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I still explore but I’ve stopped posting much of anything anywhere. I just am over the social media stuff and this site is cumbersome to post on. So I have a ton of photos that no one sees. I also don’t do as much as I used to, I’m older, busy with work and being a semi responsible adult most of the time, and traveling has gotten weirdly expensive although that does seem to be working itself out now
Stealth: adj. designed in accordance with technology that makes detection difficult. Wraith: n. A wisp or faint trace of something | |
Degenerative Disc Disease saw to my early retirement from Urbex.
Love to do it again, but no more solos for this guy.
Before my current employment I worked with antiques, so I have a general knowledge of older items.
"Never fear shadows. They simply mean there's a light shining somewhere nearby. Ruth E. Renkel" | |
I joined back in 2006 and used to explore and post a ton.
I'm now married with 2 kids and have a professional career. I've ran into some awkward encounters with land owners where I currently live, because it's way harder here to just wander onto properties, and it's equally hard to explain your way out of it when you're 36 years old, and not a wandering youth anymore.
I have had a lot of success with my photography, but found that maintaining a social media presence is exhausting and it's annoying competing with Instagram/TikTok idiots that ruin locations. I mostly keep my explorations down to two or three expeditions per year and I don't share much of what I do anymore.
I'll likely never stop exploring, but I will never be able to do it with the frequency that I used to.
"The time of getting fame for your name on its own is over. Artwork that is only about wanting to be famous will never make you famous. Fame is a by-product of doing something else. You don't go to a restaurant and order a meal because you want to have a shit."
-Banksy
The work of FuriousD: https://www.flickr...photos/opdendries/ | |
Posted by Furious D
I'll likely never stop exploring, but I will never be able to do it with the frequency that I used to.
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This too.
To all the young people here, live with your parents as long as you can, don't go to college, enjoy your twenties! You only get one decade of freedom and health DO NOT WASTE IT GRINDING AT SOME BULLSHIT CAREER. Worry about financial stability when you turn 30.
[last edit 9/10/2023 5:17 PM by uLiveAndYouBurn - edited 1 times]
"Aint nothin' to it but to do it"
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^^^ or just don't worry at all
http://www.flickr....rescueme1060/sets/
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Man, this thread makes me feel melancholy.
I moved from the mid-Atlantic to northern New England in 2019, and by 2021 or so I’d explored every half-decent site I could find within a two hour radius. I work full time and have a house and a family now, so I just don’t have the time to go any further afield. In 2022 I explored maybe ten times total, mostly quick stops at places I noticed on the side of the road while trying to get somewhere else. I’m on track to do about the same this year.
It feels like the nature of exploring has changed too, especially with the rise of social media that others have mentioned. I feel like I grew up with this site and it’s community, but it doesn’t have the same level of activity and discussion as it did when I really got going here in the 2010s. I feel like it takes more effort to put together a set from a location for the same low engagement here that I get on insta or Flickr, because there are so many people out there doing the exact same thing as me that it’s impossible to compete for engagement without making it a full time job.
This past weekend I went back to a location that was more or less pristine when I first went in 2020. It is now covered in shitty racist tags and social media handles, with buildings that were always sealed now busted open and trashed. Despite all that, it was still the best exploring experience I’ve had all year, and it made me nostalgic for this site when it was the best thing going. Maybe I’ll post a thread in Photo for old time’s sake.
Flickr | |
Posted by Mr. Nosey
I've got perma-anxiety on a daily basis.
Driving mildly reckless on/in anything that burns gas and exploring are the only things that force me to stay in the present moment. I used to kick box and work out to fight the "dark passenger" but it hurts my body too much now.
It took me a long time to be open about my mental illness.
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I hear ya and I feel ya, stopped chewing my nails and had to focus to read this lol
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Posted by Baldran
Man, this thread makes me feel melancholy.
I moved from the mid-Atlantic to northern New England in 2019, and by 2021 or so I’d explored every half-decent site I could find within a two hour radius. I work full time and have a house and a family now, so I just don’t have the time to go any further afield. In 2022 I explored maybe ten times total, mostly quick stops at places I noticed on the side of the road while trying to get somewhere else. I’m on track to do about the same this year.
It feels like the nature of exploring has changed too, especially with the rise of social media that others have mentioned. I feel like I grew up with this site and it’s community, but it doesn’t have the same level of activity and discussion as it did when I really got going here in the 2010s. I feel like it takes more effort to put together a set from a location for the same low engagement here that I get on insta or Flickr, because there are so many people out there doing the exact same thing as me that it’s impossible to compete for engagement without making it a full time job.
This past weekend I went back to a location that was more or less pristine when I first went in 2020. It is now covered in shitty racist tags and social media handles, with buildings that were always sealed now busted open and trashed. Despite all that, it was still the best exploring experience I’ve had all year, and it made me nostalgic for this site when it was the best thing going. Maybe I’ll post a thread in Photo for old time’s sake.
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I don’t really think that this site is dwindling, and I’d even argue that the “golden age” of urban exploration is still alive and well.
