Supertopo no more

Topic Author's Original Post - May 17, 2019 - 10:00am PT
Hi Forum,

It is with a sad heart that I announce that normal operation of the SuperTopo Climber's Forum will cease June 1st.

The Forum has been an amazing digital campfire, with more than 2 million posts over the last 18 years. It has reconnected many climbers with old friends and helped many climbers make new friends. And, there have been many amazing and compelling posts on the site, especially those on climbing-related topics, that have been enjoyed by millions of people.

I have received a ton from this community and feel lucky to have been a part of it. I’ve met a lot of my heroes on this forum and made many great connections. I give warmest thanks to you all. The forum was a big wild experiment with many highs and lows. But mostly highs. Here are some of the things I found the most meaningful on the SuperTopo Forum
 The memorial tributes
 Help with supporting bolt replacement and access issues. This forum helped the ASCA get to 15,000 plus replaced bolts
 The help to create SuperTopo books
 The historical threads
 Reconnecting friends
 Helping collaborate on documentaries and books
 Event threads to support non-profits and members
 El Cap report
 The events that were created and photos and reports that followed

I also want to give a big shout out to RJ who created the forum and kept it running. RJ has been my business partner and a best friend for nearly 2 decades. He has been a big inspiration for me and a co-creator in so many great projects and adventures.

As I noted last week, the SuperTopo Climber's Forum has never been a profitable business venture. It costs us a significant amount of time and money each year to operate the Forum, and we have done so as a service for the climbing community for 18 years. But, the prospect of having to bear increased potential costs in the future, both in time and legal costs, due to litigation related to inappropriate posts by a minority of forum members has changed the math. I am sorry to say this, but we no longer feel we can justify continued operation of the Forum.

I appreciate all the great many posts on climbing related topics that have been made here.

I encourage you to copy and paste any of your content you'd like to save before June 1st.

Starting June 1st, the text of past Forum posts will remain available as an archive. Regrettably, images will no longer be displayed for Forum posts. Trip Reports and Route Beta will remain displaying as they do today with both images and text.

You can continue to post using your existing accounts for the next few weeks, but effective June 1st, the site will strictly become a read-only archive.

Thank you all for making this Forum something special over the last 18 years. Like many of you, I am sad to see it go.

Sincerely,

Chris McNamara
Founder
SuperTopo

Bummer. The trolls tore down the bridge.

How many of these Supertopo threads are there now? Sheesh.

I think this is the fourth thread on this

Ryan Pfleger wrote: Bummer. The trolls tore down the bridge.

Right.

What kind of forum post has led to a lawsuit?

Ryan Pfleger wrote: Bummer. The trolls tore down the bridge.

Nope. Lazy moderation did. 

Hi Jim,

Thank so much for the notification on the forum.  That's sad indeed as there are those who passed that still lived through the posts..it was like there still had some life there. Can you recommend where a post for outreach for support on recovering a lost phone on Cathedral Peak, Yosemite, might get some exposure(pardon the pun ;) )?  My email address is giettat@icloud.com. This is what I'm trying to get out to climbers in the area or who might be headed that way..

"On Saturday, September 14, 2019 my son was taking the summit shots and dropped his phone.  Ugh!  I am offering a SUBSTANTIAL cash reward for anyone who finds it.. it went left (climbers’ right) of the ledge below the summit block) My plan is to scramble up the mountaineer’s route and rap down and hunt for it.  The trajectory couldn’t have taken it too far as it fell, hit the landing, then went to it’s now resting place. It’s a Samsung S10 but that is not the reason for the commitment to find it . Precious memories and my son’s first Alpine lead with his mamma in tow.  He did such a stellar job and his climb is documented on the SIM card. It was my first time on that rock in 13 years, which is when it was my first Alpine Climb..so A LOT of emotion behind the climb.   I would love to share the TR once the phone is recovered. I was able to capture a summit shot but the rest was lost until I can get back there.  IF YOU FEEL SO INCLINED, I will reward you for the return of the phone. You can email me at giettat@icloud.com,if you’d like more details!  Thanks everyone!  Wish me luck, as I’m pretty stubborn! JenTil, AKA JenRen"