Help & Guide

Everything FlohMaps can do – explained for visitors, sellers, organizers and the technically curious.

🗺️ Two kinds of markets

Yard sale (decentralized): many neighbours sell at the same time, each from their own property. Every stand has its own address and pin on the map. Central market (e.g. club/kindergarten): everything happens at one venue – participants just sign up, without giving their own address. Which kind an event is (and any participation fee) is shown on its page.

🧺 For visitors

Using the map: every event has an interactive map. Green pins are normal stands, orange pins offer food & drink (🍰), blue pins are special pitches (e.g. at a kindergarten or club), grey pins show toilets and info. A dashed outline marks the core area. Central markets show a single venue instead of individual pins.

Search & filter: type what you’re looking for into the search box above the map (“Lego”, “cake”) – map and list narrow down. Filter chips limit by category, food & drink, accessibility (♿) or “unvisited only”.

Save & plan a tour: use “☆ Save” to collect your favourite stands – works without an account (stored on your device). “🥾 Plan tour” connects your saved stands into a walking route; where enabled it follows real streets with distance and walking time.

Nearby & regions: “📍 Markets near you” sorts markets by distance from your location or a postcode you enter. Under “🗺 Regions” you can browse by federal state or town.

Area alert & weather: on the “Markets near you” page you can subscribe with your email + postcode + radius and get notified whenever a new market is published nearby (confirm once, unsubscribe any time). On upcoming event pages a small weather forecast for the market day is shown (temperature, rain chance).

On the go: “📍 My location” shows your position live; the list then shows distances. “🧭 Route” opens walking navigation. “○ Visited” ticks off stands, “🧡” sends an anonymous thank-you.

Ratings: from the event start until 48 hours afterwards you can rate a market with 1–5 stars. The public average appears once enough ratings exist.

More: 🔲 full-screen map, 🖨 printable offline map with a numbered stand list, 📅 add to calendar, 📤 share, 🙋 “I’m coming!” and – if enabled – the 📄 flyer. A short link (e.g. flohmaps.org/x/abc123) makes every event easy to share.

Community board: below the map anyone can post under a pseudonym, with a photo. The “🔍 Lost” and “🎁 Found” sections are the event’s lost-and-found. Report inappropriate posts with ⚑.

🏠 For sellers

Register a stand (yard sale): on the event page choose “Register your own stand” – no account needed. Enter your address, click “🔍 Find on map” (or place the pin yourself), fill in the details, accept the rules. Selling only happens on private property (yard, garage, garden, driveway); tenants ask their landlord first.

Register at a central market: here you just sign up – no address, no map. Give your name and what you sell; the venue is set by the organizer.

Fees: organizers may charge a participation fee – either per stand or per metre (then you enter how many metres). The amount and any payment note (e.g. transfer in advance) are shown before you register and you confirm them. Fees are set and collected by the organizer – FlohMaps is not involved and receives no money.

Item highlights: when registering you can list up to three items you offer (e.g. “Lego”, “stroller”). They show in your map pop-up and stand entry and make your stand findable via the event search.

Register at a special pitch: no yard of your own? Some special pitches (e.g. a daycare or club) let you sign up online – look for “Register at this pitch” on the pitch or on the registration page. Some pitches are private and only reachable via a secret invitation link that the operator shares with you.

Confirm & edit: after registering you get an email with a confirmation link (your stand only appears once confirmed) and your personal edit link – keep it safe! Use it any time to change, cancel, upload a photo or adjust categories.

On the day: via the edit link you set your live status (🟢 open / ⏸ break / 🔴 closed / 🎉 sold out). You’ll also find your printable yard sign with your stand number and price tags. We remind you by email the day before.

Your stats: on the edit page you see how often your stand was saved and how many thank-yous you received.

📋 For organizers

Getting started: via “Start your own market” you apply with your desired area. The FlohMaps team reviews it, creates the event and enables you as organizer – you then sign in with your email (code login, no password).

Manage the event: in the editor you set title, date, description, type and mode (yard sale vs. central venue). For central events you enter the venue address and can decide whether the participant list is shown publicly. You can enable a fee and its amount, draw the map area, add POIs (toilets, parking), special pitches and sponsors. Stands can be confirmed, corrected, hidden or added by you; you can also resend the confirmation email or fix a wrong address.

Location & ratings: state, town and postcode are determined automatically from the map centre (button “Determine location now”) and power the nearby search and regional pages. Ratings can be moderated – you can remove individual ratings.

Fees & central events: per event you can set a fee – none, per stand or per metre – with an amount and a payment note. For central events (one venue, e.g. club/kindergarten) you enter the venue and decide whether the participant list is public.

Special pitches: a special pitch (🏠, e.g. a daycare) can accept online sign-ups publicly or only via a secret invitation link, and you keep a manual count of stands that registered offline. Registered stands appear grouped under the pitch, with their own fee (per stand/metre). Everything counts toward the total number of stands.

Dashboard: the event editor shows key figures at a glance – registrations (total/confirmed/pending), saves, thank-yous, average rating and a bar chart of the last 14 days.

Communication: you’re emailed on every registration and board post. A bulk email reaches all sellers at once. Posts with blocked words or reports wait for your approval.

Materials: under “Materials & templates” you’ll find a checklist, WhatsApp/letterbox texts, the A4 poster with QR code, numbered yard signs and price tags. Optionally enable the flyer – with your own text or an uploaded file.

After the event: “Finish event” removes all addresses from the map – only “there were X stands” stays public. 30 days later the stand data is permanently deleted. The event then appears in the archive.

👤 Account & privacy

Sign in without a password: enter your email, type the 4-digit code from the mail, done. You only need an account for favourite reminders and as an organizer – map, stand registration and board work without one.

Your data: under profile you change name and language and can delete your account any time. Details in the privacy policy; the rules are under Rules.

Newsletter: sign up on the home page, click the confirmation link (double opt-in) – we only write when a new market is published. Every mail has an unsubscribe link.

🔌 Tech & interfaces

Open-data API: https://flohmaps.org/api/events.json returns all published events as JSON (title, place, date, map centre, stand count, links) – CORS-open, no personal data, free to use with attribution.

Short links: every event has a short link (/x/<code>) that redirects to the event page – handy for flyers, print and QR codes.

Embed the map: each event has an embed view (/e/<event>/embed) for iframes; organizers get the ready code in the editor.

More formats: RSS feed at /feed.xml, a calendar file per event at /e/<event>/kalender.ics, sitemap at /sitemap.xml. The site is installable as an app (PWA).

Accessibility & dark mode: switchable via 🌓 top right. Stands can be marked accessible (♿) and filtered.

Questions, ideas, problems? hallo@flohmaps.org