Luc, I think because you've decided that if someone uploads a photo that is "clearly" (from your point of view) off topic, then they have a sinister motivation (manipulating the point/vote system). That lends righteousness to your argument but is nonetheless a mistake to make this assumption.

SP is not "swamped" by anything. Look at the routes and mountains and TRs that interest you. Watching the live feed of incoming images is just a receipe to make you angry because they support many diverse topics that will never interest you...such as high points of very low and flat countries.

I'm not in anyway judging or criticizing the quality and beauty of these pictures or as to the motives of any author posting them, this was only taken as a graphic example.
I’m just questioning openly as to the value of those contributions, thematically speaking, to what is to me and obviously other members, a climbing community website.

My page of Lac Sylvère is of an ice climbing cliff which gets its name from the lake at its base, such as Lake Willoughby in Vermont.
The photos on my page are attached from the routes which are found on this cliff, there might be a duplicate in there when I had issues accessing/uploading them.

Luc,

I imagine that your initiative was motivated by the fact my photos appeared briefly in "what's new", that more people seem to follow than I imagined. Would it have been the single link to the album, I suppose you would just have avoided it.

But put yourself in my place, I feel probably the same than you when I see series of details of ice climbing routes. As you can see so well with the example of Lake Sylvère, and the ways we both live the mountains and then perceive this page, so uninteresting to me, so rich in information for you,for me it's just enough not to look at it not to feel disturbed.

I do not understand why the reverse is not true, for Rügen or any page related with beetles, hills and cows, to the point you feel obliged to make a polemic on the forum.

SP is a site dedicated to mountains, but definitely in a wider sense than you think. Many contributions would never have emerged if we set a minimum altitude to the mountains, a minimum difficulty access, or a minimum dangerosity. Sorry, this is not my trip.

It is elitist and absurd. It's not just the "climbers" on Summitpost. There are also obese women seeking to lose weight, parents of young children (I am), seniors, who are all very happy to find a place that matches their hiking ambitions, adapted to their level and needs. It is a mountain portal in the large sense.

This is even more surprising from you, you who come from Quebec, country where it seems that mountains are relatively "small", ice waterfalls apart. Having said that, far from being uninteresting, I'm sure of it without having being there.

Eric Visentin

Luc & Visentin ... you could use your private emails to better understand each other
don't you ?

Luc wrote:I’m just questioning openly as to the value of those contributions, thematically speaking, to what is to me and obviously other members, a climbing community website.

Well, have a look at these
1 Front page: "SummitPost is a collaborative content community focused on climbing, mountaineering, hiking and other outdoor activities."
2 Set of pix: a (Polish) Hiker Magazine (please scroll down)

yatsek wrote:

Luc wrote:I’m just questioning openly as to the value of those contributions, thematically speaking, to what is to me and obviously other members, a climbing community website.

Well, have a look at these
1 Front page: "SummitPost is a collaborative content community focused on climbing, mountaineering, hiking and other outdoor activities."
2 Set of pix: a (Polish) Hiker Magazine (please scroll down)

I'm really getting tired of watching "CLIMBERS" vs "HIKERS" battling away on forum pages. Is there no end and beginning for it ??

My vision is to see climbers and hikers discussing topics in a civilized manner, while they hold each others hand around an
eternal campfire.

We are all here for a short time anyway, unless someone has discovered the Fountain of Youth. Then, I be very jealous !!!

Well I have nothing against them... I am just not competent in their domain
All mountains disciplines are too tightly related to split this site into several, like iceclimbpost.com, skipost.com, and so on and so on.
My own conviction is that there should even not be MBPost. It should be an outdoor portal which includes all possible disciplines, and each user could parametrize what interests him.
Biking is perhaps the less related mountain activity to the rest, if we compare it with skiing, and even canyoneering, but since most of the MBPosters come from SP, there is a strong summit-bagging touch to all contributions, which makes the difference with all other possible mountain biking portals on the net, less focused about visited landscapes and wild regions.
SP could be like this, regions to which you could attach objects of various types, ski routes, climbing routes, bike trails, or hiking trails. Same for TRs and articles...
I would have made it like this, if I had been Ryle or Matt four years ago...

Everybody sing:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3MiD_U4CHQ[/youtube]

lcarreau wrote:I'm really getting tired of watching "CLIMBERS" vs "HIKERS" battling away on forum pages. Is there no end and beginning for it ??

SCRAMBLING is the beginning, end and what's in between.

lcarreau wrote:We are all here for a short time anyway, unless someone has discovered the Fountain of Youth. Then, I be very jealous !!!

If the old fountain doesn't work any more - not to worry - there'll be a new one very soon.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lqwoo-O_GwM[/youtube]

I've apologized to Visentin here and by PM for making an example of those pictures.
I've refrained from commenting on this thread to keep things cooler and to have time to think about my reply.

I do appreciate the whole range of outdoor activities and think many should be welcomed here (such as hiking), I'm just wondering why it was absolutely necessary to post 215 pictures of the island, why not only adding the best 50 or so? If people want to share so many pictures with little extra informative material, why not post the majority of them on picassa or Flikr?

I'm all for adding other outdoor sports, IF the site and forums can handle it, but right now, most of the database has been geared and indexed towards mountaineering (climbing, touring, hiking and pretty much everything that can be found in Freedom of the Hills).

Hiking vs climbing is not my issue, the dilution of information and the estrangement / alienation of valuable contributing members of the climbing community are.

Luc wrote:I'm just wondering why it was absolutely necessary to post 215 pictures of the island, why not only adding the best 50 or so? If people want to share so many pictures with little extra informative material, why not post the majority of them on picassa or Flikr?

Generally speaking and not directing to anybody in particular, you certainly have a very valid point here.

Originally we were told that with SP2, image storage would no longer be an issue. I wonder if the architects anticipated how much people would treat the site like a free high-res version of picassa.

Perhaps Matt can enlighten us if excessive image postings add to the database problems.

"I was born by the river in a little tent,
Oh and just like the river I've been running ever since.
It's been a long, a long time coming;
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will.

It's been too hard living but I'm afraid to die,
Cause I don't know what's up there beyond the sky.
It's been a long, a long time coming ..
But I know a change gonna come, oh yes it will ...!"

- Sam Cooke