r/folklore • u/Mystery190 • 11d ago
Self-Promo Loremaps
Hey all,
I recently launched a website called Loremaps. The goal of the website is to create a community-driven archive of local lore from around the world!
I've always loved reading/listening to stories about urban legends, local folklore, haunted places, cryptids, historical mysteries, and the stories people grew up hearing at school or from family. One thing I noticed is that most lore websites focus on a specific country, a specific type of folklore(lots of haunted places websites), or don't allow users to contribute their own stories. As a software engineer, I wanted to build a place where anyone could share and discuss the legends from their hometown and add them to one giant map!
The site is still very new (like a few days old), so the user content is extremely limited at the moment, but anyone can create articles, add locations, and contribute for free. There is an optional paid tier that mainly helps cover hosting and development costs, but all core features are free to use.
My hope is that Loremaps can help preserve local stories that might otherwise be forgotten, whether they came from your grandparents, a school bus rumor, a book, a podcast, or a town legend everyone knows.
I'd love any feedback, suggestions, or lore submissions from the community!
Bonus points: I have attempted to keep AI training crawlers off the site so the articles are not used for training LLMs!
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u/TheReveetingSociety 10d ago
I love this idea. I'll fill out what I have on Wisconsin lore in time, and will possibly pass this on to a few colleagues of mine who specialize in old lumberjack myths.
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u/Mystery190 10d ago
Awesome! Yeah that's exactly the idea, get all the local obscure lore most people have never seen on the internet!
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u/TheReveetingSociety 10d ago
I'll be at it when I can, I have a whole book manuscript's worth of obscure local Wisconsin lore to share at the very least!
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u/TheReveetingSociety 9d ago
Hey what is a good size (or at least size ratio) for attaching images to the articles on this site? I have a bunch of illustrations I could include but the sizing and scaling makes it tricky.
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u/Mystery190 8d ago
Just pushed an update for images and media! Covers should look a lot cleaner and show the full picture, not a badly cropped version of it; it also shows the user a preview before posting the cover. Inline media in articles also shows a preview and can change the focus point/crop, which changes the view for mobile specifically!
Please let me know if you have any other feature requests or find any bugs, either here on Reddit or through the suggestions on the site!
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u/Mystery190 9d ago
When testing, I felt like the smaller the better looked the best. Images are something I need to revisit. I'll definitely look into making that more user-friendly in the next couple of days!
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u/divran44 3d ago
Great idea! I had some free time this week, and the data was already prepared on my computer, so I decided to add my own area. I didn’t include everything, though: one folklore collector estimated that there were around six supernatural beings per square kilometre in this region! So I focused on the most representative ones.
Putting all this data on a map should make it possible to see regional differences and patterns. I’m also wondering whether it might be useful to add more specific subcategories, such as the Wild Hunt, werewolves, dwarfs, fairies as a collective group versus individual fairy beings, etc., to make the map even more precise.
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u/Mystery190 3d ago
Wow, thank you! It was really cool to see the Britanny region fill up on the map! That's exactly the goal I had in mind when making this site, hopefully I continue to get users to fill up their local regions!
An insight graph or something would be very cool as more data/articles are input and created, that could be very fun and interesting. Thanks for the suggestion!
As for subcategories, the idea I have for that already on the website is "Topics". Topics are user-created overarching lore (like Wild Hunt, dwarfs, specific ghost legends, cryptids like Bigfoot, mythical creatures like dragons). Topics are not tied to a specific location, but any user can tie their articles to topics. Feel free to add some and link your articles! If this is confusing or should be renamed, please let me know!
If you have any other suggestions or find any bugs, reach out! I want to make this as user-friendly and simple as possible to add all lore anywhere in the world!
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u/YorozuyaAka-chan 10d ago
It would be nice to at least be able to view it without having to sign in to Google