Release notes

Week of 5 – 11 October 2026

Browse by what's in the box

• Category pages, updated. Eggs, baked goods, flowers and the rest: every category page lists all of its boxes, with its own map, whether or not you're signed in. Each of our sites now has its own: honestybox.scot lists Scotland's boxes, honestybox.uk the rest of the UK, and honestybox.eu Ireland and the rest of Europe.

🥚 Find eggs near you →

Weeks of 21 September – 4 October 2026

In the papers

• As featured in GEO and Turismo de Bolsillo. France's GEO magazine sent its readers our way in a piece on Scotland's honesty boxes, and Argentina's Turismo de Bolsillo followed with its own. Both now sit beside The Telegraph in the "As featured in" row on the homepage.

  📰 Read GEO's article →

A quicker map

• Dots first. The map now draws every box straight away and fills in the list beside it as you scroll, instead of making you wait for the whole list before showing anything.
• Tidier when you're signed out. The area dots now group together as you zoom out, just like the pins do, so the map stays readable.

Weeks of 7 – 20 September 2026

Exact locations, for members

• The map shows areas until you sign in. Honesty boxes run on trust, and the people behind them are often at home just up the track. So the map now shows signed-out visitors roughly where boxes are: each dot is a 5 km area with a count, and you can tap one to see which boxes are inside. A free account shows the exact spot, the address and directions. Every box is still on the map and in the list for everyone; only the precise location waits for an account.
• Cashless, in one tap. The map's payment filter is now a single "cashless" option, showing boxes that take card, bank transfer or a QR code alongside (or instead of) the tin.

🧭 Explore the map →

Conversations at the box

• Owners can reply straight from their inbox. When someone comments on your box, the email we send you now works both ways: just hit reply, and your answer appears on the box's page as your reply to that comment. No need to sign in first.
• You'll hear back. Leave a comment and the box owner (or one of us) answers it, and we'll now email to let you know, so the conversation doesn't get lost.

Looking after the boxes

• What to do if a box is stolen from or damaged. Sadly it happens. Our FAQs now walk owners through reporting a theft or damage, and what we can do to help.

Fixes & polish

• Better place names in Ireland. Boxes in Ireland now show a proper town or county instead of a vague region.

Week of 17 – 23 August 2026

In the papers

• As featured in The Telegraph. The honesty-box tradition — and this map — appeared in The Telegraph's travel pages this month, in a lovely piece about whether honesty boxes can survive the cashless age. (We think you already know our answer.) You'll now find a small nod to it on the homepage, with a link to the article.

  📰 Read the article →

Fixes & polish

• Release notes, more clickable. Every week on this page now carries at least one link into the thing it describes — a small nudge to go try what shipped.

Week of 3 – 9 August 2026

Every box has a story

• Behind the Box is live. Our new series tells the stories of the people who run the boxes, in their own words. The first two features are up: Raven Croft in Kilmore, Skye, where Hugh and Lesley bake for a corner of the island fifteen miles from the nearest bakery — and Bunny Bakes in Abernyte, where Maya turned a café dream into a wooden box with an ever-changing menu. Find them under Behind the Box in the footer, with more stories on the way. Run a box yourself? We'd love to tell yours.

  📖 Read Behind the Box →

• Worth claiming, by the numbers. We crunched our visit data and found that boxes looked after by their owners get around three times more views on the map than unclaimed ones. That stat now sits on the homepage where owners weigh up listing — if you run a box that's on the map but not yet yours, that's your sign.

Keeping the signals honest

• Check-ins are for visitors. Owners can no longer check in at their own box. A check-in means "someone stopped by and saw it", and that signal is at its best when it comes from you, not the person who stocked the shelves this morning.
• Fairer comment counts. Replies that owners and admins leave on comment threads no longer count towards comment tallies, badges, or leaderboards. Answering your visitors is great (please keep doing it!) — it just isn't the same thing as community engagement, so it no longer scores like it.

Fixes & polish

• The little map link, actually delivering. Last week we made the location map on every listing page a link to the full map. It turned out the preview panel it promised didn't always open when you arrived — now it does, every time.
• Aw, crumbs. Our page-not-found page had a small makeover. If you ever follow a dead link, at least there's something worth finding.
• See your profile address before it's yours. The sign-up form now shows exactly what your public profile address will be as you type your username — and tells you it's permanent — so what you get is always what you chose.

