Chockstone Forum

      Sponsored By
      ROCK
   HARDWARE

Chockstone Photography

Australian Landscape Prints

Chockstone Forum - General Discussion

General Climbing Discussion

Author

Chockstone to go national?


Robb

17-May-2005
2:33:14 PM

there is no SA forum. chockstone basically works as a SA forum anyway. good work

deadpoint

17-May-2005
5:13:46 PM

Since we are talking forums, here is some shameless advertising have
a look at www.canberraclimbing.com/forum for Canberra region spiel, spray and shite!, not a lot of traffic yet but increasing.

maxdacat

17-May-2005
9:01:12 PM

thanks for the comments.....i guess i feel that even though CS is by default the major forum/site etc in Oz it is a Victorian site in name so i'm not sure what level of discussion from/by/about outa state is acceptable. As an expat NSWelshman i would like to correspond about areas in my state but think ClimbX isn't the best site around.

I think the advantage of having a national forum with regional subcatagories (say by state) is if someone from NSW posts a trip report about Frog on ClimbX....it's all on the one site and accessible to all who search from the main page.

Not sure how you would go about archiving old posts from a different site, storage, maintenance etc....anyone with an IT view?


sabu

17-May-2005
9:49:22 PM

na chockstone as it is now is good because it still has that personal feel, for example one could post on rc.com for months but never actually talk to the same person twice or meet anyone. post here for even half a month and you already know all the users!! i say keep that campfire feel.


AlanD

17-May-2005
11:26:09 PM

Chockstone is already the defacto National Climbing forum. You only need to look at the membership list to see that.

The big difference between CragX and Chockstone is the activity level. Occasionally days will go past and not one single post will be made on CragX. The more topics and posts, the more likely someone else is likely to post a new topic or a reply, partially to blame here, I've lurked on both forums for about 12 months, and I’ve only made 3 or 4 (10 it seems on checking) on CragX as opposed to about 60 here in the 12 months. I don't mean to run down CragX but the format here works better and the news items, interviews, etc all add to the level of "colour", it also appears that CragX consists of about 6 regulars, it almost feel as though you're reading someone’s private email.

For a National forum to work, each state would need its own it's own area, where state specific information could be posted "find a partner" "safer cliffs" "crag and route beta", whilst maintaining common areas like "accidents and injuries", "trip reports" and "general discussion"

Keeping the forum manageable and avoiding personality problems, flame wars, etc., in my opinion depends on keeping the forum on topic. Another forum I use has 366 000 members (Engineering Tips) and it runs smoothly, I only use a very small portion of it and I know the other regulars in the sub forums I use, it's extremely rare to see even a post that is personal or unrelated to the specific field. I admit it's very dry, but that to some extent is because of the material covered. On the other hand a science forum (SSSF) I use is filled with trolls, flame wars, etc as the moderators permit virtually anything to be posted, to a large extent I've given up on the place as have many of the other people with a science background who used to post there, it's just a chat room now with the occasional science question and reply.

This forum is about climbing, no matter how interesting it maybe to you, most people reading the posts aren't interested in the latest modifications you've done to your car, what you're having for dinner or why you think you're a worthless human being (Climberman will understand this reference from Ski.com.au and the person in question is far worse on the SSSF). Keeping the post relevant to climbing, will maintain that friendly campfire type feel.


Hatman

18-May-2005
7:42:41 AM

On 17/05/2005 maxdacat wrote:
As an expat NSWelshman i would like to correspond about areas in my state
>but think ClimbX isn't the best site around.

No never heard of "climb X" its probably crappy.

"CragX.org" is a great site. The problem is that all the new members never contibute! you get out what you put in folks. Go post even if what you say seems stupid or very ignorant im sure it will stir up a coversation!

Of course there is not the volume of chockstone, maybe part of the reason is that we cragX's are out climbing??

I have found CRAGX.org very usefull. Because of it I have learnt to bolt, Climbed with dudes from allover, got beta on new crags, learned new woodie building tricks, sourced cheap gear and had every question Ive come up with answered.

You ask a question on cragX and it will get answered no problems!

As for chockstone going national. Why? what is wrong with the current setup? you gota be hopeless if you cant find the individual forums??!

Chockstone is a truely good site but the problems of it becomeing a national site surely far outweigh the benifits.

There are 26 messages in this topic.