Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Go to the registration page and enter your email, username and password. We will send an activation link to that address - the account only works after you click it. If the email does not arrive, check your spam folder.

Disposable (temporary) email addresses are not accepted. Instead of registering you can also sign in with your Google account.

Yes. If you already have an account with the same email address, Google sign-in connects to it. If not, we create a new account with your Google name and avatar. If that name is already taken, we will ask you to pick another username.

An account created through Google has no separate password - you always sign in with the Google button.

• You log in with your username, not your email address.
• Make sure you clicked the activation link from the registration email.
• Reset a forgotten password here - your username or email is enough. The reset link is valid for 2 hours.
• If your account has been banned, after logging in you will see the reason and the date the ban ends.

In your profile settings. You can change it once every 30 days, and your previous names are shown on your profile. A username has 2 to 50 characters: letters, digits and _ . -.

For now you cannot do it yourself. Write to us, ideally from the address linked to your account, and give us the new one - we will change it by hand.

Contact us or email [email protected]. Deleting an account means anonymising the data that identifies you, and it is done within 30 days.

A paid Premium period is not refunded when you delete your account (except within the 14-day right of withdrawal). Details: Terms, §18 and the privacy policy.

In your profile settings you choose which emails you get: private messages, approval of your content, watched places and replies to your comments. You can also set the email language (Polish or English) there.

• Moderator - a member of the site team (see Staff).
• Premium - a user supporting the site with Desolate Premium.
• Honorable Member - a distinction for an outstanding contribution to the site.
• Trusted uploader - their places and photos do not need moderator approval.
• Ad-free until... - a reward for a top spot in the monthly ranking.
• Gold, silver and bronze trophy - the top three of the overall ranking.

Any logged-in user whose account is at least 7 days old. The form is under Add place.

Abandoned sites: buildings, factories, hospitals, palaces, military sites, vehicles and other places that are no longer in use. Do not add places that are inhabited or in use - marking such a place as abandoned leads to an immediate ban and removal of the entry.

In the Vehicles category, add abandoned wrecks and interesting finds, not random well-kept cars from a car park.

Required: a name (at least 5 characters), a category and the location on the map. You can also add the city, address, description, accessibility, attractiveness and visibility (public or on request).

A proper description pays off: a description of at least 200 characters earns you 25 extra points.

When you pick the location in the form, we show places from the database within 3 km. Check them before submitting - if your place is already there, add photos or a comment to it instead of creating a duplicate.

After a moderator approves it. Places that are not approved within 14 days are deleted automatically. Users with the Trusted uploader badge publish straight away, without moderation.

Once approved, the place appears on the map and on your profile, and its rating round starts.

• Instructions on how to get inside: picking locks, getting around fences, alarms or security.
• Coordinates, photos and descriptions that make it easier to enter private property without the owner's consent.
• Places that are inhabited or in use.
• Personal data of third parties (e.g. recognisable faces, number plates, documents found on site).
• Photos and texts you do not hold the copyright to.
• Illegal content.

Full rules: Terms, §6 and Appendix 2 - rules for publishing places.

On the place page click Propose changes. You can also edit places added by others. Every change goes into the place's public change history and is reviewed by moderators, and you will get a message about their decision.

For places on request, only the author can change the location and address.

The place page has reporting options:

• Duplicate - a moderator merges both entries and you get a message with the decision.
• Inactive - when the place has been demolished, bought, renovated or is inhabited again. No way in, padlocks or security are not a reason - such a place is still active.
• Active - when a place marked as inactive is accessible again. Give details and evidence.
• Suspicious - when the entry raises doubts, e.g. it looks fake or the place may not be abandoned.

JPG or PNG files, up to 30 MB each, up to 100 files at once. By uploading a photo you declare that you hold the rights to it and agree to a watermark being added. The same file cannot be uploaded twice.

Yes, any logged-in user can add photos to any place - it is the best way to show what it looks like now. Each photo earns you 1 point. Photos from very new accounts wait for moderator approval.

Place photos get a desolate.zone watermark. We strip metadata from every published version of a photo, including GPS coordinates from your camera or phone, and the original files are never served publicly.

The main photo is chosen by the place's author or a moderator (from approved photos). A photo can be deleted by its uploader or a moderator. The uploader can also add a title and source to it.

If a public place still has no photos a day after it was added, the system adds a satellite image of the area. We never do this for places on request, so their location is not revealed.

Your own albums, separate from place photos. A gallery can be public, unlisted (visible only to people with the link) or password-protected. It holds up to 500 photos and can be linked to up to 5 places. Gallery photos have no watermark.

You can have 20 galleries, or up to 100 with Premium.

A place whose coordinates are hidden. We store them encrypted (AES-256-GCM) - not even moderators can see them. Such a place has no pin on the map, and its page only shows the voivodeship. The author decides who gets the location.