Week of 27 July – 2 August 2026

Hearts arrived this week, along with a set of map improvements that make hopping between a listing and the map feel effortless.

Show some love

• Green hearts. You can now appreciate a photo or a comment with a tap of the heart. The people who share photos and leave comments see how many hearts they've collected, a small thank-you for keeping the map alive. (No hearting your own, we checked.)

  💚 Find a photo worth a heart →

The map and listings, better connected

• Tap the little map. The location map on every listing page is now a link. Tap it and you land on the full map, centred on that box with its preview open, ready to explore what else is nearby.
• "Show all" always works. If your search matched nothing, the Show all button used to quietly do nothing. Now it zooms out (keeping your search in place) so you can see the wider map and adjust from there.
• Ireland, whole. On honestybox.eu the Ireland filter now shows the whole island, Northern Ireland included.
• One home address per box. Every listing now has a single canonical web address on the domain that fits where it is: Scotland on .scot, the rest of the UK on .uk, Ireland and Europe on .eu. Sharing a box uses its home address too.

Fixes & polish

• Opening hours that gave only a time window (say 10:00 to 16:00, with no days picked) now correctly read as open every day in that window, rather than never open.
• Archived listings now show a clear "this listing has been archived" notice instead of a broken-feeling page.

Week of 20 – 26 July 2026

We opened a third front door this week, honestybox.eu for Ireland and Europe, and gave contributors more room to add boxes.

honestybox.eu is open

• A European home. honestybox.eu joins honestybox.scot and honestybox.uk as a third front door, covering the whole of the UK and the Republic of Ireland today, and more of Europe over time. Same map, same community, with a European welcome.

• Ireland, done properly. We split Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland so each sits where it belongs: Northern Ireland on the UK map, the Republic on the European one. Boxes across both islands now show up under the right area.

  🇪🇺 Visit honestybox.eu →

More room to contribute

• Add more boxes a day. We raised the daily limit on how many boxes you can add, and the count now resets fresh at midnight, so a good scouting session isn't cut short.
• The Contributor badge counts your edits. It now credits the edits you make to other people's listings (the community upkeep that keeps the map accurate), not just changes to your own boxes.

Fixes & polish

• Sharing a map or listing link now shows the right brand's preview image.
• Behind the scenes, new photo-review tools let our moderators crop and rotate uploaded images, meaning fewer sideways pictures across the site!

Week of 13 – 19 July 2026

The map got a big upgrade this week, especially on phones: tap any pin to preview a box without leaving the map, plus new ways to filter and clearer box details.

🗺️ Open the map and tap a pin →

A faster way to browse the map

• Tap a pin, see the box. Tapping a box on the map now opens a preview right there, a card beside the map on desktop and a slide-up sheet on phones. You can read the details, flick through photos, Check in and Save without ever leaving the map. Only "Comment" and the full history open the whole listing page.
• A mobile sheet that feels right. On phones the preview is a draggable sheet that follows your finger, peeks the top of the photo grid at half height, and slides away when you flick it down, tap the map, or press back. A spinner fills any short wait, and the map gently pans so the box you tapped stays in view.

New ways to filter

• "Unseen" boxes. A new filter shows only the boxes you haven't checked in at yet, so you can hunt down the ones still missing from your Visited map.
• Filter by area. A country picker now sits on the map, including the Crown Dependencies (Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey), and choosing one recenters the map on it.

Clearer box details

• What you might find, first. The map and listing now lead each box's categories with the dietary options (vegan, gluten-free and so on) and show a tidy "+N" when there's more, so you can spot what suits you at a glance.
• Opening months as ranges. Seasonal boxes now show their open months as compact ranges (like "Apr to Oct") instead of a long list.
• Tidier addresses. Postcodes are no longer repeated in a box's location line, and a redundant "United Kingdom" is dropped.

Fixes & polish

• A dozen small refinements to the mobile preview sheet: smoother open and close, no jitter when opening from a pin, the tab bar staying above the sheet, a "more below" cue when there's extra to scroll, and closing that always settles cleanly whether you flick, tap away, or press back.

Week of 6 – 12 July 2026

A landmark week: check-ins arrived, profiles got a full redesign with achievement badges, the map now reaches the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, and we passed 1,000 listings.

Check in: you were here

• The new Check in button. Found a box? Tap Check in on its page to say "I saw it today". It keeps the map honest, bumps the listing's freshness, and builds your own visited history.

