Maps of the Mainpage

Throughout YWOT's history, multiple users have attempted to create maps of the Mainpage. None of these efforts were completely comprehensive, but they nonetheless offer insightful glimpses into the state of the site.

Maps have been made by hand and using scripts.

VKerb

A veteran user known for creating subworld projects. Examples include /~AltMain, /Novburg and multiple Mainpage maps throughout the years.

VKerb's Map(Spam covered 100 coordinates on all sides at the time of the map's creation, but by 2015 it would more than triple in size.)

/ywotmaps

VKerb hosts a YWOT map at /~VKerb/ywotmaps. The timeframe of its creation is June 2013, before the 2015 Reset.

The map documents many locations from that era, featuring now forgotten names like Bayton, Magic City, Paperville and the meandering Spartan Line. There was also a trail diverging from North Road at Y:500, heading East with landmarks like Laputa, HyBrasil and El Dorado along its length. This side path, which was once 1000+ coordinates long, was lost in the 2015 Wipe.

On the other hand, most other locations on the map would have been consumed by spam long before Andrew reset the page. A larger list of their names can be found at /~VKerb/ywotcities.

VKerb's Mainpage map is squashed horizontally as it did not account for the fact that each YWOT character is twice as high as it is wide.

/TextMaps

Shortly after the 2015 Wipe, VKerb created a second mapping project at /~VKerb/TextMaps.

Their second map showcases the early days of the current Mainpage, in an era where all of the major roads ended prematurely.

The second map is significantly sparser in content compared to the first, but it makes up for it by having textboxes to explain certain landmarks.

/TextMaps was part of an active project to document the YWOT Mainpage. Progress on this effort can be found here and here. At one point VKerb even attempted to organize a community of mappers, though nothing much came of it.

VKerb's Second Map(The many layers of periods that surround Spam Central represent places where VKerb has looked but found no text.)

/PrecMaps

/~VKerb/PrecMaps was also created around the same time. This was a network of subworlds that documented the precise layouts for each of Mainpage's cardinal trails. Coverage was meticulous and included just about every object of note, ranging from cities to ASCII art.

In the end, VKerb was able to map North Road to Y:2000, while documentation of the other three roads had ended at 500 coordinates.

Legacy

Though unfinished, VKerb's maps provide valuable pieces of history; their contents reveal a forgotten world of cities and trails whose names are not documented anywhere else.

Seschient

Seschient's map is located at /~Seschient/Places.

It was created in August 2018 along with a legend at /~Seschient/VisualMap.

The map follows each major trail for a few hundred coordinates. It also showcases the sea of spam(dots) that used to surround Spam Central, within which a grid of roads can be seen marking every 50 coordinates.

An additional patch of spam(the "this site contains fake news" copypasta) can be found along the Southeast Line.

Like every other map on this list, this project was abandoned before any semblance of completion.

Seschient's Map

Credrscr

A barebones map of major landmarks.

Credrscr assembled it from memory while traveling to The Nirvana in 2021. By that point they had already gone 10,000 coordinates on all four Cardinal Roads along with the Northeast Line.

Credrscr's Map

Mandrake

Mandrake, perhaps the most prolific explorer in the history of YWOT, created a map of the Mainpage in a private subworld. It was worked on by multiple users throughout 2022 and 2023.

By the end, all the Cardinal Roads and Lines were mapped to at least 10,000 coordinates. An assortment of lesser-known locations were also recorded as the map-makers explored the Mainpage.

Out of all the hand-made maps this is by far the most comprehensive. It is also the most up to date, and as such contains many recent additions to the site. Some examples would be Rainbow Road or Mynyny's m trail which encircles all of Spam Central.

Mandrake's Map

Anonymousellama21

An explorer and scripter who has also created timelapses and snapshots of the Mainpage.

They have been known to track text and data from large parts of YWOT.

8 to 1 Map

In 2022, Anonymousellama created a script that took the most common character from each Mainpage chunk and mapped them onto a subworld.

The end result was a miniature replica that was 8 times smaller than the actual Mainpage.

There are many blank sections on this map as Anonymousellama21 abandoned this project soon after starting it.

• 
  Spam Central and eastern Mainpage in Anonymousellama's map. This snapshot was taken towards the end of 2022's Void incursion.
• 
  North Road on Anonymousellama21's map.
• 
  The True Diagonal and Shabby Towne.

Disconnect Graph

An experiment in which Anonymousellama documented the time and location of user disconnects, forming a vague map of activity in the Mainpage.

• 
  Graph of disconnects from March 27th, 2024 to April 10th, 2024(roughly 1000 coordinates on all sides). This dataset recorded 2000 disconnects, some of which happened beyond the scope of the graph.
• 
  3D version with a z-axis for time of disconnect. Measured in billions of seconds since January 1st, 1970. (*Gaps between the layers are periods where data was not being collected.)

• Unsurprisingly, the bulk of activity is clustered around the center.
  • When looking at the center of the first graph, it is evident that the majority of users disconnected at the upper half of Spam Central.
• The graphs do show a surprising amount of traffic at distant locations, but any number of them could have been from teleporters.
  • The North and South Roads receive the most traffic out of all the cardinal roads, while the Northeast Line is by far the most active out of all the diagonal lines.
• Anonymousellama21 was able to record several disconnects at extremely remote coordinates
  • The farthest was 15,000 coordinates away from Spawn.
• 2000 disconnects over two weeks meant that YWOT received an average of 142+ visits per day.
  • And that's if you ignore the significant swaths of time where Anonymousellama was not recording.