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I'm new to this SE sub-site, and think that I have a good question, but I'm not sure how to ask it the best. I've read this discussion, but still am not sure.

In many (European) countries, there's some kind of official institution, usually related to surveying, or some publisher, which do provide series of detailed topographic maps covering the whole country (or most of it), suitable for outdoor purposes. Examples are the respective IGNs of France and Spain, the Austrian ÖK50 series, UK's OS maps, Nordeca for Norway, etc. I usually find these rather difficult to find by quick Googling, especially if I don't speak the local language.

Would it be well received to ask one question about these map providers or series in general, per country, starting a "big list" CW self-answer? Or should I rather ask something like "what is a good map provider/series covering country X?" for every X I am intersted in? Or anything else? What about availability information, such as "can be found in larger book stores/outdoor shops", "sold via their website at <...>, no international shipping"?

I couldn't find any questions of this generality here or at TSE; most map question focus on "free online maps" or GPS maps. Or they are primarily requests of the type "what are good trails in region X" with an answer containing "there's a nice map from Y covering all of X". That's why I think my kind of question would be a useful addition.

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  • Have you searched through the site and through the Travel site? I kind of remember a like question on TSE (link to a search on TSE) travel.stackexchange.com/search?q=maps
    – Willeke Mod
    Apr 29, 2018 at 9:44
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    In general, big list CW answers are discouraged, and "what is a good provider" type questions are very off topic, so you'd need to look at a way of asking it to fit well. We do have CW questions - they are not banned, just need to be appropriate.
    – Rory Alsop Mod
    Apr 29, 2018 at 11:26
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    In this case a big list CW answer of providers is probably appropriate. Most countries have government appointed map service, so its not a reference that will go out of date quickly. Just as long as the list was limited to providers of map source data and the (typically) one or two official publishers, not every map publisher.
    – user5330
    Apr 30, 2018 at 1:13
  • Ok, thanks. I have asked the question now, hopefully having respected the mentioned points.
    – phipsgabler
    May 1, 2018 at 11:01

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Asking for topo maps is on-topic, it has been done a couple of times before.

Now as to how, if you ask one question per country in Europe, I don't see 28 very similar questions being well received and I don't think that it would quite as useful as one definite Q&A with a community wiki list.

I don't want happened here where one question got 25 answers. On the other hand, Community Wikis do have a definite use case, and I think this is one of them.

See

For examples.

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