• Your Visited map, powered by check-ins. The Visited section on your profile now reflects boxes you've actually checked in at (plus any you own). A true record of your honesty-box travels. We carried across your history: past comments that clearly described a visit were converted into check-ins, so nobody's map started empty.

• Check-in badges on comments. Comments left alongside a check-in now carry a small "Checked in" marker, so readers know the author was really there.

• It's personal. The button shows your check-in state. It no longer looked "done" just because someone else had confirmed the box that day.

  📍 Check in at your next box →

Profiles, redesigned

• Achievements. Six badge ladders (comments, page edits, listings added, photos, total check-ins, and unique boxes visited), each with five levels, from your first contribution up to the coveted Top badge held by the current community leader. Tap or hover any badge to see what earned it.
• My box(es). If you own a box, it now leads your profile as a full map-style card (photo, address, freshness, check-in count) instead of a plain text row hidden below other things.
• A cleaner header. Your name, handle, member date and social links sit beside your avatar (with admin and box-owner shown as small pills), your bio alongside on desktop, and long names now size themselves to fit on phones.
• Key photos everywhere. Every listing card on your profile carries its photo, softly faded behind the text. Super pretty!

The listing page, refreshed

• Save with a bookmark. The star has made way for a clearer bookmark icon, and both Check in and Save now show an unmistakable filled state once you've tapped them.
• A proper photo grid. Listing photos lead the page with a "+N" overlay when there are more, and the gallery now includes every approved photo shared in comments.
• Opening hours up front. On desktop, hours get their own card in the sidebar, right above the location.

The map grows

• Channel Islands & Isle of Man. Boxes can now be added across both Bailiwicks (Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm and their smaller isles) and the Isle of Man. (Our old map boundary cut most of them off. Sorry, Sark.)
• 1,000 listings! Not a new shipped feature, but we're super proud to share that we hit 1,000 listings this week. Over 12,000 people have visited the site in the last 30 days in search of their next sweet fix, so it's incredible to be meeting them with the world's most complete map of local roadside treasures. This is uniquely a community effort, and we're so happy to have you all along for the journey!

Fixes & polish

• The map's Recenter button no longer hides behind the attribution label.
• Sign-up now prevents your email address from accidentally becoming your public username (a browser autofill trap).
• The comment box's controls are cleaner: Check in is a proper toggle, next to Add a photo and Post comment.
• Short profile pages no longer pull the footer up the screen, listing tables paginate more comfortably on phones, and a dozen other small alignment and spacing improvements throughout.

Week of 29 June – 5 July 2026

A busy week: replies on comments and a clearer way to report a box, a new map-first homepage, and faster loads.

Community & trust

• Replies on comments. Box owners and our team can now reply directly under a comment, shown with an Owner or Team badge so it's clear who's answering.
• A clearer "report a box". Reporting is now built around what actually went wrong: couldn't find it · found somewhere else · permanently closed · contents unsafe · inappropriate content · other, with a box for any extra detail.
• Clickable comment authors. Names now link to the commenter's public profile, when they have one.
• Faster reviews for you. Better tools mean we approve new boxes, photos, and claims more quickly.

Finding a box

• New map-first homepage. The landing page now leads with the map, so you get to browsing faster.
• Homepage search that filters the map. Searching a place like "East Lothian" now zooms and filters to that area reliably, including tricky county names and islands.

Listings

• Correct opening hours for UK time. "Open now / closed" is now shown in UK time, handling British Summer Time and around-midnight edges.

  🕐 See boxes open now →

Speed & polish

• Much faster loading. Pages paint noticeably sooner, especially the homepage and its map.

• Add HonestyBox to your phone. The browser bar now tints to match the page, and you can add HonestyBox to your home screen so it opens straight to the map, just like an app.

  📱 Want to add HonestyBox to your device? On your iPhone or iPad (Safari): tap the Share button, then "Add to Home Screen". On your Android (Chrome): tap the menu, then "Add to Home screen" or "Install app".

Week of 22–28 June 2026

Business names as your public identity, a written description on every photo, and a new category.

Community & trust

• Your public identity is now just a name. Instead of juggling a separate "handle" and "display name", you set one free-form username. A business can use its real brand name, e.g. "Coffee Bothy", and we build the tidy web address for your profile from it ("…/coffee-bothy"). The signup and account pages show a live preview of that address as you type, and existing profile links keep working.

