Topic Author's Original Post - Feb 10, 2012 - 03:03pm PT
My Three Goals for SuperTopo Forum in 2012; what are yours?
Many thanks to everyone who contributed to the Improve SuperTopo 2012 Thread. That is, and will hopefully continue to be, a great place to post concrete, fix-it style improvements for the SuperTopo Forum.
Now here more generally is what I hope the SuperTopo Forum can achieve – the overall feel of the Taco.
1) Inspire, educate and humor each other
As I see it this is the whole point of the Forum; what the Forum is on its best days. There are a lot of amazing people here from wildly different backgrounds. It’s great how many different styles of information come forth, from people sharing wild winter ascents in the High Sierra to how to make the ultimate van conversion.
2) Preserve history
A lot of Historical Gold has been posted here from Yosemite, Colorado, Alaska and around the world. I love the fact that a web search for old climbing history often directs the searcher to the SuperTopo Forum. Best of all, many of the people who made that history post here! Some people have asked if this historical stuff is safe here. Answer: Yes. We have been around since 2000 (the Stone Age in climbing Forum time) and are not going anywhere. We have a business model learned from living in Camp 4: even with low income, you can always keep your expenses even lower. (And grab leftover pizza from the Curry Deck when necessary).
3) Have the most open home for discussion on the Internet
For good or bad, SuperTopo is the least moderated, least categorized, least divided up forum out there. One page, simple layout, post em' if ya got em' That is what people love and hate about the Forum, myself included.
There is always a tough balance between letting things be open and uncensored vs. creating a place where negative rants can push out all the good stuff. I appreciate the reminder emails from users that we can't just let EVERYTHING fly here at the risk of turning off the people who come to contribute, become inspired, and share awesome climbing/life adventures (see Points 1 and 2 above).
Since anyone can post as many times as they want, there is the ability for a person or group to steer the entire Forum to reading what they want by bumping their topics to the top. If a person or group chooses to do that, the Forum is no longer as free and open a place because they are taking disproportionate control of what the rest of the Forum sees listed on the top. We hope people will not abuse this power and for the most part people don't.
We depend on people to self-monitor. And when things get out of hand, which they sometimes do, we depend on Forum members to point this out.
OK, enough from me. What is your favorite part of the Forum? Where do you want to see the discussion headed? Post your thoughts here, or, more importantly, dig up your best, most hilarious, most inspiring stuff and post it on the Forum.
Many thanks to all that contribute here,
Chris McNamara
PS: While some forums have long rules lists, ours is pretty short and simple. It shows up on the right anytime you make a post and here it is:
Thanks for joining the conversation!
Our goal with the climbing Forum is to provide a resource for climbers of all skill levels and experience to get information about climbing and climbing destinations.
Please help us keep the climber's Forum a friendly and informative resource. If you find posts that are objectionable, please let us know. Although we can't control the content posted to the Forum or route beta sections, we will delete objectionable or offensive posts as we become aware of them.
We appreciate your support!
My First Forum "Video Reply" Post!!
This video below touches on what I have said here.
The original longer version that rambles on after 4 minutes is here. (My dad and wife recommended a tighter edit and I agree).
Thanks, Chris. Ever thought about getting a resident MD/PT or the like to contribute on a regular basis regarding climbing-related injuries and rehab? There's only so much Ron gomez can respond to, and since I'm currently redshirted it was on my mind...
Locker has all that covered. What are the rest of us sposed to do?
Keep him well supplied with glue so that he can continue to do his job.
But seriously, my only quibble with Supertopo as it has evolved is the ability of a very few people to wreck things for the many. One way they do this is though massively bumping threads that only they are interested in, and you've addressed that in your OP. The other is by turning disagreement into personal attack. When it gets to the point of threats, or of "You're a big f*#king douchebag", well, that's where a lot of us just disappear from threads we'd otherwise participate in.
Thanks for giving us a home.
Edit to add: I just watched the vid and you also addressed the second point I made, so no complaints from me.
5:55 in the video -- I hear this as saying that excessive posting (even without any offensive content), taking up all the forum bandwidth, is grounds for account deactivation.
Also, that explains some of the recent deactivations. It makes sense to me.
Luke
Let us know!