Removal of latest posts

As one of the people who is constantly bewildered at people's negative responses to all of the positive changes being made in the climbing community lately, how does this help? As far as I can see this is just making it harder find topics of interest/importance. 

Completely agree with this

Right, this makes no sense to me. Nick himself admitted that the forums have been a great source of information and community connection. But rather than moderate the forums to keep them useful and on-topic, it seems that they're just going to be nuked into oblivion since a few people can't play nice.

Personally, this will significantly reduce my usage of the site. I stop in several times a day to take a break from work, usually just checking the Latest Posts lists to see if there's anything that interests me there. With this feature gone, I'm guessing my use of the site will drop to maybe once or twice a week to check out route information. I don't have the time (or maybe just the patience) to go through each specific forum sub-area to see if there's anything interesting there.

I would guess that forum usage drives quite a bit of traffic on the site. With the eventual removal of the forums I could see this site going the way of supertopo, fading away into obscurity and uselessness.

I hate to admit it, but this was a smart move to make it more difficult to keep the controversial topics on fire. Clever. And a good move.

FrankPSwrote: I hate to admit it, but this was a smart move to make it more difficult to keep the controversial topics on fire. Clever. And a good move.

It's not that hard to find a controversial topic, comment on it once, then get notifications for it every time somebody posts.

It is, however, harder now to find new/useful topics because people who aren't looking to stir the pot are going to have to click through each category.

Yeah, I'm sad that the latest posts feature is gone. It's way harder to find topics of interest without it.

Schuyler Baerwrote:

It's not that hard to find a controversial topic, comment on it once, then get notifications for it every time somebody posts.

It is, however, harder now to find new/useful topics because people who aren't looking to stir the pot are going to have to click through each category.

You can get the same notification once you find a useful topic.

Just like it will be harder to find a new useful topic,  it will make it harder to find a new controversial topic. I think this new move will have some deterrent effect.

I would imagine that is why Nick did this.

It's much easier to just ignore a controversial topic and not click on it, than it is to dig through all the forums and find a new useful topic.

I can't think of anything that's been done since I joined Mountain Project in 2006 that has more substantially diminished its utility and value.

Mtn Catwrote: It's much easier to just ignore a controversial topic and not click on it, than it is to dig through all the forums and find a new useful topic.

And would have been even easier if users could hide/mute topics they didn't care to see in the list ( mountainproject.com/forum/t…)

FrankPSwrote: I hate to admit it, but this was a smart move to make it more difficult to keep the controversial topics on fire. Clever. And a good move.

Looking at your post history it seems you are one of those that tossed logs on every controversial/political "fire" thread that pops up. Given that, do you think this will reduce your commenting on such topics?

Already we have duplicated topics and activity funneling into a few sub-forums.  I don't see this having much of an overall effect after a few days.

My 2c - again - C-Mac and RJ noted #1 problem with Supertopo was single users dominating the forum and making everything about themselves.  Suggest post count limitations (like 3 a day over all threads) and more active disabling of accounts obviously created only to get around that - something that eventually worked even on Eleanor.

Well, this is disappointing. I saw Nick's apology to Melissa Utomo and I saw the steps taken to flag racist route names and I allowed myself to think that maybe the site would do some needed work to make it a more inclusive place. But I'm sad to see that Nick is taking the ball and going home.

I agree with others that the "latest posts" button is the most useful way to browse the forums. And that for all the vitriol and racism spouted over the years, there are dozens of techniques I never would have learned, areas I never would have known existed, people I never would have known of, and routes I never would have climbed without clicking aimlessly through the "latest posts." It's been a great resource.

And I want to push back against Nick's conclusion that "there are now too many signs that the forum is suffering from some of the intolerance and spam that plagues other types of social media." I would argue that the intolerance, misogyny, and racism has always been on MP, just as it has in the rest of American society. It's gotten more vocal as its dominant status has been challenged in the last few months and years. To me, taking away the forums (potentially) gives the worst people the last laugh, just as the tide may have been turning.

Now, there are lots of developers out there. Who's going to build a separate "latest posts" page?

Mountain Project Forums

RIP: Circa 7/15/2020

The forums are the main reason I come here. What's left? Reddit??

A not entirely unserious proposal which probably doesn't pencil out: start a membership program where, for a small fee, members get the "latest posts" button back. Then use the revenue to hire professional moderators. 

wivanoffwrote: The forums are the main reason I come here. What's left? Reddit??

I hope not. The climbing subreddit is 90% garbage. That's why I waste all my time at work clicking the most recent posts and not refreshing Reddit.

What about giving the user the option to filter and show topics from, say, five different subforums? Nick, this move seems so backwards to me it makes me think you purposely want to ruin the forums so that you don’t have to deal with the BS

Nkane 1wrote: A not entirely unserious proposal which probably doesn't pencil out: start a membership program where, for a small fee, members get the "latest posts" button back. Then use the revenue to hire professional moderators. 

I would probably pay a small fee to get fully functioning forum use back.

Websites come and go. Forums come and go. Owners come and go. If you invest in a private website with content, emotion and discussions just remind yourselves when you do so, you are giving this content away, at the time you hit the send button. Someday, MP will disappear entirely and it could happen in a blink. Just let it go. So the guy removed the latest posts feature, so what? I'dm be far more concerned with the vigilante urge voiced here to rename other peoples' routes whether they like it or not. Using a routes database to advance social justice is the name of the game. Until the site gets sold again, then it all starts anew. You know what? Websites come and go, c'est la vie! Raise up the glass, the good king's gone.

Nkane 1wrote:
I agree with others that the "latest posts" button is the most useful way to browse the forums. And that for all the vitriol and racism spouted over the years, there are dozens of techniques I never would have learned, areas I never would have known existed, people I never would have known of, and routes I never would have climbed without clicking aimlessly through the "latest posts." It's been a great resource.

This is a fantastic way of putting it. I've always enjoyed browsing the latest posts as a way to keep up with current (climbing specific) events and topics. And in doing so I've stumbled upon very interesting threads and info that I likely wouldn't have gone to the specific forum for. I can't think of any site that fulfills a similar purpose.

I enjoyed the dumpster fire threads too, but c'mon this is an internet forum lol. You don't have to click on the shitty posts or spam and if you do then you can always go back

How attached are people to MP? I mean, I love it but, it's got some drawbacks. If there was a React based site that was truly community driven would you consider it?

Aside from the technical drawbacks, I'd like to see a site with an open API. We're the ones contributing the data, we should have access to it.