_{TLDR; My intent here is to weed out the slackers and ne'er-do-wells, while encouraging you who are serious about Exploring to stick with it and join the community. The post is too long! I know! But if you've been linked here, give it a read. It'll save time and sore feelings for you and us both, I think!}

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Hi! Welcome to UER.CA, one of the biggest online collections of tips, tricks, and (mis)information on the planet on the loosely defined group of activities known as Urban Exploration.

That being said, it's really no surprise that you have assumed that this might be a good place to ask about directions to, or the coordinates of, abandoned and/or off-limits places in general (or your favorite place in particular).

I'm sorry to inform you that this is not, in fact, the case.

The general practice here is to avoid giving out specific details about the names and locations of the places we talk about on the Public Forums. Most of us are not trying to be rude (some probably are), but there are some good reasons behind the practice.

• Property Owners, Security Personnel, and Law Enforcement Officers are known to frequent this site in order to passively and actively prevent further exploration.
  
  
• Vandals, Scrappers, and Arsonists are known to frequent this site in order to find places to Vandalize, Scrap, and Arse.
  
  
• Naming a location on the public forums can cause that thread to come up in the results of web searches, so that Property Owners, Security Personnel, Law Enforcement Officers, Vandals, Scrappers, and Arsonists who do NOT frequent this site will see it anyway.
  
  
• Finally, some of us are petty and possessive about the places we've busted our butts to access, and have seen some really great locations descend into ruin after word about them got out. We get LOTS of people coming through who just want a cheap thrill without putting in any effort, and it gets tiring after a while.

Now, maybe you ARE a Property Owner, Security Person, Law Enforcement Officer, Vandal, Scrapper, or Arsonist. If so, welcome to the site! All information contained herein is for educational purposes only, all actions described are fictional, and all photographs have been photoshopped or stolen off of Flickr.

If you are NOT one of these, welcome to the site! We have a fantastic trust system in place, and once we get to know you, you, too, may be admitted into the halls of glory that are accessible with a Full Membership. With FM status comes access to the Private Boards and Location Database, where information flows a little more freely (There is even a guy in the bathroom that hands out towelettes!).

Find some places. Post some pictures and/or plan a meet-and-greet in your regional forum if there isn't one already. Make some constructive comments. Get to know us, and you'll find we can be pretty inviting and helpful. There is already a huge amount of info on what to do and expect here: http://www.uer.ca/...p?fid=1&catid=1089. They let me in, so it can't be that hard.

Anyway, when you get down to it, this site is about Urban Exploring, not Urban Tourism. Magellan would not have been a very great explorer if he was following a GPS to some coordinates he downloaded of the internet. So... go explore something. Show us something we haven't seen before, and you'll be on the road to fame and riches in no time.

well it looks like i will need to get off my ass and go hunting for some stuff. I should also put some batteries in my camera.... that MIGHT be a good idea....

Anyways, I'm glad someone made a post like this, while I did suspect you guys liked the places you got to explore and didn't want them destroyed or shut down. I did get a bit of a cold feeling on the forum. Now I know my suspicions were correct and you guys just want to keep this stuff from getting into the wrong hands so others can enjoy them. I can definitely respect that. I guess it's time to lace the boots up and go find some stuff... after it stops being like 95 degrees out.

These are spot on and quoted for posterity. Best rookie forum post ever.

Posted by Avius Property Owners, Security Personnel, and Law Enforcement Officers are known to frequent this site in order to passively and actively prevent further exploration. Naming a location on the public forums can cause that thread to come up in the results of web searches, so that Property Owners, Security Personnel, Law Enforcement Officers, Vandals, Scrappers, and Arsonists who do NOT frequent this site will see it anyway. Anyway, when you get down to it, this site is about Urban Exploring, not Urban Tourism. Magellan would not have been a very great explorer if he was following a GPS to some coordinates he downloaded of the internet. So... go explore something.

Thank you for posting this. I had been planning on a similar post, but you beat me to it. I'm glad you did!

I would like to add that these policies should be applied to ALL websites. Not just UER. Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Photobucket, Stumbleupon, other UE sites, etc.

I hereby request for this post to be "stickied" in the rookie forum and all regional forums.

Posted by PorkChopExpress I hereby request for this post to be "stickied" in the rookie forum and all regional forums.

+1

And so my fellow explorers: ask not what uer can do for you, ask what you can do for yourself.

Posted by Bricktop And so my fellow explorers: ask not what uer can do for you, ask what you can do for yourself.

I'd prefer to think of it as:

UER helps those who help themselves.

Yeah, that's probably better. I'm just sayin' in the beginning, and it'll fall into place from there. Then the problem is: so many locations-so little time!

Thank you sooo much for posting this! So many newbies have been asking lately it's gettin kinda outta hand, so thank you. It should kind of be an unspoken/written rule.

