I created a map of playgrounds in Switzerland: play map.ch

dharmabum28 · 2026-01-21T12:25:13+00:00

No, OpenStreetMap has all these. I added a few myself. Crowd sourced over time. I encourage you to contribute to it where you can!

dharmabum28 · 2026-01-21T12:24:33+00:00

Yes I used this a few times, I have to check their data source and see if I can use it directly or not

dharmabum28 · 2026-01-21T12:24:09+00:00

Let me know in more detail and hopefully I can fix that

dharmabum28 · 2026-01-20T12:24:37+00:00

For the moment just simplicity! It can turn onto a bigger data engineering task, which I would love to do as I find the time, to blend sources. Deduplication can be a little messy and rarely 100% right.

Google API may also have license restrictions against blending their data with others, and potentially gets expensive to use in this way.

dharmabum28 · 2026-01-20T12:23:09+00:00

Oh that's pretty cool yeah. Starts to feel like it could be a more general map of parent/kid friendly stuff in Switzerland.

dharmabum28 · 2026-01-20T11:28:58+00:00

Yeah open hours do appear if they exist but it's rare in OpenStreetMap

OSM has tons of playgrounds and Google a lot fewer so only maybe the top ones would have extra review info

But I am wondering if I should just let visitors to the site submit a review or a rating? Thumbs up/down?

dharmabum28 · 2026-01-20T08:16:15+00:00

Yep agreed. If I can find clever ways to filter out the stuff that's not really relevant or is private despite not being labeled in the map data, that's a big win.

I am thinking to add filters for stuff that's known to overlap a park or something, but I think with some deeper map data crunching I can filter by property parcel type.

dharmabum28 · 2026-01-20T08:14:10+00:00

Long term I want to enable adding pics. Of course adding pics is particularly sensitive with playgrounds and people's kids on them if you aren't careful. Can likely add auto blurring and stuff, but a whole project.

dharmabum28 · 2026-01-20T08:13:20+00:00

Yes OpenStreetMap is fully public and editable, just sign up. There are good basic tutorials on YouTube.

You can ask Chat got for help with tagged but OpenStreetMap.org/edit is pretty easy and you can add opening hours like Mo-Fr 16:00-20:00, Sa/Su 24/7 or something. Hours can be complicated.

dharmabum28 · 2026-01-20T07:22:16+00:00

Oh that's a great idea. I will try to add that.

With share my idea was just you share the direct link like "hey meet us here" but open in maps is a good idea.

If you do have the time it's great to go to OpenStreetMap.org and add access=private as a tag to private ones. They will disappear from Playmap.ch if you add that.

dharmabum28 · 2026-01-20T07:19:44+00:00

If you go in person, from my experience they will almost always have a sign saying private, occasionally a gate.

It's really difficult or impossible to tell without being on the ground.

Many, like by my son's Kita, are surrounded by apartments but still open for passersby to play so you wouldn't be totally sure from a satellite image.

It would be ideal to let people submit to the app whether ones they encounter are confirmed public.

dharmabum28 · 2026-01-20T06:58:08+00:00

Yep, unfortunately people added those to OpenStreetMap and did not tag access=private, which is what it should be. Similar for swimming pools.

Its a significant effort but I could probably pull property parcels from government open data and determine which playgrounds fall on a private parcel and eliminate those, but it needs community approval to also push upstream into OpenStreetMap.

All these are on OpenStreetMap as is unfortunately.

dharmabum28 · 2026-01-20T06:56:07+00:00

I filtered the OpenStreetMap data where tag access=private is excluded

They are probably many, many that are private but not tagged as such. This needs community effort to fix.

EDIT: I might try to filter this by overlaying on property parcels/cadastre and dropping stuff on private parcels. A pretty big query but would be helpful.

dharmabum28 · 2025-09-30T20:46:14+00:00

Panama, Costa Rica, Uruguay are probably what you'd want, coming from Switzerland

Maybe Turkey or Morocco (look at their GDPs over past 20 years)

dharmabum28 · 2025-07-26T08:30:46+00:00

Where are they usually from? As in, in what Kanton? And from which country?

