Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead?

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JD

 
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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by JD » Tue Mar 13, 2018 12:50 am

..."he was nothing like the persona he often projected here."

No doubt. But that doesn't excuse his bad behavior online.


I live in CA and don't think Summitpost is dead. It's just boring.

I look at the forums occasionally and the new website doesn't work very well for me at all. The "latest posts" list was quite nice, but that's gone for some reason. And when I click on any page it takes me to the end of the page and I have to scroll up. So I'm less inclined to look now.

When it comes to looking for actual mountain/route info I use google to search. So the interface and all the glitz is bypassed. The actual presentation of the information has changed, but only in a cosmetic way. I think the appearance isn't an improvement. It's just different. More space. Whatever. Web programmers gotta program web pages.

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Denjem

 
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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by Denjem » Tue Mar 13, 2018 1:20 am

The Chief was over the top. That is why he was so funny. There are still good people on the site. I would say Chad is the most active by far and always good for a blunt, but experienced opinion.

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artrock23

 
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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by artrock23 » Thu Apr 05, 2018 4:33 pm

myles wrote:I met The Chief once, and in that instance he was nothing like the persona he often projected here. Helpful with information and a good sense of humor.


In a way, Chief can be seen as a metaphor for why a number of people no longer post here. Your and Bob's posts illustrate opposite ends of a paradox. IRL, Chief is a decent guy, I'm told, a knowledgeable and experienced mountaineer. However his online persona is mercurial. Like many here, he's opinionated and close-minded. Get him on a bad day, and he'll insult you any way he can, and it's usually over something insignificant. Who wants to deal with that? After awhile, it gets old.

So many of the foolish arguments one sees on internet forums could be resolved by a bare minimum of communication, particularly verbal, or better yet, face to face. But no, easier by far to maintain the safety provided by hiding behind a computer keyboard. One can delude themself that they've got an imagined adversary's measure, and hurl insults with impunity.

Let's face it: we possess five senses for a reason. They are the means by which we interpret the world and what goes on around us. A trip report, just as an online persona, is two-dimensional. It doesn't give off the sense of magic one experiences by actually being in the mountains, any more than reading the words one has posted grants any manner of accurate illustration of the person behind them. When the effort of posting on an internet forum, and/or the consequences of doing so, outweigh the benefits, why continue to do it? A wholesome person would rather retreat to the multifaceted richness of real life.

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Denjem

 
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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by Denjem » Tue Apr 17, 2018 3:28 am

Feeling pretty dead around here. Just saying.

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lcarreau

 
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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by lcarreau » Tue Apr 17, 2018 4:53 am

Yeah, it does feel like the party is somewhere else.

So, the Chief is not married to Nurse Ratchet? Boy, that just popped my bubble.

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"Turkey Vultures always vomit when they get nervous."

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Tom Kenney

 
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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by Tom Kenney » Tue Apr 17, 2018 9:09 pm

lcarreau wrote:So, the Chief is not married to Nurse Ratchet? Boy, that just popped my bubble.


IIRC, Nurse Ratchet was the late Brutus of Wyde's SO.

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Tom Kenney

 
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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by Tom Kenney » Tue Apr 17, 2018 10:05 pm

@lcarreau re: your sig...

The Aristocrats - The Kentucky Meat Shower

...and it's namesake incident...

Wikipedia - The Kentucky Meat Shower

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ScottyP

 
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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by ScottyP » Sun Jul 01, 2018 10:59 pm

artrock23 wrote:In a way, Chief can be seen as a metaphor for why a number of people no longer post here


I agree. I have not posted in years after being blasted by a comment I made about a climb....

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David Senesac

 
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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by David Senesac » Mon Jul 23, 2018 6:25 pm

Haven't been lurking in SP for maybe a couple years unless I have something to research. Note not a FB person either that has attracted away many. Have not looked at the recent changes here.

Many web forums have gone into decline since the rise of social media. Although there may be some who have frequented this board a long time that are annoyed by others I don't suspect that is the stronger factor except for those that post or did post a lot. Most web communities have a few individuals that tend to be very active and if they are emotional, strongly opinionated, political, inject their own meanings into what others may tersely say without giving them the benefit of doubt, and a whole list of other immature interpersonal communication behaviors, that can certainly cause those like them to exit.

