Where does 8a.nu go? Some time ago Chris Sharma deleted the ascents in the scorecard 8a created for him. Now, Tyler Landman decided to quit updating his scorecard/logbook. http://www.moonclimbing.com/Moonblog.aspx?ID=873 And Paul Robinson was obviously told by Jens how he should enter his boulders. Comments in: http://climbingnarc.com/2008/12/video-paul-robinson-mandala-direct-assis-v14-first-ascent Sometimes I ask myself if the attention Jens' strange opinions create isn't a little bit contraproductive for 8a.nu in the long run although making big site traffic (ads...) in short term. One more question: Who is 8a.nu actually? Jens, Bjรถrn, "the webmaster" ... who else? And who decides its appearance to the community? btw: How many of the 8a.nu visitors know Bjรถrn's blog? http://bjornpohl.blogspot.com/ From my point of view it is like 8a.nu should be, i.e. less "absolute"...
naaah after all even this would make up some discussion. there is a climbing mag in italy that uses sort of the same technique. It has potential to be a sick cool trendy climbing magazine full of crazy pics and reports. Since the resources don't allow to do this every number, more often than not they trow in some bold affirmation, trying to be on the most exposed side. Then they get furious letters and publish them, and have some soap opera running for a while. And so there is something to read. myself, as long as out there vox populi is still stronger than the website editors, I am happy with it in the end, it makes for some entertaintment. Climbing scene often lives of small controversy when it rains everybody is bored and there is nothing new to talk about.
Most of the news that are published on 8a.nu are just news and you got to hand it to Jens and Bjรถrn that they are pretty good at staying updated on what is going on in the climbing world. However, every now and then an "8a statement" appears on the news page, reporting on a new "idea". In 98% of the cases this idea springs from the 8a.nu creator himself. As a former editor of the 8a yearbook I would welcome a seperate page or sheet with statements, where each statement is signed by the author and open to the whole community. This would seperate the "real" news from statements and enable also other community members to bring up ideas. I think 8a as a whole would benefit from such a development since this means that all "statements" will have an obvious origin and everybody will know who to celebrate or critisise.
Johan, thank you very much for your answer! I'd like to make some "statements" myself. 1) I really like 8a.nu! Actually, I think it is the best climbing website. 2) The reason for its popularity, at least from my point of view, aren't the "statements" and "innovations" but the the scorecards/logbooks and the news which are created from them. You have the huge advantage that many high-end climbers or "celebrities" like one you called them, enter their ascents here and you just have to write some text around it or contact them via email to get some background information. 3) If those high-end climbers feel annoyed or pissed off by the "statements" here and therefore turn away from 8a.nu (see examples in starting post) you lose that huge advantage and in the end you'll just become an ordinary climbing website like so many others which are just copying news. 4) I don't know if Jens behaves like he does just to increase traffic or if he just is like this - I can't judge... I just hope that it isn't for the traffic which would only increase the popularity in short term but not in the end. I'd rather accept that it's just the way Jens is and in that case, it would help to more strictly distinguish between "news" and "statements" and sign them like you suggested. 5) As I already mentioned in another thread a couple of weeks ago you really should take more advantage of your database (statistics, grade consensus,...) but that's another story...
Paul Robinson: "as everyone can see above i changed my original post. I talked to Jens about what we had spoken about and he and i both found it unfair how i worded our discussion. I did not mean to start any sort of internet bashing and hope that with this post and my modified first post it can all be dropped. thanks." I sign all my news with Jens. The statements like "8a give low priority" for: Chipped ascents, Solo ascents etc are the opinions based by the people who work at 8a climbing Inc.
"Climbing celebreties'" scorecards