Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 8, 2015 - 02:06pm PT
One on the first comments from Survival in the Enormocast Thread was
This could be better for the forum than the annual keep it real post.
In the never ending quest to keep the forum more inspirational and informative, I'm wondering if RJ and I should have a semi-regular SuperTopo Podcast that is dedicated to talking about the site and how to improve it.
Not sure the exact format. But Episode 1 could be use talking about the founding of SuperTopo. Episode 2, the founding the forum, where it came from and why. Episode 3, the ups and downs of having a very lightly moderated forum... Episodes 4 on would largely be what you guys want us to talk about...
And thats where my ideas stop and, hopefully, yours begin.
Is this the seed of a good idea? If so, what would a good format be?
Again, the goal is improve the SuperTopo forum. At it's best, the forum brings out the best from a lot of great folks, just wondering if this might help with that effort.
Respectfully, I don't think that talking about the forum will improve it. The people who will listen to and learn from the podcast are probably not the same people who cause the problems.
I do think that a "flag post" button could go a long way.
There are a few people on here who have a lot of interesting stuff to say about climbing. They also occasionally get a little...impassioned, and not in a good way. It would be nice to be able to isolate and eliminate those posts, without eliminating the users.
I think podcasting is a great medium that's just right for a certain audience - Chris Kalous and Fitz Cahall got me through some seriously boring times at work. And supertopo, obviously. The Enormo Dome is about interviewing famous climbers, the Dirtbag Diaries is a virtual campfire with cool stories about adventurers of different kinds. We're indebted to Fitz Cahall the same way we're indebted to John Long who chronicled the Stonemasters. Rock climbing is only one of many adventure sports (base, snowboarding etc) so I am glad to see Fitz put rock climbing, and particularly Yosemite, at the very center of all of it. The classic "dirtbag" is the guy living out of his car in Camp 4.
The Mountain Project and Summit Post are also good websites, but they are not Yosemite-centered and don't have the 'live' feeling of the forums here. If I am not mistaken, Karl Baba was an early pioneer, if not the inventor of this, with rec.climbing. Another way to think of supertopo would be as a kind of Yosemite climbers club. I like the fact that its totally unruly and out of control, although I do my best not to get drawn into an argument.
I think it would be more beneficial if you took a couple hours to see how other forums are designed, I think the layout makes a lot of difference if it puts the posts in separate sub forums.
While I think talking about the direction you would like to see the forum go, could help influence the change you'd like to see, I think all you really need is an On Topic tab and radio box to flag a thread as such, and then you could have your cake and eat it too.
I think it would be more beneficial if you took a couple hours to see how other forums are designed, I think the layout makes a lot of difference if it puts the posts in separate sub forums.
Thats been discussed ad infinitum..
the decision was that forum is fine the way it is. Its people who are screwed up.
If more people liked the other forums designs better, then they would post there. There is no such thing as a perfect forum because people are too bizarre..
I'm happy to participate in any way you decide, subject to availability. I'm sure it's no secret that I value this forum and its participants highly, even if I don't spend as much time as the volume of my posts suggests (despite what my wife suspects).
I, for one, find the history of this forum - with its ups and downs - not only interesting, but helpful and even necessary in determining what we can become.
And for the record, I spend more time on ST than on any other climbing-related site precisely because I find the discussions here far more stimulating than elsewhere in climbing's virtual universe.
Not sure if a Podcast would really help in this case. Having you and RJ being more active in the forum improvement discussion threads here would probably be the most effective at hashing out some possible solutions. That would be better than the sporadic "hand of god" type moderation where things just happen and threads and people disappear without any explanation.
Here's a point of discussion. Its something that's important for the "historical" aspect of the forum:
How to deal with forum problems without deleting all the posts of value?
This still seems like an ongoing issue. The recent example that comes to mind was the "retrobolt cor" thread that ended up with a lot of really good stuff mixed in with the junk.
I'm happy to participate in any way you decide, subject to availability. I'm sure it's no secret that I value this forum and its participants highly, even if I don't spend as much time as the volume of my posts suggests (despite what my wife suspects).
