UKC

nearly 20 years of UKC!!

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 tlm 05 Mar 2014
Did you realise that UKC has been around for nearly 20 years? Will there be a party? I'm not sure quite how old the forums themselves are - rocktalk was a separate thing for a while before they merged. There is a history on a tab on this page:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/general/about.html

I remember the early UKC web page - it had one of those delightful rope graphics going horizontally across the page... I wonder if there are any pictures of it in existence?
 Bob 05 Mar 2014
In reply to tlm:
Maybe check the web archive, though that's somewhat random in what snapshots it takes.

How long have the forums been going? I registered in January 2002 and have a user ID of 819 so quite early on. Looks like 1999 so took a little while to take off though Usenet was still widely in use at that time.
Post edited at 13:36
In reply to tlm:

I think we set up Rocktalk on the Rockfax site in 1998, so a while before its 20 year anniversary.

WBW has this page from Dec 1998 - http://web.archive.org/web/19981203001413/http://www.rockfax.com/
One of those buttons on the left said Rocktalk.

I remember the rope thing as well. I don't know of any archive coverage of it though. WBW only goes back to April 1999 for UKC - http://web.archive.org/web/19990429185845/http://www.ukclimbing.com/

Alan
OP tlm 05 Mar 2014
In reply to Bob:

They changed all the user registrations at one point, so no ones start date actually goes back to the beginning. Also, at the start, they didn't even have registration or profiles - we all just lumped in together.
OP tlm 05 Mar 2014
In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

I like the webpage counter! Remember those!!
 Bob 05 Mar 2014
In reply to tlm:

Ah, I remember now. At first you could just post to the forums then it started getting spammed (seems inevitable sadly) so Alan, Nick and the gang introduced registrations. There was a bit of discussion about it. I think most of us here back then were early enough to use our real names rather than some pithy pseudonym.
OP tlm 05 Mar 2014
In reply to Bob:
At first, there were no registrations.
Then there were optional registrations, but access to everything.
Then there were restrictions for those who weren't registered.
Do you have to register now? I can't quite remember!

Ah - you can read everything except down the pub, but can't reply or post if you are unregistered.
Post edited at 17:03
OP tlm 05 Mar 2014
In reply to tlm:

And there was only one, single, solitary forum - rocktalk. You HAD to stay on topic and talk about climbing and nothing else. Those were the days! Threads about how to desmell your rockboots, how to mark the middle of your rope and trip reports...
 alasdair19 05 Mar 2014
In reply to Bob:

How do I find My Id number, I'd feel cool.if I was low 4 figures! I remember checking it out in uni from 99.
 Bob 05 Mar 2014
In reply to alasdair19:

Easiest way is to hover your mouse over your username in any thread you've posted on (like this one) and your ID will appear in the browser's link popup.

To save you the immense effort, it's 6857
In reply to Bob:

I can't remember when I joined. I think it was about 2001, yet it feels much more than 13 years ago I'm no. 3548.
 Jacob Ram 05 Mar 2014
In reply to tlm:

Got me trying to remember the name of the climbing site run by Matt Heason ? back in the late 90s Climb UK ? no . 171 whoop

 Dave Garnett 05 Mar 2014
In reply to Jacob Ram:

Only 20 after me then!

 Monk 05 Mar 2014
In reply to Dave Garnett:

Can I play this game too? Not really sure how my profile Id is so low, I thought I resisted registering for quite a long time. I spent most of my time at uni reading rocktalk when I was supposed to be working!
 Dave Garnett 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Monk:
> (In reply to Dave Garnett)
>
> Can I play this game too? Not really sure how my profile Id is so low, I thought I resisted registering for quite a long time. I spent most of my time at uni reading rocktalk when I was supposed to be working!


Show off! At least you had the excuse of being a student,I was supposed to be working, even during all that poetry writing...
 ben b 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

That's odd - I seem to have registered in 2002 and yet I'm 778. Are we sure they are in order of joining?

