UKC

Björn Pohl is the Editor of the brand new LowDown on UKClimbing.com. The LowDown is a sister news page to our main news page and will cover international bouldering and sport climbing news.

Also on this page is a new automated feature that highlights the top ascents that have been logged in the UKC Logbooks - giving you an insight in to what UKC users have been ticking in the last few days...

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=55109

In reply to UKC News: Great addition to the team. Been following Bjorns Lowdown Blog for some time now, a tidy, sensible and reliable source of up to date information. Welcome

In reply to UKC News:

Surprising and excellent news! The news coverage on Björn's blog is superb so I look forward to more of the same on here.

In reply to UKC News: Great news, i've felt the site has been desparate for more news stories for ages now.

In reply to UKC News:

Great addition to the site - nice one!

In reply to UKC News:

This is great news!

In reply to UKC News:

I wish I could see the look on Jens face right now!

Is this UKC going for world climbing media domination?

In reply to UKC News:

so this is UKC's new ' what was on 8a.nu two days ago' page.

dont get me wrong anything that means i dont have to go to 8a.nu is good... but this is just a ridiculous attempt to copy them. i think the news items are even in the same order as they appear at 8a.nu.... sillyness

In reply to mark_wellin: Oh, the irony...

In reply to Peter Walker:

dont get the irony? is it like the irony that alanis morresette talks about?

In reply to mark_wellin: I think most people are of the opinion that (in terms of featured news stories) that it's 8a.nu copying The Low Down, not vice versa. Certainly Bjorn beats the hell out of Jens when it comes to journalistic standards.

In reply to Peter Walker:

ah right,

i agree with that, its not really journalism tho, just very quick updates of news/ hard routes done.

but i stand by what i said, why read on ukc what was on 8a a few days earlier, and the this guys blog earlier still!?

at least they cite references

In reply to mark_wellin:

The page looks good and to be honest the rockfax boys have a knack for coming up with ideas/ modifying ideas/ stealing ideas which ultimately make climbing media (and perhaps even guidebooks) better. It's all in one place and it's well set out. Tis bon

Plus I like giving Alan James Money, Don't you? I remember seeing Herr Craggs crying at the side of the road once (near Stoney), because Alan had chucked him out of the Rockfax Limo. They're only human and some of them are quite friendly.

In reply to Franco C:

im poor i dont like giving anyone money.
poverty makes the middle classes grumpy

it does look nice, and on the survey i asked for more up to date news, especially sport and bouldering. did they do this for me?

We are very pleased to welcome Björn to UKC. His been reporting on international sport climbing and bouldering news has been setting the standard that we all need to follow so being able to make him part of the UKC team is brilliant.

Björn will not be keeping his blog anymore but his reporting for UKC will be in the same style and at the same frequency.

Alan

In reply to Franco C:

I can't remember you ever giving me any money Franco.

Alan

In reply to Alan James - UKC:

In that case, could you consider changing the style of the low down page so it's not so cluttered? Just a simple blog-style newest at the top, oldest at the bottom. Ditch the links to the logbook, and ditch the bit with all the other ukc news on - we get that on the front page anyway.

Anyway, enough negativity, good to see more Euro news on the site, it's always been a damn good blog.

I really like (liked?) the LowDown blog and it's great to see Bjorn Pohl receive well-deserved recognition. However, I really DISLIKE the UKC site's layout and format. I find it hard to navigate and visually unappealing. One reason I went to Pohl's blog was because of its clean visual and quick navigation.

I'll try it here for a while, but ironically (given its newly elevated prominence) will likely read it less.

In reply to Franco C:

Got that funny taste in your mouth again?

In reply to keu:

I have to agree with previous comments about the layout. whilst a great addition to the site this page would benefit from a simplified appearance.. the page in general is too cluttered and as mentioned visually unappealing.

In reply to Dan_Carroll:

Also agree with the comments about layout. Bjorn's blog layout was nicely clean and simple, UKC's general layout is cluttered by comparison. Probably something I should have put in the survey thing.

In reply to IainAM: Another mark for poor layout....

In reply to Tom_Harding:

I agree with the design and layout being poor. Please don't spoil a great blog . Although UKC is a great site content wise the design and a layout are pretty poor. I'm a web designer so say this with some merit.

cheers.... matt

In reply to UKC News:
This is good news. I have to agree as well about the bad layout. I just went on there and it is pretty confusing.

In reply to UKC News: I hope that Björn keeps his style of reporting to pure bouldering/sportclimbing/etc. I'm a bit worried that all the sad idiots on this forum who likes to type "what has he ever done on grit?" and "it's not really an onsight if the draws are pre-hung" will ruin this perfect blog.

quote: "I discovered climbing through skiing roughly 20 years ago and I've found myself focusing on increasingly smaller objects ever since. The mountains turned into sport crags, which turned into boulders. If this continues, twenty years from now I'll be into gravel..."


excellent




lost.

In reply to keu:


Another agreement here, ftiw.

In reply to 220bpm: This is great news and perfect match for the UKC team. I am however apt to agree with the folks who think the layout, at least for Bjorn's area, should be different somehow. Bjorn has basically built a solid, cutting edge brand, one that doesn't necessarily fit whole-hog when moved to the UKC format. Sure, the content will presumably be the same and updated as frequently, but it seems like something rather substantial has been lost. Somehow Bjorn-at-UKC needs a bit more distinction. All this is meant constructively and so I hope I don't raise anyone's ire. Bottomline: good news for climbing news. Congratulations and keep up the good work.

In reply to Peter Walker:

That's absolutely spot on. As far as I can see, 8a.nu consistently rip off The Lowdown for their news stories but refuse to quote Bjorn as the source. Typically shoddy journalism from that chap Jens.

Hopefully joining forces with ukc will give Bjorn the audience his work deserves. Best of luck.

In reply to UKC News:
I don't get it, why all the other UKC news cluttering up the page? Well, perhaps I do in that presumably its driving traffic from that page which may be attracting a new/different audience to the rest of UKC. But surely something smaller and more discrete could be used to do this?

In reply to 220bpm: Add me to this list. I've been enjoying Bjorn's blog through my "google reader" account, and now I can't seem to do that. It seems I have to subscribe to all of UKC News, or wade through the cluttered UKC website. One of the reasons I enjoyed Bjorn's blog so much, as opposed to say 8a.nu, was the clean, minimalist format. (The main reason of course was to get first-hand, unbiased, non-incendiary information with sources!)

Anyway, I will keep reading, but I hope that an RSS feed to The LowDown can be added or something. Keep up the great work Bjorn!

In response to some of the feedback, we have modified Bjorn's LowDown page to be more like a blog-style.

the LowDown - http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/thelowdown.html

The latest posts are all in chronological order down the left-hand side and the link at the bottom takes you to older archived months.

June 2010 - http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/thelowdown_older.html?month=06&year=2010

These archive pages are no longer mixed with the UKC News items.

For those who want all the news from Bjorn and UKC, there is a single archive page for that as well.

June 2010 - http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/older.html?month=06&year=2010

Thanks for the comments and feedback.

Alan