Sorting areas at a location? What would you prefer?

Our local area, Black Cliffs ( mountainproject.com/area/10…) is along both sides of a river. The areas line up, and are more or less adjacent.

As an out of towner, would it be more helpful for the areas to be listed in order, left to right, say? Currently the default is alphabetical. Thoughts?

Best, Helen

When I go to any area at the Black Cliffs, they are listed left to right. And you can change that order. I am looking at it on the app. Where do you see it in alphabetical order?

FrankPS wrote: When I go to any area at the Black Cliffs, they are listed left to right. And you can change that order. I am looking at it on the app. Where do you see it in alphabetical order?

Not the routes, Frank, the areas. The admin can change that order. They line up in a row, some are immediately adjacent. It might be easier for folks new to the area, if the order matched what's at the cliffs.

Old lady H wrote:

Not the routes, Frank, the areas. The admin can change that order. They line up in a row, some are immediately adjacent. It might be easier for folks new to the area, if the order matched what's at the cliffs.

Have you PM'ed an administrator? That would be better than a post.

FrankPS wrote:

Have you PM'ed an administrator? That would be better than a post.

Of course I did, Frank. They can do this, with some futzing. But, before that, it was agreed to ask the community. Locals aren't using MP for our local stuff, we know where the areas are, and we have our guide book in hand to try and sort the routes out (not always an easy task). But coming here for the first (perhaps only) time? It's confusing. It mostly all looks just the same. Knowing the very next stretch is literally right there, not five feet away, might be helpful. 

Thanks, sir, we're on the same page, here!

Also? If there are other places where the same sort of situation exists, it might help other smaller crags to sort this way. Knowing it is possible could help others out there too.

Best, Helen

Greg Egbert wrote: Areas are alpha and routes are left to right.

I would prefer left to right in both.

Thanks! Anyone else wanna get their two cents in? 

Best, OLH

Old lady H wrote:

Thanks! Anyone else wanna get their two cents in? 

Best, OLH

Of course it would be better to have both areas and routes left to right! 

If the areas are adjacent, and close, I’d like to know that I can walk from area N to area Y, because they are right next to each other, but area O is not anywhere near area N, and wouldn’t work for the same day. 

I agree it would be nice too. I usually have the map open as well, but locations may or not be there. In any case it would be faster to get a first idea of what is feasible if they were order according to access or something similar...

Downside is it's harder to find a specific area (say in the Red) if they're not alpha. However you could just ctrl + f it, whereas the opposite isn't true for order..

Every guidebook I’ve ever used is organized geographically. The fact that Mountain Project isn’t is an anachronism left over from the early days of the site. It took a while just for routes to get organized, IIRC. I think every canyon with crags would benefit from this kind of organization. Big question? Who does the work once the feature is implemented?
(Edit) after I posted, I realized that the map feature does some of this work. For some reason, I don’t use it much. Maybe a quicker solution for the site managers would be to improve the map interface. I’ve mentioned Rakkup before as a good example of this feature.

Victor K wrote: Every guidebook I’ve ever used is organized geographically. The fact that Mountain Project isn’t is an anachronism left over from the early days of the site. It took a while just for routes to get organized, IIRC. I think every canyon with crags would benefit from this kind of organization. Big question? Who does the work once the feature is implemented? 

I would say just like the route - you create an area, you order it (or it goes into "unordered" until someone figures it out).

It's funny how it's the elder of the forum discussing how the website works and it's FrankPS who ends up looking like he doesn't know how to use a website....

Franck Vee wrote: It's funny how it's the elder of the forum discussing how the website works and it's FrankPS who ends up looking like he doesn't know how to use a website....

Whatever fits the circumstances. In this case, ordering left to right seems to make sense.

Alphabetical is only useful to me when I already know part of a name of a crag and want to go immediately there.

But, again, the ideal is going to vary. I can image there are places where going, say, top to bottom makes better sense.

I guess I am suggesting to do the hard thing and don’t “hard wire” any one particular way to sort areas.

FrankPS wrote:

Thanks, Frank, I needed the chuckle today!

All? I checked first with our area admin. This is doable, by the area admin, but clunky, so it shouldn't be asked lightly. Basically, it involves just adding to the name which forces it to sort in the order desired. That addition is hidden. It wouldn't be a user sort, but set up for that area.

I'll go ahead with our local one, and if it works, you can chat up the admins for your own areas.

Best, Helen