Before UKC then mtn.co.uk was where I hung out...

b
 Doug 06 Mar 2014
In reply to ben b:
mtn.co.uk - thanks, I've been trying to remember the name, I think quite a few of us moved here 'en masse' when that site went down, or at least I recognised many names.

(N° 566)
Post edited at 06:56
 Al Evans 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Doug:

Sorry everybody, tell me again how I can find out my user number please?
 ben b 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

Look at your user profile - the address of which will be displayed in your browser including the number.

b
 ben b 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Doug:

Not sure if my rose-tinted specs are in place but there seemed to be a heck of a lot less trolling and bickering back then, perhaps it was in the days before people worked out they could behave like petulant childish pillocks with complete impunity and we were all a little more generous and polite.

Or maybe not. I could be making it all up

In hindsight I vaguely recall an almighty troll by someone called Adam on there actually.... there goes my theory!

b

 Carolyn 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Monk:

Beat you! I was also at uni, decent Internet access was probably a big factor back then.
 Carolyn 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

You're 14, so not many that can beat you
 FactorXXX 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

Sorry everybody, tell me again how I can find out my user number please?

Yours appears to be 14.

http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/profile.php?id=14
 Al Evans 06 Mar 2014
In reply to ben b:
> Look at your user profile - the address of which will be displayed in your browser including the number.

> b

I dont understand that, when I look at my user profile it just tells me when I joined (2001) and when it was updated.
Thank you all, so I'm 14, but I still don't know how you found out
Post edited at 08:09
 Dave Garnett 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:


Apparently you were a member before Alan James!
 Al Evans 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Dave Garnett:
But how do know? I've gone into my profile, even used the link above but I still can't find any numbering list?
Is it just the number at the end of the link, if so how do you all know everybody else's number?
Post edited at 08:14
 ben b 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

I suspect it depends which browser you are using....
As you are number 14 this is possibly Netscape

b
Blobb 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

Bob's initial answer is pretty clear. Follow what he says.
 Bob 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Al Evans:

If you click on a link to your profile page then look in the Browser's address bar you'll see something like: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/profile.php?id=14

It's the bit after the '?' that says id=14.

I wonder if the voluntary registrants from the early days were moved en-masse to the new system. I was certainly wasting my time (err working) on here before 2001 and given that Al's surname is early in the alphabet and before "James" and a long way before mine then they may have been migrated in alphabetical order.
 Carolyn 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Bob:

Ah, that's possible. Like Monk, I thought I'd resisted registering long past when it was possible, so it's quite possible I was assigned a number earlier.

Or maybe I was registered, but just resisted having a user profile for ages?
In reply to Bob:

I see now that I was completely wrong when I said I registered in 2001 - it was actually 29 Dec 2002.

In reply to Bob:

> I wonder if the voluntary registrants from the early days were moved en-masse to the new system. I was certainly wasting my time (err working) on here before 2001 and given that Al's surname is early in the alphabet and before "James" and a long way before mine then they may have been migrated in alphabetical order.

I can't remember how we did it but since I am 15 then I would suspect that we had more users between 'Evans' and 'James' even in those days.

There is no-one with an id number less than Al's. Next up is Alex messenger on 19 and then Adam Lincoln on 20

Maybe we could auction the spare low id numbers!

Alan
 Bob 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

It was just a guess based on (very) incomplete information Some of the lower numbers may have been test values.

Usually with databases you can't reuse table indices without moving everything around so on systems like this you just have to accept the holes.
In reply to Bob:

Why are people so bothered by their ID number, when - for various reasons stated above - the number may not reflect the exact chronological order in which users have registered? Much simpler just to go to one's profile and see the exact date one registered.
 ByEek 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Gordon Stainforth:

> Why are people so bothered by their ID number

Oh stop applying reasonable logic to irrational arguments Gordon. Surely you have been posting on UKC for long enough to figure that out?