This mode is for gems: exceptional, little-known places worth protecting from vandals and mass tourism. It makes no sense for empty buildings that are easy to find on Google, well known locally or already wrecked. Places rated Negligible, Little or Medium for attractiveness cannot be set to on request.

An on-request place earns you 50 extra points. Only the author can change its location and visibility later.

Log in, open the place page and click Request coordinates. You can add a short message for the author (up to 500 characters) - say who you are and why you want to go there, it improves your chances.

The author can set requirements for requesters: a minimum account age and number of points (by default 50 points and 14 days). You can see whether you meet them next to the button. If your request is denied, you can try again after 24 hours at the earliest, unless the author has blocked further requests.

You will get a message with a one-time link. The link only works on your own account while logged in, is valid for 14 days and expires after it is opened once - save the coordinates straight away.

On the Coordinate requests page. There you can grant or deny a request (with a reason and an optional block on further requests), set requirements for requesters and choose co-approvers.

Handling a request earns you points, more the faster you decide - see Points.

Up to 6 trusted people who can grant a coordinate request for your places if you do not answer within a set time (from 12 hours to 14 days). Co-approvers never see the coordinates and cannot deny - they can only grant. You can decide at any time, and the requester is told who granted the request.

After receiving coordinates you can report the author: fake coordinates, a dangerous place, a scam, private property, inappropriate content or harassment. The report goes to the moderators.

Also, please do not post the coordinates of on-request places in comments, in the chat or anywhere else public on the site.

For coordinate requests, one decision counts per requester per month - the fastest one. There are no points for visits, rating places, galleries or edits.

Points are recalculated once a day, at 3:00 AM, from what you currently have on the site. If content is deleted, its points disappear at the next recalculation. Points for a new place only appear after its 7-day rating round closes.

Once a place is approved, a 7-day rating round starts. Eligible users rate it on a slider from 10 to 120 points, and the average is the author's score. With fewer than 3 votes the place gets a flat 50 points. The points go to the month in which the round closed.

The author gets a message when the round opens and closes. Results for your places are on Ratings of my places. More: how the rating system works.

Users with at least 150 points and an account older than 90 days, or at least 500 points and an account older than 30 days. You cannot rate your own places, you have one vote per round, and votes stay anonymous until the round closes. Rating itself earns no points.

You rate on the Rate places page.

Points cannot be spent, but they unlock features:

• 50 pts in a month - your own Wrapped video summing up the month.
• 100 pts - notifications about new places in a chosen region.
• 200 pts - watching places.
• 500 pts - sending photos in the chat.
• 150 or 500 pts - rating new places (see above).
• Coordinate requests - the place's author sets the threshold.

A high spot in the monthly ranking also brings rewards.

On your profile - split into places, photos, comments, hazards, links and coordinates. Results from earlier months are in the monthly ranking (pick a month), and points from rating rounds on Ratings of my places.

The ranking has two tabs: Monthly (points earned in a given month) and Overall (all points). Each shows the top 100. With equal points, whoever appeared in the ranking first is placed higher. Banned and unconfirmed accounts are not shown.

• Places 1-15 in the monthly ranking: 3 months without ads.
• Places 16-25: 1 month without ads.

Rewards are granted automatically on the 1st of each month for the previous month - you get an email and an Ad-free until... badge next to your name. The reward extends any ad-free period you already have.

On top of that, the best users of the last 3 months can buy Premium cheaper - see discount codes.

A short video summing up the month - for the whole site and for everyone who earned at least 50 points that month. It shows your places, photos and ranking position. Videos are made on the 1st of each month, and in January there is also a summary of the whole year.

All videos are on the Wrapped page and on profiles. You can hide your own video.

On the map you can filter places by status, category, voivodeship, minimum rating, date of the last comment and whether they have photos, and hide places you have already visited. There is also a "find me" button, a jump to given coordinates and a dark map theme.

On the place page click I visited this place - you join the visitor list and the place appears on your profile. Places you want to see go on your wishlist. Marking a visit removes the place from the wishlist.

In your profile settings you decide whether your wishlist is public. With Premium you can export both lists to a KML file (e.g. for Google Maps).

Click Watch place on its page. For 3 months you will get emails about new comments, photos and changes. Watching needs 200 points or Premium; without Premium you can watch up to 20 places at a time.

Yes, choose a region on the New place notifications page. The feature needs 100 points or Premium.

Hazards are warnings on a place page: CCTV, security guards, dogs, risk of collapse, falls from height, flooding, poisons, radiation, homeless people and more. You add them on the place page, and each report earns you 1 point. New hazards wait for moderator approval.

If a hazard is gone (e.g. there is no security any more), vote It is gone; if it is still there, vote Still there. Once enough people confirm a hazard is gone, it is marked as historical. Nothing is deleted, and a single Still there vote can bring it back.

With Show places from urbexy.pl turned on, the map shows places from urbexy.pl that are not in our database yet. You can mark them as visited - only you can see that mark and it earns no points. If the place is later added to desolate.zone, your visit moves over and becomes public.

