For a while now I have had the odd email from ViewRanger concerning them joining with OutdoorActive which, to be honest, I have largely ignored. However, today I received an offer that cannot be ignored. It seems that they will no longer being offering pay to download routes on VR from sometime in the new year. Instead pay per download routes will only be available through OA and VR will only show free routes. These free routes will be reproduced in the OA app.
I have published over 460 routes on VR. I charge the princely sum of 33 credits per download, which was the minimum price I could charge at the time, I think in cash terms it is about 10p. The trickle of downloads keeps me in credits to redeem on VR subscriptions for mapping, particularly overseas maps.
The options offered are to:
Delete my routes altogether
Make my routes free to download.
Transfer my pay per download routes to OA.
The trouble with the last option is they are only interested in users who have more than 500 pay per download routes so I am 30+ short, but I do have enough gps traces stored up to publish more routes – I just have not got round to it yet. The way this option is framed is as if I was a commercial enterprise interested in revenue streams and advertising and I am not. Equally, I have taken time and trouble over the routes. Each one was recorded live by gps rather than just plotted and I write a fairly detailed route description. OK, they do not earn much but at the same time they keep me in maps that I would otherwise have to pay for.
Anyone else had this email - what are you doing about it?