My original profile was in the 1700's so I was quite a late-comer.
 TobyA 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

When did you start Rocktalk Al? I started using ukrec.climbing in my last years at uni in Glasgow (95/96). On holiday, summer 1995, I met this Finnish girl who I rather liked and who gave me one of these new-fangled email addresses. I, of course, lied and said I also had an email address and would 'email' her when I got back to the UK - necessitating a dash to the uni computer centre and a crash course in email/internet. So I discovered climbing on the internet almost immediately after discovering it was a cost-effective way of chatting up foreign women. But I don't think I started using the Rocktalk forum until autumn of 1999 when I was starting my phd. Is that about right? I was the first Toby because I remember changing to TobyA only after another Toby became a regular - but I'm not even sure if you had to register at the start. I'm 527 according to my profile.
 Carolyn 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

It does seem that all those low numbers have user names starting with "A", so I suspect it's alphabetical in some form or other?
 Horse 06 Mar 2014
In reply to TobyA:

I started around 2000 and didn't register.

I think registration became more or less compulsory sometime in the summer of 2001. Personally I blame Foot & Mouth, or possibly Ryan trying to wind up Al Downie.
 Offwidth 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Horse:

There is a name with memories. Mind you Mick was naughty.. often almost as bad as those who were banned.
 Bob 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Carolyn:

Well there must have been a lot of A's and you have a lower ID than me (89 vs 819) so it's probably not that.

Something lost in the mists of time, whoooo!
 Carolyn 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Bob:

You're down as registering a few months later than me, though, so perhaps you weren't in the first (alphabetical) batch for some reason?

But you're right, it's probably long lost. And not terribly important!
ceri 06 Mar 2014
In reply to tlm:

This thread makes me seem a newbie with registration date of 2003! I lurked a bit before that though. Did anyone else play "cyber-climber"? I wasted hours on that and look... http://www.cyberclimber.com/ it's still there....
 Bob 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Carolyn:

Hmm. I do remember posting with a username but being unregistered so it's possible that I waited a while before registering as there may have been doubts about how it was all going to work.
 lummox 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Bob:

Number 266- eek !
In reply to Carolyn:

If I remember correctly (and I might not) I think we had a second registration process which is where the 'Registered in...' dates came from. It is possible I think to have been registered before your 'registered from..' date. It is also possible to have been registered without you being very aware since it took us a while to make the registration actually do anything. Hence you might just have filled in an email at some time and not actually thought that you were registering but we did allocate you an ID number.

(Of course with this low-level registration we also secretly hoovered up all your personal details, address, credit cards, inside leg measurement, political party affiliations, criminal record, basically everything about your life, which we then tried to sell to the US Intelligence Agency however they said they already had it all so we just deleted it).

Alan
In reply to TobyA:

> When did you start Rocktalk Al?

Can't remember precisely. I reckon Nick Smith would be able to tell us but he isn't around much these days. My best guess is that it was in 1998. I have memories of meeting with Nick and sorting this stuff in the house we moved out of in 1999.

Alan

PS. I had to use snail mail to woo my foreign woman in the mid80s but I do still have the stack of barely post-pubescent ramblings which can't be said for my early emails!
 Carolyn 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

> (Of course with this low-level registration we also secretly hoovered up all your personal details, address, credit cards, inside leg measurement, political party affiliations, criminal record, basically everything about your life, which we then tried to sell to the US Intelligence Agency however they said they already had it all so we just deleted it).

Jolly good. They probably did, and anyhow, it's probably only my inside leg measurement that's unchanged

 Nic 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Horse:

>>>I think registration became more or less compulsory sometime in the summer of 2001

Yes, I am "registered" in June 2001, but was definitely around before then (user number 368 sah!), as I distinctly recall wasting a lot of time on here between punting dot com nonsense to credulous investors...(or more accurately, turning the business down - online dog food anyone?!)
 Carolyn 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Horse:

> I think registration became more or less compulsory sometime in the summer of 2001. Personally I blame Foot & Mouth, or possibly Ryan trying to wind up Al Downie.

