We have a duty to ensure that the Buy Nothing resources we provide to the world are tools that align with our Buy Nothing Project mission and rules, build sustainable Buy Nothing structures, and advance the Buy Nothing Project in ways that are inclusive and welcoming. In order to meet these duties, we’ve taken our outdated maps offline.

While the maps have been useful to many people who volunteer as admins for Buy Nothing groups using Facebook, they’ve also had an unintentional negative impact on the Buy Nothing Project and people trying to join this movement in many ways. The Buy Nothing Project is a continual work in progress, and we update, change, and sometimes remove resources as the Project evolves and as we learn more about how to best serve our foundational goals.

We are sharing a new, public worldwide version of the outdated maps that show a variety of Buy Nothing groups around the world. We will host this map so that people looking for this resource can access it easily from our website. This new worldwide map will be a collaborative resource, set so that anyone will be able to make edits to it.

We are heartened by the diversity of groups represented even on the outdated map that serves as a starting point. We expect the map to grow in complexity as more people add their own groups to the map. It has the potential to be a real-time snapshot of collaborative efforts to represent the diversity of Buy Nothing communities worldwide.

We’re also hoping to create a more accurate mapping tool that can be updated sustainably and used easily by all. When we figure out how to build and implement this, we’ll share that with the world and direct people to it.

Some things to keep in mind:

- Anyone looking for an instant, flexible Buy Nothing community that follows them everywhere they go will find that on our independent platform:

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/buynothing/id1557679959

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sharething.app

- All gift economy groups using our foundational documents are part of the Buy Nothing movement, and all Buy Nothing communities are welcome on this map.

- Any group boundaries shown on the map are set and/or maintained by each group’s local leaders and guides (called “admins” or “moderators” on some platforms). The Buy Nothing Project hasn’t set official group boundaries or regions for some years now. Our structure empowers local group leaders to make all boundary-related decisions with their own communities, and to take responsibility for any changes, and for how these boundaries impact their community members.

- Buy Nothing groups are shown in a variety of ways, reflecting the diversity of Buy Nothing experiences and platforms. Some groups are represented by pins, some by polygons, some with gift boxes, some with other various symbols. Many Buy Nothing groups overlap in geographic terms; some groups are very small and private, some are huge; some are arranged around geography; some are focused on a particular population or shared interest.

- Maps are a visual tool that are functionally inaccessible to many people for a variety of reasons.

- These collaborative maps should not be relied upon as an inclusive, up-to-date guide to Buy Nothing communities. There are a great number of active Buy Nothing communities that are not represented for a variety of reasons, and there’s no guarantee that every person making edits to the map does so in fully-accurate or constructive ways.

- If you’re looking for a Buy Nothing community you can access immediately, our BuyNothing app is available via all smart phones; if you’re looking for a Buy Nothing community on a particular platform other than ours, a quick search using the search engine of your choice should show you active, publicly-accessible communities that match your search terms.