UKC

Heavens no! Another UKC's changed thread... Well yes I'm afraid so, I'm feeling philosophical and thoughtful (for me) - sleep ain't coming tonight, usually this is followed by either a trip to the men in white coats or weeks of writing and recording songs so I might as as well inflict my thoughts and reflections upon you while I have the chance.

Has UKC changed? For sure! For one top poster used to have 200 posts some weeks, these days it seems more like 60. But why so? I guess the obvious answer is the banning of the rabble rousers and trouble makers. Without our more argumentative brethren amongst us there isn't really anyone to get into a 400 post flame war with. So there's less posts. Maybe. I don't really know.

Is this a good thing? Well for me no. I'm a pretty full on forum junky, endlessly surfing the threads for information and entertainment. And it ain't as entertaining as it used to be. How I'd love to see (in no particular order) fiend, sutty, jude, fawksey, niggle, sloper, norrie, djviper, regent (??) von goatlips aka mystery toad, franco cookson (I know he's not banned this week but felt he deserved a place with the rabble rousers and trouble makers) posting regularly again but I guess those days have passed. Apologies to any rabble rousers or trouble makers out there i've overlooked, I'm sure there's plenty more.

Then again I am probably the worst UKC customer about. All I've given UKC in eight years is five quid to post a sweary video the week the world was supposed to end and five quid for a Kalymnos guide. Even my rockfax guidebooks are second hand. I've uploaded about three photos, never voted for a route, never made a log book entry.

By contrast they've given me a really cool pair of rab gloves that are probably the most technical bit of kit i'll ever own and tickets to the kendal film festival. Not to mention endless hours of entertainment.

So the new UKC is a bit different, more user friendly, welcoming and more diverse. There's still a huge range of expirence to draw from, hundreds of lurkers waiting to pop up with some useful advise. Imo the vibe's cooler and nicer these days, people don't seem to resort to insults so readily. You can spout a load of ill informed bullshit and people are happy to chat it through. A bit less entertaining, overall more pleasurable for me. Not to mention the improvement in the quality of the articles, interviews and videos which are quite frankly awesome atm.

I think there may have also been a slight cultural shift in the way people interact with strangers on the internet. I know i've been guilty of trading insults, being snidey, sarky comments and mild bullying at one stage or another. Since realised that none of that shit makes me happy - I stop myself if I realise I'm behaving like that now. Probably not how i'd react in real life, maybe it takes time to learn to differentiate the two. I think I've noticed this in other posters too.

Well if you got this far thanks for reading. What to do... I guess i'll go for a walk. I wish I had a dog.

In reply to shaun l:

its looneys like you posting interesting ideas at 4am that keep the place worth visiting.

In reply to shaun l: nice post. I hope you get some sleep.

In reply to shaun l: thanks for that... it was sooooooo interesting... yawn ... you want advice? Here's some.... push off (would swear but too middle class and children might be watching)

In reply to shaun l:

Yes, the site has evolved and the new have replaced the old. Its the way of the world. I too miss some of the more entertaining characters, but some had proper psychological issues and needed professional help. Watching them meltdown wasn't pretty.

And yes, subtle bullying is still going on right now, and is being carried out by those new boys who are trying to make a name for themselves. Such individuals can easily be spotted selectively flaming and hijacking individual poster's topics.

In reply to shaun l:


I think that is just a process for individuals, rather than a process over time for the whole site. There have always been plenty of thoughtful posters, and plenty of gobby posters and I predict that there always will be.

To me, the big change came when undergraduates got access to the internet, followed a couple of years later by everyone in the world and that made a big difference to conversations which up until that point had been dominated by internet geekdom.

In reply to shaun l:
So there's less posts. Maybe. I don't really know.

I think you mean fewer posts

In reply to ice.solo: <blushes> Thanks!

In reply to puppythedog: Cheers, i did eventually.