Posted by Avius I'd prefer to think of it as: UER helps those who help themselves.

I'm gonna link this in threads instead of saying useful things, since you've said it all. Also, it'll help spread the verb 'arse' for arsoning.

Posted by AnAppleSnail I'm gonna link this in threads instead of saying useful things, since you've said it all. Also, it'll help spread the verb 'arse' for arsoning.

Ah, wonderful! Those were the two main reasons I wrote it!

SO THATS WHERE IT CAME FROM!

good words of wisdom. like when i was a kid me and my pack had this semi-abandon quarry we go drink, smoke and occacionally swim in and we all agreed not to tell nobody else cause if word got out about this spot they would block the path or patrol it. Needless to say, someone told someone outside our little group and every high school kid and his brother were out there. So we went out there one day to swim and not 5 minutes after we went through the hole in the fence the landowner snuck up on us armed with a revolver, and we all went down for tresspassing, nevermind i ran and was shot at tryin to escape, somebody ratted me out, probabl the same guy who gave away the location of our secret place.

But now, since I got no intrest in the place, I would gladly give out the coordinates to anyone who wants to go hang out in a boring rock quarry (rocks at the bottom of cliff you cant even dive into it)

If I ever want to go back, I probabl wont tell you, unless maybe you got something intresting to share or i somewhat know you. Thats my attitude, anyone agree?

Posted by ghost6 Needless to say, someone told someone outside our little group and every high school kid and his brother were out there.

Same thing happened to the Bradford quarry in Westery/Hopkinton RI. Used to love climbing/swimming there. Now cops patrol it mercilessly.

Well I have a question then. I live in ct. and find it a little disheartening that the few places you have listed for ct for basic users, if I'm understanding that becoming a full member you're granted access to more info, are limited or demo'd. I have a few places I'd like to add, but you say that we should not give away locations or rather, give away information about the locations, yet you'd like to promote exploring but give limited information away in which to use to explore. I feel like this is a catch 22. I totally understand losing a place to arsonists or scrappers etc, my favorite place in Bridgeport has burned down and the last few times I had explored there, there were metal scrappers there, of which I almost go nailed in the head with a damn pipe!, regardless as I am now off track, I understand, like I had said about trying to preserve places, but I now am at a crossroads of what to do about posting on the site. I'd like to contribute photos I have as well as the names of the places, but I feel now that since there are "evil-doers" checking out the site or what have you, that it would be foolish to post at all, or if I post at all just say somewhere in ct? Do you see my issue here? I am not a noob, but this attempt at secrecy or keeping information privy to some, whatever you want to call it, I feel is keeping the ability of others from sprouting wings. It's disheartening. But, I also don't want my local haunts ruined and burned either. So how can I add some locations in Ct for one, and how can I add them but make sure no one goes and kills my places secondly. I mean, I've been doing this since I was in middle school, finding places might be hard sometimes, sometimes not, but now I'm super paranoid, for lack of a better word, about sharing?, again for lack of a better word. Maybe I'll just tag them as random places in ct? is this ok? but then I don't feel like I am contributing at all because it'll just be images, not information for others to share in my experience of the places I've been? Does this make sense? I feel like this is kind of just a running dialog I've just had in my mind, so sorry if it seems like I am too frank, rude, etc. I do not intend this. I just would like a remedy for the catch 22

It's probably in your best interest not to share certain facts about your sites. We do have an official rule against sharing entry details. It also is good not to give out the address of the place, and in some cases the name of the place is too much of a giveaway. Sometimes it's just better to go with nicknames of places.

Don't let your paranoia prevent you from sharing pictures. If someone likes one of your locations, they're free to ask you for more details, and you're free to oblige or ignore them.

Very few people will recognize a location by pictures alone, and those people will have already been there, so there's no harm in that. The places in the DB, even the ones that are private, are usually ones that have been explored pretty thoroughly, or are public enough that posting them there poses no harm to them. It's the places that recently opened (in an exploring sense) and have yet to be discovered by the local vandals and scrappers that should stay out of the DB. Like Steed said, if someone wants more details of a particular location, they can PM you and you can decide how much info to share, if any. You can also limit yourself to only giving out information on a location if you visit with the person asking. In other words, someone asks for a location, and you say "We'll meet and then I will take you there."

That said, don't worry about the DB. Meet up with others in your area (there are a lot) and share locations that way.

Now, maybe you ARE a Property Owner, Security Person, Law Enforcement Officer, Vandal, Scrapper, or Arsonist. If so, welcome to the site! All information contained herein is for educational purposes only, all actions described are fictional, and all photographs have been photoshopped or stolen off of Flickr.

haha amazing!!

DOH!!!!! Yeah I posted for a some tips on a place I am visiting soon then found this. Just like me to jump the gun and not read the instructions.

aight!