the mechanic
How Merging Works
Locatrove turns private journals into a shared map without anybody curating it. Here is exactly how, with no small print.
the rule, as the software actually applies it
A spot becomes a shared entry once 3 different people log within 75m of it. Every log counts toward that number, whatever privacy it was written at. At that point the notes are pooled so everyone can use them. Names are only ever shown for people who chose to be credited.
Your Three Choices
Every log you write is set to one of three tiers, and you pick it.
Private
Yours alone while you are the only person who has found the place, for as long as that lasts. If the spot converges, these notes join the shared entry with no name attached. Anything you never want pooled goes in the private note instead, which is sealed to you under every condition.
Publicly anonymous
Shared straight away, with your name left off. Nobody can see who wrote it.
Public
Shared with your name attached, so people can follow your work.
What a Merge Does
When 3 different people log within 75m of each other, those logs are treated as one place, and the pin for that place goes on the public map.
At that point the notes are pooled. That is deliberate: Locatrove is a collective of curated locations, and a shared pin with nothing behind it helps nobody. What a merge never does is attach your name to anything you did not ask to be credited for, and it never touches your private note.
Why Private Logs Count Toward the Number
They do count, and this is the part worth being straight about. If three people independently found the same place, that place is not a secret, whatever any one of them wrote in their own notebook.
Before that happens a private log is invisible: no notes, no name, no appearance in any count. After it, the notes are pooled and the name still is not. A place that never reaches the threshold is never shared.
It Can Become Unlisted Again
Visibility is worked out fresh every time a page loads, from the logs that exist right then. It is not a switch that gets flipped once.
So if the logs behind a public pin are deleted, the pin stops being public. Nothing keeps asserting a place exists after the evidence for it has gone.
Access Notes and Going Stale
A gate gets locked, a road closes, a permit rule changes. Access notes are the most useful thing here and the fastest to go out of date, so every one carries the date a person last confirmed it.
Old notes are shown as old. They are never called overdue, never turn red, and never disappear. You get the date and you judge it yourself.