has branched out into finding NEW spots to explore. To be completely honest, I don't need any spots. This is not why I am applying for level 3. Let alone exploring anything else that's not an abandoned place, even when I do run out of spots, I know how to find new ones, after countless hours and hours of mapping out the whole city. Was this worth my time? Probably not to be honest. But at least now my problem of "having no spots and having to apply for lvl 2" a few months ago, has turned into the problem of, "where do I go this time?" And this is why I'm applying for level 3. With access to level 3, I will be able to potentially see pins that I am not updated on. Rather if someone has already been there and uploaded it as an exterior, or I get to see what said building looks like on the inside, and or what hazards, I will be able to prioritize which areas I go to. The good thing with level 3, is that if lets just say one of my pins isn't on there, is that it's either a level 4 I'm refinding, or it's a new location to contribute and continue to help expand the database. And as long as I'm able to keep leveling up, I don't have a problem to keep uploading my explores. At first it was more of a task to take photos, but that task has turned into a hobby, hence why my quality of albums has improved (at least I hope you guys also think that way as well). I've had my ups and downs in this community, but going forward as a level 3, I don't want to be seen as some "immature teenager". I want to be seen as a respectable member of this community. This is something I have been working to improve on overtime, and something I want to keep striving towards. Sometimes I might say some dumb things, but I want to move past that. Obviously I find these and explore these spots with good intentions. I am not a vandal. I go in for photos, look through some items if the spot isn't empty, and then leave how it was. There would be no reason to not trust me with level 3 either, as I've already explained earlier, I don't want new spots, I just want updates. And I want updates, to help the database. Besides contributing new locations to the database, another thing I will do is the same thing I did with level 2 recently. Go through all the Toronto locations, and update them. (at least from what I can see online, or if I've passed by it, etc.) The whole point of having a database like this is to record abandoned places, but it's also nice for everyone else to be updated, rather if a spot is now demolished, now has security, all those sorts of things. If you feel like 3 weeks makes the difference, then you'll see another application in 3 weeks. Besides applying early, I meet and have surpassed the other requirements (at least the ones you can surpass). If there's another reason, I will always take criticism. Thanks for your time.

Approved

HitAttac  •  2 months ago

Hello fellow urbexers, I have come to request an elevation of my status from Level 1 to the highly prestigious, Level 2. I've always been interested in history and how life was like back then, and that led me to discovering urban exploring, areas preserved for me to see and imagine what life was like back then. I made this account in September 2023, but I only really started posting in February 2024, and up until the past few days, my posts were sporadic. My first ever urbex activity was rooftopping a school, and after that, I got addicted to rooftopping schools, but after a while, I committed more to actual abandoned places, which I pursued whenever I had free time. It's taken me a little bit of time, since I focus a lot of my time on school and other extra-curriculars, along with the fact that making plans with friends is hard, but I found a little bit of time over the past few days and that has allowed me to finally reach and also surpass the minimum requirements, with 5 locations and 12 albums, with all my locations having write-ups. My photography skills may not be good, and my albums may not be the best, but I am always looking to improve. I always try my best to take interiors pictures that help people see my journey through the entire place, as I walked through it. I also forgot to take good exteriors a lot in my earlier albums, something that I have been working on in my last few, and I hope to work towards a better balance and more visually appealing albums in the future. Overall, I believe that Level 2 will bring me more locations that can allow me to practice my skills and help me with making albums that are better for anyone stumbling across them. I will also continue to work on finding locations for this community, and doing writeups for them, and Level 2 will give me some more motivation in doing that. That is why I believe that I should be considered for promotion to level 2. Thank you. If there's any advice that anyone can give on any of my locations or albums, I'd be really happy to hear about it.

Approved

Ducko  •  3 months ago

So it’s finally time. After being nearly at the requirements for months, I’m ready to apply for level 3. You can see my last post to get some info on my background but to give you the jist, I got into exploration through a website my dad showed me, Infiltration.org, about 3 years ago. I started joining communities a bit over a year later and found OAP. I’ve become actively involved in the community, often chatting and sharing advice with newer explorers on Discord. That’s not to say I don’t touch grass though. I get out and explore as often as I can, sometimes spending hours walking around from spot to spot. When I was first starting out on the site, I had a more quantity-over-quality mindset when it came to new locations. I’d post nearly everything I found, even if I wasn’t able to get interior shots. I feel like that mindset has changed. I’ve started to curate what I upload, mainly posting interiors and locations that I believe would interest people. Speaking of content, from the start I’ve made an effort to provide as detailed and accurate write-ups as I possibly can, sometimes spending hours researching the history of locations I document. I’m no professional photographer but I try to put some artistic flare into my photos. I only include photos that give a good sense of the location and are pleasing to the eyes, though you might not find both attributes in everyone. Not only do I meet the requirements with 20 level 2+ locations (21 if you count one that I lowered to level 1 after demo), but I’ve also been one of the most active members of the community in the past year I’ve been on OAP.

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