I think it might be good to share my perspective as someone who is still somewhat new to both this site and urban exploration as a whole. I first joined this site at the height of COVID when I was 13. I’ve been fascinated by the idea of exploring abandoned buildings for pretty much my entire life, and was absolutely elated when I discovered that many others felt the same way. I think that there’s something really special about this site. There’s no denying that UER isn’t as active as it used to be, but that may not entirely be a bad thing. There’s so much engagement from users that you just don’t see on really large sites. It’s mind blowing to me that there’s always new content being posted here, and that there are 15-20 year old accounts that are still active today. This site doesn’t have the same feel to it that places like Instagram or Reddit seem to have. The average length of posts and comments on those sites is a few sentences at most, maybe a photo of some influencer posing in front of a cool spot on occasion. This site is different. UER isn’t something you can absentmindedly scroll through, so much of the stuff here is long and interesting. And there’s decades worth of content to sift through. I’ve come across some incredible stuff here.
For example, there’s something about the Cave Clan that fascinated me from the moment I first read about them here. It was the kind of thing that really just felt like the perfect thing for me. I’d love to get involved in the Cave Clan somehow, but it seems like that would be impossible. I’m thousands of miles away from Australia, and I haven’t been able to find much information about the US branch. But I’m still fascinated by the Cave Clan nonetheless. I love knowing that something like that exists at all, and it’s always awesome to see a sign that the group is still around.
I know that influencers and idiots in general can really screw locations up. There are a lot of people who are only exploring for the clout or because they want to vandalize/destroy stuff, but the original community is still around. The spirit of urban exploring hasn’t been lost. Sometimes, I’ll see a photo on this site of someone who went exploring with a large group of friends and think it was taken in 2004 only to realize it was posted less than a year ago. I look forward to the day I find a friend who also likes urban exploring, but for now, I’m on my own.
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Posted by Mr. Nosey
I've got perma-anxiety on a daily basis.
Driving mildly reckless on/in anything that burns gas and exploring are the only things that force me to stay in the present moment. I used to kick box and work out to fight the "dark passenger" but it hurts my body too much now.
It took me a long time to be open about my mental illness.
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That's a good point, I do find that "hydrocarbon therapy" helps quite a bit.
hi i like cars | |
What an interesting topic! Kind of cool to see some old names on here. For me a lot of my "exploring" at times had to do with work in a way as being in construction it allowed a lot of access to buildings as I used to a good bit of work repositioning old buildings for other uses. Because of it being at times for work I didn't post as much as some but it got me access to places that other were never able to get into. One in particular people had bee trying to get into for years and I just called the owners and told them I had someone interested in the building and they wanted me to check it out, they allowed me a couple of days of time in the building and I took a buddy from here with me. IT turned into 5 years worth of doing maintenance work on it. I still do some exploring but seldom post as like others have said there is way to many that have no respect for places at all. They only want to shoot a video of them trashing the place. I never got the video thing, to me UER was about photography and exploring the places. The other big issue as someone said with the ease now days to set up cam's and security it makes it MUCH more difficult. I just went yesterday to look at a place and was shocked at how many cam's they had all over the place. OF course as many have said a lot also has to do with just getting older, just cant get around like I did. OF course there is also work work work as now I have my own company and it just doesn't leave near as much time.
"Your kid may be an honor student but YOU'RE still an IDIOT!" | |
I haven't explored anywhere in well over a decade now. At first it was because the downtown of my city kinda rebounded so all the abandoned buildings were either torn down or repurposed. After that I kinda lost interest in the hobby in general since I started hitchhiking and traveling around Canada for a few years. Settled down, got a job then ended up fracturing my hip at the end of 2019. Had some complications from that and ended up getting the whole hip replacement last November and I haven't regained as much mobility as I thought I would so I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to do this kind of thing again unless its as easy as walking through a door. Thankfully the hobby has really expanded into social media so I can live vicariously through other people's videos and photos of their own adventures, plus the memories of my own. It's really interesting to see an entirely new generation of people get into the hobby.
[last edit 9/19/2023 9:26 AM by unlighted-zero - edited 1 times]
/flail it til ya nail it | |
Hi, This sparked my interest so I decided to reply. I haven't posted here in a long time.I was on agreat private board for a long time, but facebook sucked the life out of it, There are some spots on FB but its not the same.'
I am not retired. But having moved several times, currently Eastern Long Island, has separate me from my exploring partners. Age has slowed me down considerably fro the really active time I had 2006-2013. At that time I was Captain Jack and the Stooges.
So many of the great places are gone now. That and physical limitations from
have reduced me to abandoned restaurants, motels, now even an occasional house.
If you are on Eastern Long Island, give me a shout
All pictures taken with Nikon P6000 point and shoot, Handhled | |
Posted by CaptainJack
Hi, This sparked my interest so I decided to reply. I haven't posted here in a long time.I was on agreat private board for a long time, but facebook sucked the life out of it, There are some spots on FB but its not the same.'
I am not retired. But having moved several times, currently Eastern Long Island, has separate me from my exploring partners. Age has slowed me down considerably fro the really active time I had 2006-2013. At that time I was Captain Jack and the Stooges.