Finding a box

• New "Dog Treats" category. Roadside dog-treat honesty boxes now have their own category, filter, and browse page.

  🐕 See all dog-treat boxes on the map →

Listings

• Every photo now has a written description. Photos are automatically given descriptive alt text, so people using screen readers get a real sense of each box. The descriptions are checked before anything goes live, and every existing photo across listings and comments was given one too.

Week of 15–21 June 2026

A big week for profiles and browsing: team up your "Visited" maps, richer category pages, photos on more map pins, and a partner portal for sites that embed our map.

Community & trust

• Team up your "Visited" map. Two people can now pair their profiles so each one's Visited section shows both members' boxes under a "Teamed with …" heading, handy for couples or friends who explore together. There's a new FAQ explaining it, and either person can unpair at any time.
• "Boxes you added" now count as visited. Your public Visited section now includes boxes you added, not just ones you commented on or own.

Finding a box

• Better category browse pages. Each category (baked goods, eggs, dairy, and so on) now has a proper landing page with an intro, a full-width map showing only that category, breadcrumbs, and a complete list of every box in it. Homepage category links drop you straight onto the map with that filter applied, and the box counts are always accurate.

• More map pins now show a photo. When a box has no photo of its own, the map and list now fall back to a photo shared in a visitor's comment, so far more pins show a real picture.

• New "Dairy" category and a few new boxes. Added a dairy category, and a handful of new boxes joined the map.

  🧀 Browse the dairy boxes →

Listings

• Owners are told when an edit is accepted. If someone suggests an edit to your claimed listing and we approve it, you now get an email letting you know what changed.
• Photos fill more listings. Empty photo slots now fill from a visitor's comment photo, so listings look complete sooner.

Partners & embeds

• A self-serve partner portal. Partners who embed our map can now manage their own settings: filter the embedded map to specific categories or areas, apply their brand colours, and give colleagues access to a shared partner console.

Faster help from us

• Quicker reviews and answers. A new all-in-one view of every listing, plus bulk moderation tools, lets our small team approve boxes and photos and get back to you more quickly.

Week of 8–14 June 2026

A privacy-focused week: session recordings are off by default, plus a batch of small fixes to the map, sign-up, and accessibility.

Community & trust

• A clearer nudge to verify your email. New members get a friendly reminder to confirm their email, so nobody gets stuck part-way through signing up.
• A clear confirmation after resetting your password, so you know it worked.

Finding a box

• Filter the map to claimed / verified boxes, so you can focus on listings a real owner has confirmed.

  ✅ See claimed boxes on the map →

Design & polish

• Clearer wording on the "add a box" verification step and the photo upload limits.
• Accessibility improvements. Photo pop-ups now describe their images to screen readers, and the mobile menu closes properly with Escape or a tap outside.

Privacy

• Session recordings are off by default. We finished our privacy work around anonymised session replay: a rewritten privacy policy, a clear consent choice, and recording that stays off unless you opt in.

Week of 1–7 June 2026

Smarter place-search on the map, safer adding of boxes, and a friendlier way to add a box you own.

Finding a box

• Much smarter place search on the map. Type a place, a town, a village, "London", and you now get an inline "Near {place}" suggestion as you type; picking it zooms there and reliably keeps the nearest box in view.

  📍 Try it: boxes near Edinburgh →

Adding a box

• Adding a box is safe to retry. If your connection hiccups mid-submit, you won't end up with a duplicate, a repeated submit simply returns the box you already created.
• Clearer "is this already here?" prompts. When you add a box near an existing one, the warning now shows each nearby box with its photo, address, and categories so you can recognise your own at a glance.
• "Is this your box, or someone else's?" Adding a box now starts with this question. Say it's yours and it's automatically claimed for you, so you don't have to submit a separate claim afterwards.

Community & trust

• A gentle reminder to verify your email now goes out a few days after sign-up if you haven't confirmed yet, with a fresh link that lasts a week.

Faster help from us

• Quicker moderation for you. A reorganised view of what's waiting means new boxes and photos get reviewed and go live sooner.

Week of 25–31 May 2026

Faster photos, a friendlier contact form, and lots of small polish.

Community & trust

• A friendlier contact form. A new "What's this about?" chooser sits above the message box, and picking a common topic (adding a box, claiming a box, sign-in trouble) points you at a matching FAQ right below, often answering the question without needing to send anything.