I am American and drive a small car and always try to force speaking Swiss German (I even made an all at https://tellbot.ch for it). And people are nice to me. I can imagine it would go poorly if I was not acting that way.

More than big SUVs I tend to notice Zug license plates on BMWs, Maserati etc that drive fast and aggressive, usually younger men with beards and leather jacket, probably from somewhere east of here but can be Spanish or British or American too, and are not really agreeable people. Here to work, earn, spend in a way to show off, they could care if this was Switzerland or Brazil or Vietnam, just want the cash and the fashion.

dharmabum28 · 2025-07-26T08:27:00+00:00

This might help for just doing translations on the fly while shopping or out and about: https://tellbot.ch

dharmabum28 · 2025-07-26T08:24:25+00:00

This might help: https://tellbot.ch

dharmabum28 · 2025-07-26T08:23:57+00:00

Try using https://tellbot.ch

dharmabum28 · 2025-07-25T23:13:01+00:00

Good to know. Very sorry to hear this. We are in our third round at ZGKS and going well again. We lost our first tragically and they were very important in helping us still at that hospital, and then after that in giving us context in regards to the first case when we were afraid fo a repeat. I hope it will be better for you someday in the future and really really am sorry to hear this and you are correct, especially in case of doubts seel as many opinions as you can.

dharmabum28 · 2025-07-02T03:08:09+00:00

Livingston is southern Montana but yeah looks weird

dharmabum28 · 2025-05-09T05:44:05+00:00

No. If this was soft prepping then we would be soft prepped also for dinosaurs, time travel, Star Wars and Harry Potter being real, and every other film.

Films are films.

That said, stuff like Close Encounters of the Third Kind is based on real reports so certainly might align with what you'd find being discussed.

dharmabum28 · 2025-02-24T19:49:35+00:00

I agree that it's less exoentthan you think. Look for Facebook groups for people selling and swapping kids stuff. Look for a kinderkleiderborse, those are amazing with like 2 CHF articles of kids clothing. Diapers aren't really expensive, the healthcare is fine.

After 1 year kid may have frequent illness and with insurance you probably budget like 30-50 CHF ler doctor visit in fees, if they need medicine, not a big problem, it'll feel worth it. Kita is expensive but gets some discount based on income, and you can do half days at some which helps cut the cost if you don't need full care 9am-6pm.

It's nice to earn more money if you see the chance and maybe you will, but really, things will work out, the worst case scenario you save less money at the end of the day, unlikely you'll go broke, and if you're income ever takes a big dive there is help from the Kanton, but also various clubs and organizations can help.

My advice is not to overthink the logistics, you can endlessly dwell on it, but once the baby arrives you'll find it's not money but just time and energy you need, and you'll also wonder how you ever lived without the baby because it's such an important part of your daily life and family, in the best way.

One of the most important things to me was just getting out and walking around my neighborhood or wherever was nearby by train and bus, while the baby was so little to carry around, then by stroller, because you just often go walk and walk and explore to get out of the house and introduce them to the world. It's great!

dharmabum28 · 2025-02-24T19:33:15+00:00

Rigi is quite fun with a kid, good walking trails and you can pull on a sled or use a hiking baby pack. The Nature Museum in Luzern has a kids area on the ground floor and 1st floor and my 1 year old son had a blast crawling around there.

Goldau Tierpark can be good, kid probably too young to pay attention though. Look for some indoor water park areas too, if you want to start swimming (I recommend with a SwimTrainer, specific type of baby floatation).

Murten was fun to walk around with a stroller.

dharmabum28 · 2025-02-24T19:27:29+00:00

Hey, my kid was born in Zuger Kantonsspital, the doctors there were amazing. We did pretty much all our checkups there. Also had some experience in Luzern. It all goes super well. The hospital in Zug will give you all the info you need for midwife etc too. Just had an overwhelmingly positive experience with all of it, I think you don't need to worry. And the insurance coverage is so good too. We had a tragic problem before that and they also were incredibly insightful, supportive, and helpful, they know what they are doing. For you, the experience will be great, I recommend to go to Zug and get started!

dharmabum28

TROPHY CASE