Thirteen years ago (almost to the day, actually), I made this post on the EVE Online forums, announcing that I had created a POS manager that worked in the in-game browser, and, being very clever and creative, named it the “In-Game Browser POS Planner”. This was somewhat significant back in 2005, because at that time the in-game browser was extremely basic and only supported rudimentary HTML functionality (and no scripting), even rendering tables correctly was significantly difficult. But I felt it was important to wield the utility the in-game browser provided, primarily directly clickable links to fuel and equipment on the market. At the time, there weren’t really any digital tools to assist in crunching numbers for setting up the complicated POS network of modules and fuel, and I wanted something to save time for my own POS endeavours.
As the years went by, I updated the tool sporadically, essentially whenever I became active in EVE again, I brought it up to date. When the in-game browser became more sophisticated, I upgraded the platform as well, adding features and fixing things where possible. I briefly tried to build a community of users in an attempt to get more active and consistent feedback, but my own poor scheduling resulted in that never quite becoming cohesive. The last major update I made was in 2015/2016, and at that point I was thinking of setting up a transition to a Citadel Planning tool… but I felt there wasn’t really a unique niche to fill anymore. I felt confident there would be plenty of online resources that would make planning Citadels easier, but because they’re much more streamlined, the complexity wasn’t as appealing for me to try and overcome with a browser tool.
So, now that POSes have been more or less replaced by their less-fiddly children, I thought it only fitting that on its thirteen year anniversary, I announce the closing of the IGB POS Planner. I’ll be keeping it active for the next month or so in case users have bookmarked setups they’d like to save or transition elsewhere.
I’m posting this lengthy history lesson because I’m also genuinely interested to hear from members of the EVE community who may have used the tool over the past thirteen years. Any massive industrial deployments or sovereignty expansions made easier because of this small thing I’ve been picking at since 2005? Let me know! Feel free to reply here, or send me an evemail, in-game pilot as always is Qalten.
In closing, I hope that the planner was useful; I tried to differentiate it from others that appeared by ensuring it was always 100% free. I never implemented ads – despite the tool amassing over 40 million hits between 2015 and 2017 – because I didn’t make it to make money, I made it to make a game I loved easier to play for myself and the community. Additionally, I never required login, and never saved any data to a server to make sure everyone in the EVE universe felt comfortable using it. EVE has proven to be one of the most dynamic online gaming experiences I’ve had, and I’ve yet to play something that even comes close to what CCP and, more importantly, the community of players has achieved. As always, I’ll be stopping in New Eden from time to time, be sure to say hi!
Thank you for letting me help you plan your POS for thirteen years!
o7
Qalten
P.S. Last bit of history, before the POS Planner, around the same time in 2005/2006 I worked with an awesome EVE pilot by the name of Amataras to create an in-game browser version of his Diplomacy Chart! It was a neat little tool that showed the political status between the major alliances, and we had a channel and EVE forum threads where we’d gather information from the alliance dignitaries and update the chart accordingly. If you remember this and found it useful, let me know as well! 
