[Bonjoy]

Hope I’m not stepping on anyone’s toes posting this (if so PM me and I’ll change/delete as requested), but I think it’s high time this fine site got a proper mention on UKB.
It’s been up and running for a while and is becoming pretty comprehensive. For those who haven’t seen it, it’s the Peak’s answer to Yorkshiregrit.com and Bleau.info.
What it lacks in slickness it makes up for in volume of content, but there are still some areas and probs which need adding, which is one of the reasons I’m starting this thread. The more people who add to this, the better and more useful it will become.
I think it would be useful to have a thread on UKB where folk can flag up any problems with the site and make general suggestions. Also it needs more logged ascents to make the grade/star votes meaningful and useful for visitors to the area.
 Big thanks to the people who’ve put in the hours setting up the site and added the problems, Gareth Cokell, Andy B and R-man (sorry to anyone if I missed you).


On a specific note, currently I’m trying to write up Stanton-in-the-Woods, which involves making up names and grades. Any feedback on either is much appreciated as the names are fresh off the top of my head and the grades total guesses from hazy memory (haven’t climbed there for well over a year).

[Grubes]

I was asked if they could use some of my photos on their website a while ago, but I was not sure who they were and I could not spot any mention on here after a (v.quick) search so I did not submit any.

I will submit the pictures they asked for when I get chance

[SA Chris]

Looks great. Worth a stick at least, and probably a link on the front page?

[GCW]

Been using this for over a year, after a headsup from R-man and an inclusion of some of the esoteric-almost-Peak venues up my way.  Fantastic site, good to see it getting more popular.

[slackline]

  T'is a brilliant site, well done Gareth, R-man et al.

Like you say it gets cursory mentioned in various threads, and its linked from the Peak District section of the wiki (but no one seems to bother with the wiki really).

I guess as with the web-cams page/thread its a case of getting its existence to stick in people's heads so that they look there.  The other barrier to it being widely used (and something thats a little tricky to quantify) would be that its always perceived (by the asker) to be "easier" to jump on here and start a thread to ask a question.

Anything that can be done to promote it would be good though, perhaps there is a way to have special mark-up tags for problem names that link directly to the peakbouldering.info page for a given problem (similar to this plugin which allows mark-up to link to wiki's, guess it might depend on how the peakbouldering.info site is structured really).

[fried]

I've been using this a lot to check out all the problems I'm going to fall off of when I'm in the peak in August

[cheque]

I found it just this weekend. Surprised that I hadn't seen it mentioned on here more (perhaps I just missed it).

Planning to add some pictures fairly soon.

[Duma]

A mine of good info, but feels pretty clunky in comparison to, say, Bleau.info

As already said, it will improve with more user input, which hopefully this thread'll help with.

[Offwidth]

On a specific note, currently I’m trying to write up Stanton-in-the-Woods....).

I keep trying to encourage visits. On the main point .... its an excellent resource, thanks guys.

[Nan]

I've used this site for a while now and have always been surprised how few people use it or have even heard of it. Would be nice to have more opinions on grades on this site.

[slackline]

I've used this site for a while now and have always been surprised how few people use it or have even heard of it. Would be nice to have more opinions on grades on this site.

I believe this may be deliberate, r-man contacted me a while back and told me of its existence, but indicated that it was still in Beta (i.e. under development) and not quite ready for mass release/usage and asked that I not disseminate its existence widely as they wanted a testing period to get things ironed out (which may account for the above comments regarding not being as "smooth" as other sites, but may simply be down to where the site is hosted).  I'm guessing this has all changed.

[GCW]

Yes, I was told similar.

[Andy B]

Gareth works hard down in London during the week, and on weekends him and his missus are mad keen to get out in the peak a lot, and although Robin and I may know a fair bit about obscure problems, we know fuck all about creating websites (I may be doing Robin a disservice there), so progress and development has been a fairly slow process, when Gareth can find time, and it's still a work in progress. I know that speed problems are largely to do with cost issues.


Sorry, that was the most poorly constructed sentence ever.

[Bonjoy]

I've used this site for a while now and have always been surprised how few people use it or have even heard of it. Would be nice to have more opinions on grades on this site.

