Climbing physics/engineering sub-forum?

There's been a lot of friction lately about discussions on the physics of climbing. Could we get a climbing physics/engineering subforum? This might help the people who are not interested in these discussions to stop clicking on them.

I wholeheartedly support this. "Physics"/fall factor/anchor/kN/sliding-x/PAS idiocy is what made RC.com the shittiest climbing site on the web 10-15 years ago. This place was mostly a respite from that noise for years before certain posters who post on every freakin thread found this place and began spouting their drivel multiple times a day

There is an unfortunately low correlation between the forum a topic appears in and the willingness of folks to select themselves out from a topic they aren't actually interested in.  I think this is a crappy by-product of how we show ALL recent topics on the home page and "Latest" page, which doesn't distinguish forum category at all.

Nick Wilder wrote: There is an unfortunately low correlation between the forum a topic appears in and the willingness of folks to select themselves out from a topic they aren't actually interested in.  I think this is a crappy by-product of how we show ALL recent topics on the home page and "Latest" page, which doesn't distinguish forum category at all.

That's true--perhaps some checkboxes for subscribing to different forums would help with this? There's already the ability to show/hide "For sale" posts.

Having a separate forum at least legitimizes these conversations a bit--if someone tries to say we shouldn't be talking about physics/engineering/whatever, we can just say, "This was posted in the physics/engineering forum" and avoid the philosophical discussion about what climbing should be about.

David Kerkeslager wrote:

That's true--perhaps some checkboxes for subscribing to different forums would help with this? There's already the ability to show/hide "For sale" posts.

Having a separate forum at least legitimizes these conversations a bit--if someone tries to say we shouldn't be talking about physics/engineering/whatever, we can just say, "This was posted in the physics/engineering forum" and avoid the philosophical discussion about what climbing should be about.

I was a physicist and then a bioengineer before this whole internet thing.  If someone says we shouldn't talk physics, flag the post and I'll nuke em!   

Nick Wilder wrote: There is an unfortunately low correlation between the forum a topic appears in and the willingness of folks to select themselves out from a topic they aren't actually interested in.  I think this is a crappy by-product of how we show ALL recent topics on the home page and "Latest" page, which doesn't distinguish forum category at all.

Yeah, except when starting a new thread, I don't ever go to various forums, since all new topics appear on the Latest Forum Posts page. And I don't know anybody who does it otherwise. Unless there is an option of "unclicking" certain subforums (I don't need to see partner requests for Vermont or Nevada, and wish I could unclick those, for example), creating more sub-forums is a waste of time. 

Having a tag in the subject line in front of the topic would help, I think. For example, "[Beginners]", "[Sport Climbing]", "[Women]".  That way if a novice asks for a millionth time about a PAS, people don't jump on them, or traddies don't get offended by lowering off the anchors questions or men don't try explaining advantages of different funnel systems. Ok, maybe not the latter - men will always be the first to chime in first on ladies' subjects.

doligo wrote: Having a tag in the subject line in front of the topic would help, I think. For example, "[Beginners]", "[Sport Climbing]", "[Women]".  That way if a novice asks for a millionth time about a PAS, people don't jump on them, or traddies don't get offended by lowering off the anchors questions or men don't try explaining advantages of different funnel systems. Ok, maybe not the latter - men will always be the first to chime in first on ladies' subjects.

The "tag" is already there. When you click on the Latest Forum posts right next to each post title is the name of the subforum it came from. The ability to "unclick" certain subforums is different, IMO. because it just not shows up on your list of latest forum posts. Sure, I can see that the partner request for this coming weekend is posted in NorthEastern regional forum, so I don't need to click on it to find out. But it still shows up on my list of "the latest", so because I see that post, I might not see a new post on the subject I am interested in, until i go to page 2, or 3. So it's not so much about being able to tell which subforum the thread comes from, at a glance, but rather just not looking at stuff you don't want to see in the first place.

And LOL on the last part! 

Lena chita wrote:

The "tag" is already there. When you click on the Latest Forum posts right next to each post title is the name of the subforum it came from. The ability to "unclick" certain subforums is different, IMO. because it just not shows up on your list of latest forum posts. Sure, I can see that the partner request for this coming weekend is posted in NorthEastern regional forum, so I don't need to click on it to find out. But it still shows up on my list of "the latest", so because I see that post, I might not see a new post on the subject I am interested in, until i go to page 2, or 3. So it's not so much about being able to tell which subforum the thread comes from, at a glance, but rather just not looking at stuff you don't want to see in the first place.

And LOL on the last part! 

The subforums aren't displayed on the homepage, though.

Maybe just a toggle for grown up conversation that filters infantile banter. A filter for people that should’ve just googled. A filter for words preceded by the pound sign. 

Nick Wilder wrote:

I was a physicist and then a bioengineer before this whole internet thing.  If someone says we shouldn't talk physics, flag the post and I'll nuke em!   

You didn't notice this gem by our eminent Harumpfster, Nick?  But I do see how the minutia needed to correct a technical misconception is irritating to many...I don't have a good solution though other than to opt myself out to avoid the vitriol.  But sometimes i am seduced by the darkside when procrastinating on my day job, which happens to be technical....and I regret it every.single.time.

Nick Wilder wrote:

I was a physicist and then a bioengineer before this whole internet thing.  If someone says we shouldn't talk physics, flag the post and I'll nuke em!   

Okay, this is one of the most charming replies I've ever seen on here, from the one guy who can make this statement! 

Best to ya, sir! Helen

It won't work.  Most of the physics items come up as a consequence of issues under discussion that are not physics,  Whaddya gonna do, ban references to technical matters from all threads not in the climbing physics subforum?

The kinds of things that would properly find themselves in a subforum aren't really under discussion at all now, things such as the different mathematical models for ropes, where it is clear from the outset that the primary ingredient is scientific.

As for the vitriol, it's a feature of internet behavior and isn't going away.  Haters are gonna hate; see the "Physics/fall factor/anchor/kN/sliding-x/PAS idiocy" scattershot above, already acquiring a lovely complement of thumb-uppers.  [Edit: now deleted.] You either hold your discussion with the background noise blaring or you give up on the topic at hand. Either way, life goes on.

Nick Wilder wrote:

I was a physicist and then a bioengineer before this whole internet thing.  If someone says we shouldn't talk physics, flag the post and I'll nuke em!   

I'm all with you Nick.. I did a stent as a physicist as well... if there is a place to talk Forces, Vectors, conservation of momentum I'm all for it...  So, This thread looks good enough to me! Let's start...I used to have fun adding friction slab climbing to my lesson plans whenever the Prof was out of town and I took over his lectures... So Nick is there anyway we could add a chalk board to the sub-forum? getting dry-erase marker on ones sleeve doesn't have the same ring to it.

Don't think we need it IMHO. Climbing forum physics gets plagued by bad assumptions and overconfidence, I don't think there would be a enough quality posts to justify a separate sub-forum.

Them fitting into the general and gear forums seems to work fine enough.

Edit: That said, I'd probably use it! The fracturing of the forum into many sub forums may not have any effect on the average user if they just browse the latest feed like me.

It would probably be easier to just start /r/ClimbingPhysics ;)  Better interface too - no random interleaving of replies going off on tangents and replies trying to get back on topic.