[Fingers of a Martyr]

yeah but it needs to be good  :D   :wink:

something like £3 a month subscription fee and it would be best if done in a weekly downloadable pdf format.

[Fingers of a Martyr]

Front Cover
Page 1-2 News
Pages 3-10 Special Features (Places to visit articles, interviews, photo specials, etc)
Pages 11-12 Training Advice
Page 13 Endpiece (amusing story, random article etc)
Back Cover (a paticulaly good photo or summit)

could be good if done right. sayin that it would probably have to be a fornightly or even monthly thing.

[Bubba]

I'm not so sure - I don't find PDF format that user friendly really - I'd rather navigate through a nicely designed site than trawl through a pdf....but it'd be good to offer both I guess.

And you're still stuck with the same old format, and monthly news would still be out of date - why try to just re-create a magazine online? I reckon it'd be better to offer the content in modules - the user could then pick the ones they were interested in, and be charged according to what they pick - that way, mountaineers don't have to read about bouldering if they don't want to, et vica versa.

[dave]

You mean something similar to http://www.cragx.com ?

maybe something updated more than twice a decade.

[Fingers of a Martyr]

sorry bubba as usual i wasn't makin myself clear. it meant to be exsclusively about bouldering. its just that if u went for once a week yeah sure it'd be up to date but would be hard to find enough content for a weekly thing but on the other hand if it was monthly like u say u'd just end up with an online magazine.

but the selling point wud be the quality factor. :wink:

[tommytwotone]

hang about...you could go out and buy climber for that!

thought the central issue / point here was that the mags are floundering because of the profusion of information available for free on various websites.

Personally, i think that charging for something on the net wouldn't work, especially within the climbing community. Look at the reaction to the rockfax 'premium posts' ting.

The mags need to decide if they're going to adapt or die. Their USPs are basically cool photos, area reports (which seem to have totally separate issues attatched to them - Stanton Moor anyone?) and Bubba's 'bogability'.

If the net has done one thing across all walks of life, it's made information way, way, way more accessible and information within the climbing 'community' is no different.

The central issue for any 'information provider' is how to keep a loyal audience / readership when the same information can be provided elsewhere and often for free.

[Fingers of a Martyr]

we shud make a protocol on here.

dave can do 'how to be gangsta boulderer - everything u need to know about from ak47s to 5.10s' article
bubbs can do a 'how to calmly sort a slagging match at the crag out' article
and i'll do 'how not to put your ill-informed opinions across on a climbing forum' article

sounds like a winner to me.

[dave]

dave can do 'how to be gangsta boulderer' article

you can't teach that shit, you either got it or you aint. and ting.

[SA Chris]

You mean something similar to http://www.cragx.com ?

maybe something updated more than twice a decade.

Yeah, I just meant it as an example, it's not great, but better than nowt.

Did anyone ever se a copy of VBouldering magazine. Good lord that stank.

[Fingers of a Martyr]

just how bad was it chris?

i read the online part on ukc but never bought it. did it's sales bomb? :blow:

[dave]

well i thinkg they took everyones subscription money and then didn't produce more than about 2 issues. :asshole:

[Bubba]

I fucking paid for a subscription.

1 good issue...then a few of awful issues and then...nothing....and I don't expect a refund either.

Highlight of the series was "first aid for pets" or something bizarrely unconnected to bouldering.

[tommytwotone]

wasn't there chalk magazine as well?

think, IMHO, that the key thing is that the cost/time associated with startup doesn't justify the ends for a couple or reasons:

even before the net took off, the mag market was saturated by only 3 mags (in the UK at least, and that's counting High), and they're now having to merge / change as a result of reason 2:

the proliferation of internet based climbing media available through the net

think UKB has done a great job of getting established in what was an already populated marketplace.

Think we're going to see even more sites offering topos / downloads as well as up-to-the-minute news / gossip in an effort to hold onto their users, which is gonna make it even harder to justify the cover price of a 'proper' mag.

[Bubba]

think UKB has done a great job of getting established in what was an already populated marketplace.

cheers, but it's only on the forum side, the rest of the site is crap.

[Fingers of a Martyr]

the rest of the site is crap

just like every other website. planetfear, ukc and 8a r pretty poor all round. planetfear's got a few articles on 'magic grades' and 'how to make trad quickdraws'. woopee-fuckin-do.

this site has a brilliant, funny and well moderated forum which for the mo, more than makes up for any shortcomings else where.

is all the other content gonna be binned and started a fresh when the new sites comes along?

[MrBlue]

cheers, but it's only on the forum side, the rest of the site is crap.

well, isn't it only you that manages and updates the site? can't be expected to do everything at once, for free...

[Bubba]

I think some of PF's articles are excellent, certainly as good as what you get in the mags.

But really, the best bouldering site (other than for the forums of course) is yorkshiregrit.com - easy to navigate, well integrated photo/grades/videos and high quality, free topos.

The new site will only maintain any content that's still relevant, which isn't a lot. The forum will be upgraded to the next version of the software, there's also another "sister site" coming on board...ummm..the gallery is already there really (see http://ukbouldering.com/gallery) and forum users can upload their pics to it.

The last things will probably be the problems database as I want to integrate it like yg.com and that's probably going to take most work.

Oh, there will also a shop....but this doesn't mean that ukb is turning into a means to make anyone money, but everything sold will be ploughed back into the site to pay for server costs and if there's any spare, to commission high quality content. We're considering setting up as a charity to prove to everyone that it's a non-profit making organisation.

Phew...that's about it, oh yes, and there will be some excellent topos coming along after Ru's guide has been released.

[Johnny Brown]

the rest of the site is crap.

not crap bubba, just needs some content updatin. the videos in particular - they were top when they first went up but I don't think you've been out with the camera since! :wink:
maybe the bods with the camcorders should get a bit busier.
and I don't even need to use that sequence anymore... :roll:

[Fingers of a Martyr]

if u were interested bubba i could mebbs get 1 or 2 problems filmed at me local, edit them and ting on the commie then send em in? just for a little bit of fresh shizzle for the site. they won't be anything ground breaking, probs in the 7a-7b range.

[Fingers of a Martyr]

also as regards the shop bubba u need to get a few t-shirts with this bad boy on



he's da bomb, buzzin fru sheffield performing sum hive-bys

yeah, i know, that was lame as fuck :roll:

[Bonjoy]

:roll:  

[Bubba]

the videos in particular - they were top when they first went up but I don't think you've been out with the camera since! :wink:
maybe the bods with the camcorders should get a bit busier.
and I don't even need to use that sequence anymore... :roll:

You're not wrong, I've done next to no filming since - last season seemed to conspire against me as regards getting out climbing, but I'm hopeful this season will be different.

I have got a couple of vids from St Bees on the camera which I must put up - the one of Jordan is ready to roll - found the right music for it now...

[Nigel]

Please can you show the full horror of Jordan's top-out on Yellow Desert Scream? Its hilarious!    JB, this problem has your name on it!

[Bubba]

I only got a small bit of Jordan's top out, but got most of bonjoy's sketching I think....

[tommytwotone]

don't know if anyone else's heckles get raised by this, but having read a fair bit of planetfear / ukclimbing /cragx written content, the one thing that continually shocks me is the standard of the editing - their/they're/there errors, shocking punctuation and even some pretty elementary typos.

I acknowledge that on a forum there's always going to be a more relaxed written style, but a website wants to make its content look and feel like mag quality it's got to be edited properly.

Here endeth my pedantic rant...