That's likely about right; I was registered at the end of August 2001, and I think I was pushed into it by a deadline. I was definitely around long before that, and I think more like '96/'97. I definitely imposed an internet ban on myself whilst writing up my PhD thesis in '97, and I can't think where I'd have been wasting my time if it wasn't in some early version of UKC....
 Chris the Tall 06 Mar 2014
In reply to tlm:

Anyone remember there was also a Planet Fear forum ?

At the time it seemed to be almost as popular as this one, but they took it down for two weeks to do a system revamp and it killed it stone dead
 Wingnut 06 Mar 2014
In reply to ceri:

Oooh, I remember cyberclimber! I've clearly been on here far too long. :
In reply to tlm:

20 years!!! They had computers back then!!! Surely not.

*ducks the barrage of cams and nuts*

Steve
#56566

 Al Evans 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Wingnut:

Wow Wingnut, you are only 49 (brags now that he knows how to do it)
cb294 06 Mar 2014
In reply to I'd rather be climbing:

> 20 years!!! They had computers back then!!! Surely not.

> *ducks the barrage of cams and nuts*

> Steve

> #56566

Not only computers, but also highly futuristic communications protocols such as telnet. Aaarrrggghhh!!!

I remember the gradual introduction of NCSA mosaic during my student days. Switching to touchscreens on mobile phones doesn´t even come close in terms of altering user experience.

#88827
OP tlm 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:

> If I remember correctly (and I might not) I think we had a second registration process which is where the 'Registered in...' dates came from.

You did. We were all very sad to lose our dates and proof of how old we were...
 Duncan Bourne 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Bob:

162 me
 Duncan Bourne 06 Mar 2014
In reply to tlm:

For those who fancy a read about those heady days there is an article on here by one of its more colourful members

https://sites.google.com/site/judecalverttoulmin/
 Monk 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Carolyn:
> That's likely about right; I was registered at the end of August 2001, and I think I was pushed into it by a deadline. I was definitely around long before that, and I think more like '96/'97. I definitely imposed an internet ban on myself whilst writing up my PhD thesis in '97, and I can't think where I'd have been wasting my time if it wasn't in some early version of UKC....

That's odd. You have a lower id number than me but a later registration date. I think I first started rock talk in about 1998 but registered in 2000.
Post edited at 19:09
Kipper 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Monk:

> That's odd. You have a lower id number than me but a later registration date. I think I first started rock talk in about 1998 but registered in 2000.

I'm 'registered' in 2001 (455) but used it well before then.
 Offwidth 06 Mar 2014
In reply to Duncan Bourne:

I always though Jude's arrival ended the 'golden age' of a pure specialist climbing site and signalled the move for ratings. Sharon Stone taking on local gunslingers my arse, more like 'pop tart' frightens some backcountry locals and leads to a rather manufactured looking and very noisy identity crisis and of course draws in the crowds. Less wild west and more WWW.
 woolsack 07 Mar 2014
In reply to tlm:

It passes it's i-d test, it does look 20 years old anyway

Removed User 07 Mar 2014
In reply to tlm:

> Did you realise that UKC has been around for nearly 20 years?

That's certainly the impression one gets from the state of the website and 'forum' UI.

 Bob 07 Mar 2014
In reply to Removed User:

Care to share with us a forum UI that you think is "good"?
OP tlm 07 Mar 2014
In reply to Bob:

> Care to share with us a forum UI that you think is "good"?

That was going to be what I was going to ask!!
In reply to Alan James - Rockfax:
Looking at my archived threads, it looks like BrianT had ID=1, Al Downie was 3. Daniela was 10. I bet I could write a simple script to pull out user names and IDs...

My first post was on 31/05/01, and I wasn't registered. On that thread, there are users with larger IDs than mine, even though I didn't register until July. I wonder if the profiles were somehow retrospectively added when I saved the threads much later...

I recall registration was a hotly disputed topic, but introduced to stop spamming.

[edit] ah, the second round of registration now rings a bell...
Post edited at 13:59

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