Rules of the Forum

You are actually reading this? Cripes! That can only mean it is a slow day on the forum or I just deleted your post and you are none-too-happy with me.

First and foremost, the Mountainz forum demands a greater level of politeness than the majority of forums out there. If in doubt, use the same sort of tone in your post that you would when talking to your nana and throw in a bunch of smiling and winking emoticons for extra measure.

Good Forum Vibes

  • Debates about any issue of the day.
  • Debates about a person's actions only if they only concern a person's actions (e.g., 'I don't think the west buttress should have been bolted' rather than 'Joe was a dick for bolting the west buttress’).
  • Asking and answering questions.
  • Talking about climbs, gear, conditions, techniques or anything climbing related.
  • Non-climbing discussion is okay.
  • Commercial advertising (i.e., you are welcome to promote your climbing-related business).*

    *Note that promotion of individual climbers or businesses (e.g., guiding companies) that have failed to assist people in need in the mountains and/or turned a blind eye to human rights abuses to secure climbing access or financial gain is not welcome.

Bad Forum Vibes

  • Insults, snide remarks, quoting a post and writing nothing more than "haha" or "oh dear" to mean you think the poster was being absurd. You don’t have to agree with the other person but you do have to write a constructive argument.
  • Suggesting another poster's opinion is wrong because they are less experienced than you are. This is heavily moderated; you have to explain why they are wrong.
  • Making repeated digs at another poster.
  • Criticising the actions of anyone who ended up in strife while climbing. This is heavily moderated; if you wish to educate the mountaineering community about safe and unsafe practices then write an article about decision making or improved techniques.

If your post has been deemed inappropriate, it will get partially or fully deleted or edited.

I will disable the login of anyone who makes nasty comments. This does not mean the person is banned indefinitely. The best way to get your login reactivated is to make an effort to work out why your post was deemed offensive and then engage in a mature discussion. Note that I have a job like everyone else and do not check my emails every day.

I often miss posts on the forum and I am not on the forum every day. Therefore, you are welcome to email me if you see something inappropriate that I may have missed. If you require clarification as to what is and is not appropriate, then feel free to email me. If you feel that someone is unjustly having a dig at you on the forum, it is better to email me rather than respond on the forum. As much as I am a fan of people's inappropriate public behaviour getting dealt to publicly, it is just a lot quicker and cleaner for me to delete the post.

Discussion on the forum about why person X should not have had their post deleted or why person Z should not have had their login disabled is not welcome. That is not because the moderator cannot take criticism but because such posts destroy threads and the forum in general. It takes a lot less effort for person X to work out how to reword their comment more appropriately than it does for a dozen people to jump up and down about the freedom of speech. Furthermore, when moderating a forum, there will always be some who agree with the moderator's actions and some who do not. It's not possible to please all of the people all of the time.

I know some people think pretty much anything should be allowed to be said on a forum and that it is a matter of human rights. However, in the real world (i.e., outside the forum), if someone is being rude or obnoxious then others can simply walk away and not invite them to their parties. A forum obviously cannot work this way. We cannot move to a new forum when we are unimpressed by someone else's manner. Hence, moderating is necessary and the website owners obviously get to say what sort of atmosphere the forum will have.

If anyone has a genuine question about what is considered appropriate then simply email me.

Overall, moderating the forum is a time-intensive activity. This is time that I would rather spend writing an article for Mountainz. So, please think twice before making a silly comment that could potentially take the rest of my day to sort out.

And I should end by saying that the moderator is by no means perfect. This means he has his grumpy days like everyone else and he even deletes his own posts from time to time.

Thanks, Glenn