Fair Head Bouldering Guide

[Stephen McMullan]

New Facebook page for Fair Head Bouldering: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fairhead-Bouldering-Guide/185295581595779

[Dave Flanagan]

Great stuff. Who started it? Rob Hunter?

[Stephen McMullan]

Looks like the Hunters and co all right.

[Barry]

Throw this in the mix too...

Ireland is now getting set up on 27crags

http://27crags.com/countries/ireland

Go contribute!

[Stephen McMullan]

I'm in two minds about 27crags to be honest Barry. I'd much rather see this info on an Irish site even if its not the ShortSpan. Maybe that's a quaint attitude these days but there ya go. It wouldn't take 27crags much to go the way of Rockfax or Supertopo and you'll have mini-guides for sale for a few bucks. Check the T&Cs:

By uploading Content, for example pictures or text, on the site, the User grants 27 Crags the right to use, present, copy and forward the Content for further use in connection with the 27 Crags Internet site free of charge and for an unlimited period of time. The User also grants 27 Crags the right to edit, develop, translate and use Content, and to publish their full name with the Content created on the site.

Now if folks are cool with that then grand. Just so ye know. If there were miniguides to be developed and sold then I'd prefer the dosh to go to some Irish based lad or lass. Maybe they won't publish guides but perhaps they sell advertising off the site so the same argument applies. I'd argue that this would erode the ability of a local to do same.

Of course it needs someone local to actually get off their ass and do something but as we can see the Hunters have.

Just my biased opinionated 2 cents as usual 

S

[Edit: I probably meant Coronn rather than Supertopo but you get my point?]

[Barry]

It's not a quaint attitude and this may be the case (i.e. going teh way of Rockfax). However, sites like 27crags do offer a lot of enhanced functionality which aren't offered elsewhere and I suppose that's the carrot.   

[Stephen McMullan]

Completely understood. I've no stake in this at all. When it comes to bouldering I'm a dabbler. But for folks like yourself who have pretty much opened it all up and pioneered not just new problems but entire new areas then there is a bit at stake all right.

I'm still amazed that no-one has blown the likes of climbing.ie and dare I say it ShortSpan out of the water after all these years and offered sites like bleau.info or 27crags with all the functionality and usability.

Time for new folks with new ideas when it comes to Irish climbing websites?

[Dave Flanagan]

I'm still amazed that no-one has blown the likes of climbing.ie and dare I say it ShortSpan out of the water after all these years and offered sites like bleau.info or 27crags with all the functionality and usability.

Time for new folks with new ideas when it comes to Irish climbing websites?

To write from scratch a site like bleau.info just for irish climbing would seem a bit like reinventing the wheel to me seeing as there are already loads of sites out there that do it. Voting type sites need a certain level of interaction to be useful and I don't think they would get enough to justify the effort. Maybe someone will do it some day.

Is the content of the climbing.ie wiki open source?

[Stephen McMullan]

Is the content of the climbing.ie wiki open source?

No. Strictly speaking its owned by climbing.ie / Dave Hunt but we've long looked on ourselves are mere custodians of the info and will allow the info to be re-used once permission is sought and depending on the nature of the re-use. Prime criteria would be how well it benefits the Irish climbing community at large.

[Dave Flanagan]

Is most of the information not pulled from MI guides?

[Stephen McMullan]

The content of most of the guides were given to us by Mountaineering Ireland and *greatly* added to, maintained and enhanced by contributing members of the climbing.ie website.

Many other climbing areas were described initially in the wiki and were never documented in MI guides or were only documented after the material was first entered in the wiki.

Indeed one of the primary applications of the wiki is to facilitate the publication of MI guides along with making the latest info available to the climbing community.

I can sense a point coming at me 

[Dave Flanagan]

No point (as usual).

Just wondering. Bit of a grey area all that stuff.

[Stephen McMullan]

Yeah I've re-written the post above about three times - its that grey.

We don't really get into the issue of ownership of the info hence why I describe the service as "custodianship". There's been no need to go there to date. MI are very happy with whats been done. If someone wants to do something with the info they can come talk to myself and Dave and we figure something out on a case by case basis. There's no hard and fast rules apart from don't copy without permission (not that we can do a huge amount about it if they do - call them names perhaps).

[ciaran]

27crags.com is great, check it out folks and lets get more/new info and opinions up on it !!

[brendan]

stephens point about 27crags making $$ out of this is worth keeping in mind when creating crags, topos, blocs etc. If we use 27c for what (I think) barry originally intended: grade consensus and keep other information to a minimum then we limit their chance to make a guide with 0 effort on their part.

if they want to make a guide then fair play to them but they should put the effort in themselves without us doing the legwork for them.

I suggest we do not put in detailed topos: we all know where glendo is for example. We dont put in detailed notes on each problem and we dont upload photos etc. If people wish to add such detail they can do so by linking to other more native locations where data is not owned by anyone.

I presume they dont/cant claim ownership of linked to data hosted on other sites?!

use 27c as a database of problems where grade consensus can emerge not as online guide that could enable the data owners to make cash with little effort.

my twopence.