In reply to tomrainbow:
Hi Tom
I received your email about the routes but was waiting until Mark got back to me and he has been away. We have now discussed it.
For the route Whizz Bang Kissy Kissy (7b+) my understanding is that 7b+ is the grade given in the latest guidebook and by yourself when you contributed it to UKC Logbook. It doesn't appear to have ever had a different grade that I can see. Maybe we should wait for a few more ascents before changing it.
For the route Gene Parmesan (7b) - it could be a simple typo since it does appear that it was 7b+ when uploaded, and in the local guide. I will get this changed back and do a minor update (which we need to do for the route line mistake mentioned elsewhere).
As regards why we lock the grades when the route is added to Rockfax Digital - this is for data management. Rockfax Digital is a second database to UKC Logbook and it needs to be the 'source of truth' once a route is documented there.
That doesn't mean that we can't change grades, which is why the report discrepancy system is there. Where a consensus is overwhelming, we can alter the UKC Logbook version and the master Rockfax version without directly updating the public version on Rockfax Digital, however we do need to be able to keep track of the changes so that they eventually make it through to the public version.
Our general rule though for 'overwhelming consensus' is that a route needs at least 10 votes, preferably 20 or more, and it needs to be 2/3 for an upgrade but probably only just above 1/2 for a downgrade. This is due to people being more likely to vote for upgrades. It isn't an exact science though and we try to avoid making unnecessary grade changes.
Alan