Most people participating in otherwise civil web communities almost never get caught up in annoying threads and wisely are not easily baited by others taunting them. All this plays out in similar ways in the corporate career worlds too and that minority of the population that have worked in large organizations successfully tend to be more civil and considerate communicating with others else they don't last long. However the majority of people don't live in those career worlds and their common man communications are too often at the level of what one crudely reads these days at Internet news sites comments sections or down at the corner bar.

I'd say the major factor is a loss of critical mass of participants in threads actually saying much. The biggest turn off for this person in web forums is a lack of thread participation. If a member makes an effort to post a detailed trip report or starts a discussion thread and then just a few others respond, that is BORING. I'll do so a few times and then drift away elsewhere. Generally at web forums one may see one of the non-regulars post an excellent thread topic or question that is ignored for days with maybe just a one liner wise guy or humor responses. The same type of thread if posted by one of the active regulars would received considerable inputs from other regulars and that would tend to draw in a lot more responses from non-regulars. But when one looks at how whatever is being discussed, there might be 2 or 3 people that actually post more than a single sentence trying to actually say something. The rest are just there for the amusement, tossing out terse one liner humor, tersely making fun or being critical of someone or something as they usually do, or if it is about one of their forum buddies...awesome...wow...cool...dude. Of course in this era there are a majority of people that are rather incapable of writing more than a single coherent sentence without fearing it could be viewed negatively due to this kind of dominant vibe.

So in forums there needs to be ways to encourage more participation, doing so with more meaningful input, without fear of being made fun of by those into comic sport. I could point to other web forums I visit with much more and more meaningful participation. Forums where two paragraph inputs are more common than the one liners. A simple example would be comments to someone's multi paragraph report of what they experienced bagging some peak. If 8 people respond with terse one liners it does little for the person that bothered to craft up the OP input. Much better when members have something to add like what they experienced 2 years ago on the same peak or how their group was blocked by firm snow, whatever. Like this is supposed to be a web DISCUSSION forum where people read interesting things not some popularity game where a few annoying members are counting Awesome's and amusing their comic sport buddies.

The above noted, another reason I stopped participation is that the voting system for content and image inputs was non-functional with no hope those coding the software had any interest in actually fixing it.

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KathyW

 
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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by KathyW » Mon Jul 23, 2018 8:08 pm

Summitpost just got old like all internet sites eventually do. My guess is that Facebook is on the decline at this point.

The internet is a useful tool because it provides some great beta and ideas for hikes and climbs, but spending a lot of time on forums, facebook and other social media sites just isn't as much fun as getting out and enjoying life sans a screen. I tend to use peakbagger.com more than any other site these days for beta.

Get out there an enjoy!!!!

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Luciano136

 
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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by Luciano136 » Wed Aug 01, 2018 6:17 am

I used to be on here a lot 10+ years ago but it seemed like a lot of the regulars disappeared and I personally don't have the same amount of time that I used to.

That said, I love this site for the info on routes and peaks. My only comment would be that you have to take a lot of the descriptions with a grain of salt; easy means class 3, quick about half a day LOL!!

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Scott
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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by Scott » Thu Aug 02, 2018 2:10 pm

You know that SP is in decline when even Mattski gets bored of it and decides to move on.

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artrock23

 
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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by artrock23 » Thu Aug 02, 2018 4:45 pm

Scott wrote:You know that SP is in decline when even Mattski gets bored of it and decides to move on.


Not so fast...

Our favorite Kiwi has just put in an appearance in OR, the best forum on the site. :D

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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by DukeJH » Tue Aug 14, 2018 9:26 pm

I moved to California from Texas to climb and SP was a key source of beta, training, and gear advice. I generally agree with David about staleness. I have drifted away from SP forums because there is very little in them FOR ME. David's response above reminded me that the community needs contributions FROM ME to be vibrant. SP isn't dead. It is challenged and needs continued contributions from those who have gained from its knowledge base.

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Craig Peer

 
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Re: Why do the people of California think Summitpost is dead

by Craig Peer » Wed Aug 22, 2018 4:38 am

You miss the Chief posting here, eh ? Those were the days. The days that blew this place right up !

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