So many of the great places are gone now. That and physical limitations from
have reduced me to abandoned restaurants, motels, now even an occasional house.
If you are on Eastern Long Island, give me a shout
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Glad to hear you're still exploring. The Stooges write-ups were among some of my favorite forum posts to read through.
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I feel that I 'peaked' as an explorer between 2014 and 2019. Since then I've definitely slowed down, as I've got older, priorities have changed, the youthful drive I once had to get up and go out at stupid o'clock exploring literally everything I could when I first started in 2009 is no longer there, and my general interest in exploring - whilst still a major factor in my life - has waned a little thanks to the sheer number of morons that now populate this hobby. The over-exposure of everything has really done a number on it and as of today I have very, very little interest in following the herds around to the latest 'hot' thing. I'm much more content spending my time going out less often and to see things I've either found myself, or things that are far off the well travelled tourist trail.
Add to the fact that now I'm the wrong side of 30, everything hurts more and I feel the after effects of a long day way more than I used to.
Posted by The Demon Crab
I think that there’s something really special about this site. There’s no denying that UER isn’t as active as it used to be, but that may not entirely be a bad thing. There’s so much engagement from users that you just don’t see on really large sites. It’s mind blowing to me that there’s always new content being posted here, and that there are 15-20 year old accounts that are still active today. This site doesn’t have the same feel to it that places like Instagram or Reddit seem to have. The average length of posts and comments on those sites is a few sentences at most, maybe a photo of some influencer posing in front of a cool spot on occasion. This site is different. UER isn’t something you can absentmindedly scroll through, so much of the stuff here is long and interesting. And there’s decades worth of content to sift through. I’ve come across some incredible stuff here.
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That's the main plus point with forums. Photos and videos posted on social media sites get lost in the void of total nonsense and forgotten about within a few days. Forums like this, although comparative dinosaurs in this day and age of instant gratification and instant exposure social media, are incredibly important because they serve as an archive of potentially decades worth of photos documenting locations, all in one place.
UER and 28DL are the only two exploring forums I take the time to post on nowadays, and both are ancient in internet terms - being around since 2002 and 2005 respectively. People may not realise just how important these forums are until they are gone.
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Posted by mookster
I feel that I 'peaked' as an explorer between 2014 and 2019. Since then I've definitely slowed down, as I've got older, priorities have changed, the youthful drive I once had to get up and go out at stupid o'clock exploring literally everything I could when I first started in 2009 is no longer there, and my general interest in exploring - whilst still a major factor in my life - has waned a little thanks to the sheer number of morons that now populate this hobby. The over-exposure of everything has really done a number on it and as of today I have very, very little interest in following the herds around to the latest 'hot' thing. I'm much more content spending my time going out less often and to see things I've either found myself, or things that are far off the well travelled tourist trail.
Add to the fact that now I'm the wrong side of 30, everything hurts more and I feel the after effects of a long day way more than I used to.
That's the main plus point with forums. Photos and videos posted on social media sites get lost in the void of total nonsense and forgotten about within a few days. Forums like this, although comparative dinosaurs in this day and age of instant gratification and instant exposure social media, are incredibly important because they serve as an archive of potentially decades worth of photos documenting locations, all in one place.
UER and 28DL are the only two exploring forums I take the time to post on nowadays, and both are ancient in internet terms - being around since 2002 and 2005 respectively. People may not realise just how important these forums are until they are gone.
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well said. bravo.
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Yes.
Like phone books and photos with a phone.
The social media is not social interweb is awash with bad photo's and everyone is about themselves. AI going to post abandonment which people can push a heart icon instead of saying something.
Please keep sharing here I sincerely hope they will come back when the interweb eats itself, kinda like skateboards did.
Stay safe.
BLOG | |
I come here once a year for the music and because Christmas reminds me of exploring for some reason. My city is pretty tight with abandoned sites and I don't know anyone who is still in the scene so here we are.
**Fingers crossed Av grants me full membership for my 20th anniversary.**
[last edit 12/16/2023 10:08 PM by montyburns - edited 1 times]
"To let evil words and thoughts pass without contest is to participate in their corrosive triumphs." | |
Like a lot of posters have said, Instagram and Facebook kind of did this site in, but I love that its still here, like an old friend. Not a lot of relevant content here anymore, and a lot of what is still being posted is from overseas. I can remember 15 or so years ago this was the center of the exploring world, so many times the chalkboards in the most sought-after locations would be covered with names you could recognize from UER, and I saw UER referenced in the graffiti more times than I can remember. Wish it could be updated, maybe a UER facebook group?
As far as retiring, Im one of those die-hards, despite family obligations, jobs, outside friends, Ive never stopped exploring and love it as much as I did on day one. Now Im so old I feel like Im no longer seen as a threat by cops young enough to be my kids lol
http://www.flickr....otos/96576503@N00/ | |
I just saw a post on Instagram that was advertising UER as a way to find all the kewl locationzzz:
https://www.instag...r1_Rc69IMvIKig-VlM
Vade in cloacas. | |
That's fucking sad people who buy followers and likes.
The poster has 10 shit photos, 55000 followers.
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