In reply to The Lemming:

Very true, thanks for the input.


Funnily enough it was yourself and mystery toad I was refering to with my mild bullying comment. Well if you ever felt like that then apologise for my past behavior, it's still quite shameful. Same too to mystery toad if you still read the forums.

In reply to ripper: Ha! Some things will never change...

In reply to shaun l: regis was last seen in dec '08..
http://www.halloweenforum.com/members/regis-von-goatlips.html

here's a blast from the past: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=236817

In reply to shaun l:


I think you might be on to something there. We've had about 10 to 15 years of forums as we know them, not long really, there's bound to be some general attitude adjustment as society comes to accept them as normal. We're all internet teenagers now.

In reply to Jonny2vests: Hi John, how's things? Have you seen Dave Havenhand's photo gallery on here? Think it was near the top of photo galleries of the week a while back. Mostly of some mountaineering trip he's been on, bastard! Makes me wish i'd stayed in a few years longer. Some of them are really good.

I think what happens when you start on the internet is you just react like you would in real life. If someone insults you or says you're talking shit you insult them back or get offended. You end up in a pointless argument with someone you've never met that can go on indefinitely with both sides trying to 'win'. Took me a while to get the picture, once you've realised that you have a different opinion and there's no more to discuss just leave it at that. Maybe some people pick it up far quicker.

In reply to Jonny2vests:

you've had.

There have been news groups etc around for longer than that (since early 80s)

But I guess there aren't many users over 20!

I was thinking how facebook will change as people start to realise how public their data is (thought as I copied and pasted a comment to forward the information on to someone who doesn't use facebook the other day. It was a useful comment, but had some swearing in and I was sending it off to someone else in a professional capacity - should I have edited it, or hidden who made the comment? It was in a pretty public area...)

In reply to shaun l:


Do you? If a stranger insults me, for no reason, I give them a look and walk away as quickly as possible!

In reply to tlm:

That's why I said 'as we know them', ie, in their current widespread accessible form. Not many households had regular internet access before 1997 / 8, fewer still used it to argue with people who were wrong on the internet.

In reply to shaun l:

I severely curtailed my posting due to the generally low intelligence and narrow-mindedness of many posters on the forum. Getting involved with the recent Ratho bolts thread confirmed that and was a pretty sour experience. HTH.

(I still value the forum for Lifts and Partners and some Rock Destination stuff.)

In reply to Fiend:

Ah, just like old times. That's the fiend I miss Hope you're enjoying Scotland mate.

In reply to shaun l:

Funny, I used to be totally hooked on UKC. Had to voluntarily ban myself (had to ask Alan to do it as I didn't have the willpower lol). Used to say some stupid things, get into pointless arguments (particularly when going through some difficult personal times). On the other hand, I like to think I did contribute something back in the day. Changed my username for some odd reason last year. Been posting for, er, around 20 years I think. Hardly post now relatively speaking, which I think is for some of the reasons you describe ie. the forum has changed (it is less entertaining now - there used to be some hilarious threads) and I think you could be right and "we" are growing up and getting used to posting without getting into pointless arguments. At its best, UKC is a great source of information - both of the passive form (articles, news, videos) and more actively (destinations and partners forums, logbooks, info for newbies etc). Long may it continue. I thought Alan took some quite awful flak earlier this year, quite manfully may I add, and am glad things seem to be moving forwards well.

In reply to shaun l: Intersting ramblings like this posted in the pub dont exactly help: why ist this off-belay so we can link it in the future. Everything in the pub is bound for the dustbin.

In reply to shaun l:
I never minded the forums. I do think that there's not much about "climbing" these days though.
People are people, on the whole a good bunch.

In reply to Offwidth: It's OK - there will be another thread like this along in a month or so.

In reply to Offwidth: It was just an elaborate thank you to ice solo really. For teaching me loads about China and calling one of my posts cool and smart - the nicest thing anyone's said to me online.