Ice Conditions Reporting Forum

[Joe]

I would like your input on how we should report ice conditions. As you know, I have been posting your emails reporting ice conditions on my web site for the last several years. This is rather a cumbersome process, and extra work for me, so I don't mind a change. I also see overlap with reports on this forum. Fred (and everyone else), what do you think of a separate discussion forum on ice conditions on this website? A forum would allow much faster conditions updates for everyone. But I have a few concerns. I assume photos can be uploaded to a forum, but is it difficult? And can the website handle many photos? Also, I feel a historic record of past years conditions and photos is useful, and I would like to keep the files for each year. So could all postings be saved in a file? I would also prefer the information to be mainly factual, with minimal "opinion" threads. Those can be kept here. The intent of the forum would be to pass along information on conditions and new routes. I would keep my website (for now) for the ice guide and past condition reports, and all current conditions would be reported in this new forum. Does this sound feasible? If not, I can continue to report the conditions as usual.

Thanks, Joe Kennedy.

[martha]

Sounds like a great Idea joe. we could just post the specific Date and location in the subject line and post the information accordingly.

[Fred]

I think we should keep the ice reports on your site Joe. I think people have just been posting here because it's automatic and someone can plan an outing on sunday bassed on peoples' reports on saturday.

I plan to still send you ice reports. I didn't send you one this weekend because I figured Stef had already covered it. Did he send you a report?

I also like having the saved information in chronological order because I often go back to your site to check out reports and photos. I don't think we should change that. I think people should send you full detailed reports and then comment on this forum if they want to.

cheers

[Stef]

I'll vote for putting ice conditions here, especially if Joe is finding it a pain. Those geocities site are a bit of a drag to update. We could post new routes, access changes, the guide etc.. on Joe's site, but post up-to-date ice conditions here.

Current condition are really only an issue this time of year. By mid-winter it doesn't really matter so much, but it is still fun to read what people have been up to on the weekends. I deliberately posted here on Saturday night about Parllee, so that people could decide if they wanted to go Sunday morning.

Cheers,

Stef

[Fred]

I agree that it is much easier to do here because it is instantaneous but I don't want to take away from Joe's site. It's up to you guys as a community to make the call.

The posts will all be mixed matched in here with comments in between the actual posts instead of a nice chronological report. Another thing to keep in mind is that you won't have photos unless you own your own space somewhere. That is, you can't upload photos to this forum but you can link them from another place on the www.

or... all those in favor of adding a photo album to this website say "I"

[martha]

We could have people PM their updates to one of the mods to then post onto a thread that is for viewing only. that is...a thread just for conditions. then all the discussion can take place in another thread.

I do think that if we do this though that a whole new room called 'ice climbing' should be created.

i'm in favor.

[mathieu]

I will repeat here for the sake of keeping threads on point.

I like the idea of having a conditions page here. Fred's point about having the thread go tits up from sidetracking is valid but the read only idea from miss Steward defeats the instantaneous aspect of it. Here (rockies) there seems to be the instant message board thing (http://www.live-the-vision.com/cms) and the email to one person (Will Gadd's site) but that is because there is soooo much ice here. It seems to work as follows. Everyday climb (read below grade 4+) = post on the message board. Anything harder than 5 look up Will Gadd's site.

[Shawn B]