I, for one, find the history of this forum - with its ups and downs - not only interesting, but helpful and even necessary in determining what we can become.
And for the record, I spend more time on ST than on any other climbing-related site precisely because I find the discussions here far more stimulating than elsewhere in climbing's virtual universe.
Thanks for all you do.
John
me, i always liked it here, as, it was simply and easy to read all topics--no having to click on all kinds of tabs, to see what is there...
easy to get back to our daily chores, etc...
you can also, just 'click off of a topic' if you don't like
what is being said--and LET that group 'hash it out'...
super GREAT climbing info, is always here... we CAN FIND it
very easy, checking ANY 30 page line-up section...
AND--if things get far to awful, stepping over,
you DO have your 'freeze thread' deal now...
by leaving it as open as you do... we get to see how other climbers, and lovers of the greatoutdoors, skiing, even surfing and boating, and artists, have to say about WHAT they are:
doing...
enjoying...
their hurts and needs...
and their new babies, marriages, and travel adventures...
it's lasted all this time... through the hard rough stuff,
the climbers HAVE found ways to do much good:
facelift...
fund raisers...
SINCERE condolences, to those that been injured or died...
health help...
group gatherings...
CHRISTMAS/holiday, join in...
birthday salutes...
and quite a LOT more...
some folks, have even realized where and how, their rough spots,
just might need a tad of 'i'm sorry' and actually benefit from
the growth of being around multi-options and various life-shares...
thank you chris, for all the care, that you do have...
even if you can't always check in, we DO know that care...
when someone first posts, there's lot's of new stories to tell, decades of climbing to talk about, images... and a bit of new stuff... but in time the total amount to post saturates. Such a poster has been "sucked into" the STForum and wants to participate but there isn't a whole lot more to post about climbing that hasn't already been posted.
there are the old warhorses that can be flailed, bolting, ethics/style, and some unresolved issues that seem to persist from ancient history well into the future...
then there are contemporary topics to incite comment... as the Fish observed, opinions are like as#@&%es, everybody has one... and these sorts of thread certainly outpost the climbing threads...
managing an ecology of basically bored posters, and trying to encourage the new generation of posters to the Forum, and to encourage some of the older generation who are reluctant to wade into the "mosh pit" atmosphere that sometimes prevails, while maintaining the "wild west" nature and hoping for "positive, encouraging" comments seems too much to strive for...
people will come, people will leave, and eventually you'll get bored with the whole thing and it will fade away... replaced by some other internet confection more to the tastes of that future public...
it is easy to overthink what could happen...
the best you can hope to do is to whack down the commercial spammers and keep the populace of STForum at least in the category of humans who have a passing familiarity with climbing.
the reason the squirrel wins in the battle of the bird feeder is because that's the only important thing in the squirrel's life, it isn't that high on your priority list...
...same with the trolls here, anyone who is willing to post at a rate of once every 10 to 15 minutes throughout the day is going to win... that is until you whack them. It has nothing to do with reason.
You might want to think through your endgame... what is going to happen to all the great content, eventually? I sure hope REI doesn't end up owning it...
Technically expert, safe belayer, can lead if easy
Sep 8, 2015 - 08:44pm PT
"And for the record, I spend more time on ST than on any other climbing-related site precisely because I find the discussions here far more stimulating than elsewhere in climbing's virtual universe.
As great as talking about the forum is, I think that a podcast dedicated to discussing the forum would be just interesting ideas thrown around. We could debate here, but as usual, loud voices prevail.
I think you should do a podcast because you have very interesting conversations and people love podcasts. If it's about the forum, awesome, but the venn diagram of Supertopo users who listen to / can figure out how to listen to a podcast is a slim strip...
I would be happy to listen if you decide to do something like that! I think it could be fun and informative.
If it sucks you can just discontinue, right?
Talk about the ups and downs of the forum, and throw down some humorous impressions of what you see here. In my techno ignorance I think it must be possible to include the occasional guest from the forum without them being in the same room with you, right? Like a 3 way phone call? Now THAT could get fun! Ed H. adding some intellectual flavor, Burch adding some wit another time, locker adding some glue here, Guido adding some sailing there...think about it!
Here is the 
Let us know!