about ukb

What they say

"For years we have regarded UKB as a kind of anarchic commune …"

"It must just be me but I think UKB is dire at every level; ugly, primitive, juvenile and offensive!"

"Frankly even I find the bitter-lads-in-cellars vibe UKB gives off distasteful ..."

"I see the value in having forum based sites like UKB as part of the climbing community but do they have to stoop to the lowest common denominator and encourage the lack of standards that are so prevalent in society today?"

"About UKB? It's a site. About bouldering. In the UK."

What we say

ukbouldering.com was set up by Bubba in 2001 in reaction to a perceived deterioration in the quality of existing UK climbing sites. Since then the forum has accumulated 4000 members and quarter of a million posts. The UKB server also hosts an evolving wiki, and has a Twitter presence, for posting urgent news about the forum (please follow us after you register as a forum member) and for sharing conditions updates. The UKB community also operate Vimeo and Flickr groups.

Though bouldering is a core shared interest, the actual scope of the forum is much broader. In terms of climbing activity, most users boulder, go "chuffing" (sport or trad climbing) and train (or contemplate training) all year round. Many of the core users are amongst the most committed climbers in Britain so within threads on serious climbing topics the opinions expressed and factual content are typically exceptionally well informed. Visitors may also be surprised by the quality of discussion on photography, technology, surfing and "two-wheeled spiel".

The forum software has extensive posting features including video and image embedding, expressive smileys, polls and karma.

New members

One of the key features of UKB transcending specific climbing interests is a genuine sense of community. Some new users have found the style of the place a bit intimidating or at least felt like gatecrashers. This is more apparent than real. Newbies are very welcome. Register here. Some helpful guidance is here.

Advertising

The costs of running and developing UKB are offset by advertising sponsorship. We are delighted that the British Mountaineering Council (BMC) has made a longer term commitment to UKB in this respect. We welcome enquiries from other interested advertisers. Please click through to our commercial pages for a rate card and visitor metrics.

Moderation policy

We like freedom of expression and are proud of our light moderation policy so the overly-sensitive may wish to click away elsewhere. We think the overall tone of the site (friendly, humourous, irreverent) is a more important focus than fretting over specific content. However posters identified who troll, threaten, spam, promote hatred (sexism, racism, etc) or post illegal content will be banned and have their posts removed. As on all web forums, the views and opinions expressed by posters are their own and UKB has no responsibility for them.

Ownership

The UKBouldering.com domain was purchased by Outdoor Forums Ltd based in Sheffield in February 2010. The company's shareholders are Shark and Habrich. Bubba remains involved in an (essential) technical consulting role.