If you are going to do this, here are my suggestions if you care...
1. Must be able to post photos.
2. Be instantaneous. PMing and having someone post their report is no different than done in the past years. Ice conditions if they don't get posted 'til Monday about the weekend are pretty useless as it could be totally different by the following weekend.
3. Do not allow replying to condition reports. This will prevent a dozen posts, replies and discussion on reports...which will lead to clear and easy to read reports rather than being lost in a back and forth discussion. If someone else wishes to post on the same spot the same day, they do it under a different topic. This will also result in a "cleaner" conditions page in that every single person won't need to post unless someone else hasn't already...or if they found conditions differently. This may also keep things in a chronological order by not bringing an old post back to the front by having someone reply a few weeks later.
4. "Just the facts please". Information pertinent to conditions only. Otherwise, move the post over to a different discussion section where the topic can be beat to death and everyone else can comment, criticize or make fun as they see fit.
5. Have different sub-sections to the ice conditions forum (ie. Parlee, Waterfall Wall, Ministers Face, etc.) so that all you have to do under the subject line is post the date and then conditions. Also easier for someone to find conditions for a specific location rather than sift through other posts about conditions somewhere that they were not intending on going.
6. Do like Joe does and have a main face page that lists "in" or "out" for all major areas and update it each Friday from the most recent posts.

Check out the ice conditions page on neclimbs.com or chauvinguides.com. This is for New England and is pretty good, simple and easy to read. If there are more detailed questions about conditions, they use the forum.

[martha]

in response to SHawns points..

1. if you don't have personal space on the www for photo posting, you won't be able to post photos as this forum doesn't currently have the ability to do so. However, you could mail them to me, and I could post them on our www space for you. (would do so as soon as I could- likely within 12 hours)

2-3.to have it instantaneous, then people can always reply to the posts. the only way to not allow replies is to make it a thread that only moderators can post to. thus why I suggested the emailing/PMing to a Mod. But I agree... it needs to be kept seperate from the usual banter

4. agreed. just the facts. discussions can take place in another thread.

5. If there is a room for 'ice climbing' then the threads (subsections) for each area can be maintained by a moderator, but I am unsure if this forum allows subsections without a lot of extra work on Freds part.

6. this main page is very useful, but again puts more work in Freds hands. Which is likely okay right now, but I don't know how much forum time we'll have come Feb 1st for a few weeks anyways. Sorry, but that is life. Unless someone else wants mod. abilities for the Ice climbing room should we move forward.

[Fred]

Joe,

do you not want to continue to post reports on your website? I think this is still the best way to keep reports and history in order. Perhaps we can work out an automated system together for your website.

[Fred]

you will notice that I started a new LOCKED thread for ice conditions. This is only a sample. I've thought of different ways to automate this without making numerous rooms for discussion. I think the only way to keep the info clean is simply have moderators copy and past relevant posts into the locked thread in chronological order. Any kind of automated system will have back and forth posts etc. Thus, why creat a seperate room somewhere else to do the exact same thing.

I duno... Just an idea.

[Joe]

I like the looks of the Ice Conditions "sticky". If this can work smoothly, I'm OK with it. An automated, instantaneous posting would be the best. But I'm not opposed to your 11:06pm email - I don't mind continuing my current conditions page. I could cut and paste the important stuff, and post any emails and photos I receive. A little overlap between the discussion forum and my site is likely a good thing. Maybe, for now, this is the easiest. And I have lots of space on my site for photos, but it is easier if the photos are compressed to less than 300kb. Sound good? Joe.

[Shawn B]

Yes sticky does look good. My vote if Joe is willing is to have him continue with the "official" conditions page with photos, consistent content, chronological order, etc and people use the forum for instant gratification if something should be posted that would be of assistance to others in the short term until it can be posted to Joe's site. Maybe Fred can look into something more in depth for another season. It would be nice to have instant reporting with photos yet not having it so back and forth banter will override the actual conditions.

[Fred]

I agree. I think Joe's site should still be home to all of the history and official ice reports. By all means cut and paste at will from this forum and keep your site updated Joe. Don't worry about copying names and info. It's all public information.

I'll try to keep updating the sticky thread by just keeping my eye on what people are posting. Between Cara and myself, who check the forum every day or more, we should be able to keep the information current. With moderator priviledges it's as easy as loging in and editing the post so it can be done from anywhere with internet access. It's quite easy.

cheers

[Joe]

Yep, sounds good to me...I'll update my site usually each Monday.