  ✉️ Open the contact form →

Speed & findability

• Photos load much faster. The map and lists now load a lightweight thumbnail (a typical photo dropped from ~138 KB to ~31 KB), so browsing is noticeably quicker; the full-size image still loads when you open a photo.
• Smoother photo pop-ups. Images now open into a correctly-sized frame instead of jumping as they load.

Design & polish

• Assorted papercut fixes. The "still accurate?" button now shows a spinner while it saves, closing a photo pop-up returns focus to where you were, the claim form fits better on small phones, and returning to the map from a listing now keeps your scroll position.

Privacy & reliability

• A watercolour "we'll be right back" page now appears during the brief moments the site is updating, instead of an error.
• Less running in your browser. We removed an unused third-party monitoring script, so there's one fewer thing loading behind the page.

Week of 18–24 May 2026

A quieter week of upkeep to keep HonestyBox fast, secure, and reliable.

Reliability

• Keeping the site running smoothly. Routine maintenance this week, including making sure the site's security certificates renew smoothly on both honestybox.scot and honestybox.uk, so the padlock and access stay uninterrupted.

🔒 How we look after your data →

Week of 11–17 May 2026

Two headline arrivals: a second front door at honestybox.uk, and structured opening hours so you can find boxes that are open now.

A second front door, honestybox.uk

• HonestyBox is now also at honestybox.uk. The same map, listings, and accounts are now served from a second address for our UK-wide audience. Whichever address you use, your account, emails, and links all work seamlessly, with the right branding for each.

  🇬🇧 Visit honestybox.uk →

Finding a box

• Opening hours and "Open now". Listings can now carry proper opening hours, including seasonal windows like "apples Sep–Oct", and the map gained an Open now filter plus an "Open now / Closed · opens 10:00" pill on listing pages. When adding or editing a box you get a friendly weekly-hours editor.
• Offline maps. The site can now be added to your phone's home screen and keeps recently-viewed areas of the map working when you lose signal, handy out in the countryside.

Adding a box

• Draft autosave. The "add a box" form now saves your progress as you go and offers to resume it if you come back later.
• A duplicate check as you add. If there's already a box very close to where you're adding one, you get a gentle heads-up before you submit.

Listings

• Request a photo removal. You can now ask for a specific photo to be taken down, which goes to our team for review rather than deleting instantly.

Design & polish

• Real host photos on the homepage. The homepage photo strip now shows a live sample of real boxes people have added, each linking through to its listing.
• Small niceties. The filter panel closes itself after you apply filters on mobile, rate-limit messages are clearer ("you've hit today's limit, try again tomorrow"), and comment lists show a total count with a "show more" button.

Privacy

• Clear privacy information. Our privacy page now sets out exactly what we collect, who we work with, and how long we keep server logs (30 days).

Launch week · 4–10 May 2026

We launched! HonestyBox.scot went live on 6 May 2026, a community map of Scotland's honesty boxes, open to everyone. This week's work welcomed those first visitors and made owning a box feel rewarding.

🗺️ Explore the map →

For box owners

• A welcome to your account after you verify your email, with clear first steps to take.
• "Next steps" after adding a box, a friendly panel explaining what happens next and pointing you to add photos, claim it, or share it.
• See how your listings are doing. A "Your listings" section on your account shows each box's saves, recent comments, and when it was last confirmed, with a nudge when one is due for a fresh check.
• Get an email when someone comments on a box you own, so you can keep the details current and answer visitors.
• Told when your edit suggestion is decided, you now get an email when a suggested edit is approved or declined.

Community & trust

• A share button on every listing, modelled on familiar map-sharing dialogs, so it's easy to send a box to a friend.
• Encouragement where the map is empty, if there are no boxes in an area, you're invited to add the first one right there.
• A refreshed welcome email that reflects the now-live platform.

Design & polish

• Friendlier error and "not found" pages, with clear next steps.
• A smoother sign-in flow, you're returned to where you were headed after signing in.
• Confirmation banners after you create a box, and a "clear filters" button when a map search comes up empty.
• Accessibility and layout polish across forms, the logo sizing on mobile, and keyboard navigation.

Privacy

• Privacy-friendly analytics. We measure how the site is used with self-hosted, cookieless analytics, no personal data and no ad-tracking.
• Self-hosted fonts so no font requests go to Google as you browse.