Places with many comments get an automatic summary: access, security, condition, highlights and practical tips. It is refreshed every night. AI can be wrong, so read the comments themselves before you go. You can turn summaries off in your profile settings or straight from the summary box.

Send a message from another user's profile. You can attach photos, block people and report spam. If you do not want to receive messages, turn them off in your profile settings. We will remind you about unread messages by email (this can also be turned off in settings).

New accounts can send a limited number of messages in their first week - this protects against spam.

Logged-in users with an account older than 7 days can write in the chat. Sending photos needs 500 points or Premium. Chat photos are deleted after 30 days.

Logged-in users can comment, and you can vote on other people's comments. Be specific: current condition, access, hazards - that helps others most. Do not post coordinates of on-request places or instructions for getting past security. Moderators can lock the discussion under a place.

On the user's profile use Report user and pick a reason (e.g. spam, harassment, sharing coordinates). Report a private message directly in the conversation. Reports go to the moderators.

Live activity shows what is happening on the site in real time: new places, photos, comments, visits and new users from the last 7 days.

On the Suggestions page. You can add your idea, vote on other ideas and comment on them. New suggestions appear after a moderator checks them.

The fastest way is Telegram. You can also email [email protected] (we reply within a few days) or write on Facebook. All options: Contact; the team: Staff.

• No ads.
• A list of people who visited your profile, and who viewed your places, when and how many times, plus place and gallery stats.
• Incognito mode - you do not appear on visitor lists of other people's profiles and places.
• Watching places without the points threshold, without a limit and without expiry.
• New place notifications for a region and photos in the chat without the points threshold.
• Up to 100 galleries instead of 20.
• KML export of your wishlist and visited places.
• A Premium badge, an animated GIF avatar and a coloured avatar ring.
• Optional: a spot on the public supporters list.

Details and purchase: Desolate Premium.

Prices include VAT. You pay through PayU: BLIK, fast bank transfer, card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. It is a one-off payment, not a subscription. Premium is tied to your account and cannot be moved to another one.

No. We will remind you by email about 7 days before it ends. If you buy Premium while a previous period is still running, the new days are added to its end.

After Premium expires, watched places keep working for 3 more months, and your existing galleries stay (but you cannot add new ones above the limit of 20).

The "Ad-free" package only turns ads off - it does not include the other Premium features. If you buy it while you have Premium, it starts when Premium ends, so nothing is wasted.

Yes, discount codes for active and long-standing users:

• Best place in the monthly ranking over the last 3 closed months: TOP 5 - 60%, TOP 15 - 50%, TOP 25 - 30%.
• Account age: over 1 year - 20%, over 2 years - 30%, over 5 years - 40%.

You can use one code per order and each code only once, and the number of uses is limited.

Premium switches on once PayU confirms the payment - usually within seconds. If the money was taken but the page showed an error, Premium switches on by itself once PayU confirms. If that does not happen, contact us with your order number.

Refund: you have 14 days to withdraw from the contract. Because Premium starts immediately, we refund the unused days, using the same payment method. Form template: Appendix 3 of the Terms.

VAT invoice: email us your order number (or your account email) and invoice details (tax ID for companies), within 3 months of the end of the month of purchase.

The site lives on ads, and the server alone costs about 200 PLN a month. If you use an ad blocker, add desolate.zone to its exceptions and reload the page. You can also buy the Ad-free package (from 4.99 PLN) or reach the TOP 25 of the monthly ranking - then the ads and this screen disappear.

On the Promote your channel page you can buy a promoted card on the homepage: 19 PLN for 7 days, 34 PLN for 14 days or 59 PLN for 30 days. One promotion is shown at a time, so the next ones wait in a queue (booking up to 60 days ahead). Promoted content must be related to the site's topic.

We are not lawyers, so treat this as general guidance, not legal advice. "Abandoned" does not mean "nobody's" - almost every site has an owner. Entering someone else's property without consent may break the law, especially when the area is fenced off or signed as no entry, or when the owner or security tells you to leave. You are liable for any damage yourself.

The safest choice is to visit publicly accessible places or ask the owner for permission.

No. The site documents abandoned places, their history and condition. The decision to visit, and the responsibility for it, are yours. More in the Terms, §15.

Do not force locks, doors or fences. If you meet security, the owner or the police, stay calm, leave when asked and cooperate. A locked entrance is a sign to give up, not a challenge.

• Do not go alone, and tell someone where you are going and when you will be back.
• Take a charged phone, a torch, gloves and sturdy shoes; a mask where there is dust or asbestos.
• Watch out for ceilings, stairs, lift shafts, open manholes and glass.
• Before you go, check the hazards and comments on the place page.
• Do not take risks - no photo is worth an accident.

And remember: Take only pictures, leave only footprints - do not damage or take anything.

Email [email protected] or use Contact, ideally with the report template. Urgent cases are usually handled within 24 hours, others within 7 days. You can appeal a moderation decision within 6 months. Details: Terms, §9-10.