I believe this may be deliberate, r-man contacted me a while back and told me of its existence, but indicated that it was still in Beta (i.e. under development) and not quite ready for mass release/usage and asked that I not disseminate its existence widely as they wanted a testing period to get things ironed out (which may account for the above comments regarding not being as "smooth" as other sites, but may simply be down to where the site is hosted).  I'm guessing this has all changed.

I think I was told similar, it was a while ago so I can't remember exact details. That's kind of why I said about not stepping on toes and being happy to change/delete the OP. But it's been operational for ages now and I think more likely to benefit from greater use rather than staying off people's radars ad infinitum. That's just my opinion.

[Grubes]

I know that speed problems are largely to do with cost issues.

you could possibly add a donate button to help with the costs?

[Bonjoy]

I know that speed problems are largely to do with cost issues.

I wonder whether there might be scope for seeking site sponsorship? Or could peakbouldering.info become part of the UKB empire and benefit from (and encourage the growth of)its sponsor revenue? I've no idea how much it would cost to run the site. Obviously the busier the site is the costlier it would be, however more traffic also means more viewers to any sponsor's banner...
Just thinking aloud.

[Andy B]

Interesting ideas.

Robin and I mainly just researched and added the crags and problems (for days and weeks) as well as sharing ideas for how the site should run, but site's creation is Gareth's baby. I'm not sure how often he looks on UKB, so I'll send him a text and make sure he's aware of this thread.

[slackline]

I'm not sure how often he looks on UKB, so I'll send him a text and make sure he's aware of this thread.

If he monitors activity I'll bet he'll notice a spike off the back of this thread!

[joeisidle]

I heartily recommend this site as well, it has probably the most comprehensive account of peak problems on the net and has been a great way to find new problems not already included in the guide (and a great way to nick beta from the video database that goes with the problems).

[dave]

Sorry, that was the most poorly constructed sentence ever.

I think not that it was.

[andy_e]

It's wasn't not that too bad really.

[andy_e]

I like the "number of mats needed", nice touch.

[garethC]

I guess it is about time that word was spread more widely about the site - I think that if it had been left to me I would have kept saying "It's not really ready yet..." until the cows came home, which seems a bit daft really.

I know that it is still a bit slow (basically down to cost) and a bit rough around the edges (because I work too much). I do expect to have less work and thus more time to spend on the site come the end of the financial year, so hopefully I can sort out some of the technical issues then.

Technical stuff aside, however, the site would be nothing without good content - accurate descriptions, inspiring photos, videos, comments and beta along with a load of registered ascents to develop a solid consensus on difficulty, style and quality of the problems. A number of people, most notably Robin and Andy, have done an amazing job of populating a lot of this stuff already, but there's still loads of gaps (surely someone has a photo of Brad Pit - http://peakbouldering.info/problems/61, and there must be enough that have climbed the Joker - http://peakbouldering.info/problems/58 - to know if 7C really is the right grade for that problem?)

One of the key ideas of the site is that anyone can edit / add problems, boulders and even crags, as well as upload photos and videos (the latter via youtube or vimeo). I'm hoping that this, along with an average grading system, will lead to the site being a really useful resource. Obviously, a massive thanks needs to go to everyone who has spent (in some cases large amounts of) time doing this so far. If, on the other hand, the site is new to you and you spot an omission or error, please do log in and sort it out!

There is an email address on the site (gareth@peakbouldering.info) if you have any specific feedback / requests / ideas for improvement. I have got a little big list to work through, but the more people I hear from, the better I can prioritise the things that need sorting.

Erm... finally - sorry for the late night (poor excuse?) rambling post and thanks for the nice comments.

[Offwidth]

What are you views on Bonjoy's suggestion to merge with the UKB empire. One of my concerns at present is that someone might lift a lot of your stuff into an easier to use database and take away some of the traffic. I'm sorting out all my lower grade bouldering stuff in Offwidth at the moment and will give you some feedback on this when I've finished.

[slackline]

One of my concerns at present is that someone might lift a lot of your stuff into an easier to use database and take away some of the traffic.

I expect some savvy use of robots.txt and other security measures (like that which Jim encountered whilst trying to rip belau.info) could sort that out (if its not already).

Having it hosted where it currently is or on UKB's rosehosting won't make much difference to that really.