Popular climbs do often get down graded

By looking at the 8a data base, we can see that it is often the climbs that are most repeated that sooner or later get down graded or are subject of. The dilemma for the media is that sometimes it is quite obvious that a route, often making headlines, should be reported with a lower more honest grade. In practice it is often like in the Emperor's new clothes. It just takes one guy shouting out a personal grade for a popular climb. The best example from the 8a data base is Gabri Moroni's comment for Mind Control in Oliana. "Everybody knows it's only 8c...but nobody will ever downgrade it :-P" In other words, it is actually seldom consensus that confirm or change the grade, because few climbers like to give personal grades. You can also use the success rate including the time and effort used as an indicator for how hard a climb is.