"Latest Posts" page and "Recent Posts" removed from home page

I have removed the "Latest Posts in All Forums" page and removed "Recent Posts" from the MP home page.  Forums still exist (for now), but only for those who want to browse topics to find something that interests them.

MP has had impressive growth for 15 years now, and recently the Forum has grown faster than the route database.  There's a ton of good in the forums: returned gear, shared campsites, untold amounts of beta, lifelong friends & partners, and even a few marriages got started in these forums. But 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. MP will be focusing on providing tools and information about climbing routes.

Wow, sorry to hear that... Things have been pretty heated around here, but in spite of all the vitriol, I'm gonna miss this place.

Sorry to hear- that is the only way I browse *any* forums I use. Having a quick way to see what is new is super useful.

I'd assume the forums help grow the other content. The forums are why I have an account, and then it was easy to add routes/photos/etc. I probably wouldn't have bothered creating an account just for the latter, and wouldn't have dropped in regularly enough to see things I could improve.

There are questions in subforums I've been able to answer or help with that I would not have browsed to and only saw because they were in the "latest" view.

Hope this decision gets you to where you want the site to be. And hope that is a site I'll be interested in as well.

I think people are pent up and bored from these last few months.  The forums have given me vast amounts of useful information as well as entertainment, be incredibly sad to see it go.

I have learned a lot from the forums too.
Hi Nick, maybe you could move the "Latest Posts in All Forums" inside the Forum tab?
Just an idea.

I’d say that I’m a pretty passive user of the forum. I understand these changes as a means to refocus the forum as a place for people to ACTIVELY look for information they need, which is a good thing. I think it will encourage people who want to learn to actually look for the information themselves rather than creating yet another redundant thread where FrankPS can once again post his search results for them.

However, I have gained a wealth of knowledge, had some laughs, and new perspectives from stumbling across threads in the “Latest Posts” section. My life isn’t going to change much with their removal, but I anticipate I won’t be using the site as much anymore. Of course, I will still use the database and forums to do research, but I don’t see myself logging on to browse what people are talking about because it’s now a lot more inconvenient.

Edit: on the other hand, as someone else has pointed out, it could also make the forum categories more useful and accurate. 

Thanks for your replies to my email, Nick, and unlocking this thread. You have my opinions otherwise. Welcoming contributions but not contributors? Good luck with that.

Best wishes to you anyway, whatever the hell it is you're up to. Hopefully, some time off and climbing.

You're fortunate to live in a big climbing community. Many of us don't have that. For myself, this is a big part of not just community, but is my family now, sappy as that sounds.

But, whatever, eh? It's your site, not ours.

We are only the source of content. Or were. Super sad.

H.

Nick,
This is really unfortunate and a major obstacle to a user-friendly experience. I am not sure I understand the rationale except to fend off further accusations of being a haven for racism sexism etc. MP is going to wither if it stays confined to information about climbing routes.

I'm really curious to see your next knee jerk reaction, MP! 

Wow that sucks! 

It’s that damn Ron Anderson!

Another thumbs down to this change from me... I hope you see the changes you’re targeting

This is terrible. There's no undesirable user behavior that this corrects for, you're just making it hard for people who want to stay up to date. It makes sense to stop featuring forum posts on the homepage to focus on routes but that has no bearing on removing a core feature of the forum as long as it exists. Longer term just split off the forum to its own product/site and add better tools for reputation, moderation, spam filtering, etc.

This is a huge bummer. I greatly value the route and area info provided by this site and I will continue to rely on and be thankful for that. However, I also value the entertainment and information provided in the forums. Making the forums more difficult to navigate as a way of filtering out negative content seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

I was rooting for you Nick after you retook control of MP.  Even with the controversy surrounding flagging discriminatory route names and intellectual property, I was holding out that there'd been a misunderstanding and not all the information had been released yet.  I found some solace in your response to those allegations.

However, this seems to me to be a tuck-tail-and-hide response.  Yes, there have been some divisive threads on the forum in recent weeks, but I say that is a good thing.  I'd bet the forum hadn't seen that much traffic since Alex Hansoloed, or Tommy C did that thing - also plainly, a good thing. The country is going through a turbulent time.  Why should we be disappointed or even surprised when an online forum reflects the contemporary social discourse, regardless of whether that discourse directly affects the users of the comparatively smaller forum (it does by the way)?  While I was disappointed by some of the responses in those threads, I appreciate the fact that I now know those opinions do exist within a community that I newly considered myself to be a part of.  Maybe the climbing community is not as inclusive as was originally advertised, but that is certainly good to know!  By simply removing access and visibility of such forums, you are in essence sweeping those conversations under the rug.  While I understand there are other venues for such discourse if one were so inclined, I don't believe that is reason enough to push those conversations away entirely.

Severely disappointed in this decision, Nick.  The climbing "community" exists beyond discussions of which carabiner/belay device is supreme, or simply route-finding beta, but apparently meaningful discourse is not appreciated 'round these parts anymore.

Nice knowing you all.  Special shoutout to rgold, glowering, csproul, Mark Hudon, and any other users I can't remember off the top of my head upon whose posts I stumbled upon and  learned some new tricks.  This beers for you!

Another vote against removing this feature. Last week I canceled a trip to the Fins because I clicked the latest posts button, saw a thread about fire in the fins, and read it. I doubt I would have thought to check the Idaho sub forum without provocation.

The forums have been a valuable source for sharing climbing news. Without the latest post feature, that will no longer be the case. 

MP wanted to be big
Got big
too big for its britches

Don't try to be big
dont chase that dollar

Creed Archibald wrote: Another vote against removing this feature. Last week I canceled a trip to the Fins because I clicked the latest posts button, saw a thread about fire in the fins, and read it. I doubt I would have thought to check the Idaho sub forum without provocation.

Is it possible that now you will be more deliberative about looking through the Idaho forums before heading to Idaho? 

Prob won't frequent it as much since its to much work to look at active topics :\ back to reddit it is

I've learnt a lot from the forums, it'd be a pity to see them go. The forums are the only reason I use MP.