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Chockstone to go national? 17-May-2005 At 11:26:09 PM AlanD

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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.