Sites similar to VFTT

[Sanbu]

I recall a thread or threads on these forums comparing VFTT to similar hiker websites. There was discussion about overall aging of VFTT participants, experience levels of users, quality of advice offered, novice hiker questions being asked, and such. Please point me in the direction of those threads, as I haven't been able to locate them. For me it's a subject of personal interest.

 

[Mike P.]

What are sites similar to VFTT? ADK High Peaks is a definite yes,

Are FB groups for NH or New England Hiking? Meet up Groups? All trails or NE Trail Conditions? Is Alpinezone or Rocks on Top still up? Alpinezone is, I looked, mostly a ski forum however, they have a hiking forum.

 

[nartreb]

Can't find (nor remember) the VFTT threads Sanbu is talking about, so I'll answer Mike P's variation of the question.

Looks like RocksOnTop is no longer in business.

I seem to recall both the AMC and the Mt Washington Observatory had pretty active forums once upon a time. Can't find them now, but WhiteBlaze.net is still running.

There are a few sites aimed at technical climbers, that include trip reports, conditions, etc. - MountainProject.com, NEIce.com. Ditto for skiers - e.g. timefortuckerman.org

Summitpost.org is still running. The encyclopedia aspect is still useful, but the trip reports are becoming infrequent and the forums are practically silent.

There are lots of meetup groups for hiking and climbing - some are more organized than others. Most are not particularly useful for Q&A nor designed for sharing reports and conditions.

The pre-Internet clubs remain active - you'll run into big groups out on the trail once in a while. AMC, ADK, MIT Outdoors Club, Dartmouth Outing Club... Some have online forums for members.

Couldn't tell you about Facebook. I have an account for business reasons, but I don't use it for anything else. From my experience with Facebook, though, it's probably not easy to search for anything.

I know of some active fora aimed at other regions (e.g., Pacific Northwest) but I assume the threads Sanbu was asking about were focused on the Northeast.

 

[TEO]

Ditto for skiers - e.g. timefortuckerman.org

The Timefortuckerman.com forum is no more. The site is now just a revamped info site for Tucks.

As Mike P. mentioned, the Adk High Peaks is still active. So too is its sister site, the Adk Forum, though it's focus is broader than just hiking.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

MountWashington.org underwent a software upgrade some 4-5 years ago and the forums went with it.
RocksOnTop.com has been defunct for nearly as long
hike-nh.com is still up and running but akin to an abandoned lot (mostly weeds)

FaceBook groups are reasonably easy to search - they intentionally block google searches, so you have to use the FB search feature directly. FB Groups on the 4Ks are not terribly compelling...

HTH,
Tim

 

[JoshandBaron]

FB Groups on the 4Ks are not terribly compelling...

If you're in the mood for a chuckle and a few WTF's it's a decent afternoon.

 

[TCD]

Another thing to observe among the various forums is the varying degree of moderation:

VFTT is quite tightly moderated, which makes it a nice place, even though it limits the discussion a bit.
ADKHghPeaks and ADKForum are moderated, but with a little lighter touch, so there are more political topics and things like that open to discussion. Still a nice place.
MtnProject and NEICE "climbing" forums are quite loosely moderated, so many, perhaps most threads descend pretty promptly (by page 2) into personal flame wars. (Also, lately MtnProject has been practicing very one-sided "woke" and "PC" moderation, so threads that don't toe that particular line disappear quite quickly.)

It's all interesting to watch, and you need to be aware of it when you are posting on the various sites.

 

[Mike P.]

Another thing to observe among the various forums is the varying degree of moderation:

VFTT is quite tightly moderated, which makes it a nice place, even though it limits the discussion a bit.
ADKHghPeaks and ADKForum are moderated, but with a little lighter touch, so there are more political topics and things like that open to discussion. Still a nice place.
MtnProject and NEICE "climbing" forums are quite loosely moderated, so many, perhaps most threads descend pretty promptly (by page 2) into personal flame wars. (Also, lately MtnProject has been practicing very one-sided "woke" and "PC" moderation, so threads that don't toe that particular line disappear quite quickly.)

It's all interesting to watch, and you need to be aware of it when you are posting on the various sites.

Due to the nature of the ADK Park, especially on the ADK Forum, you probably have to allow for some politics, at least on the state level.

In the early days, the rec-climbing board here was full of flaming and ranting. What I learned is from following some of the people who were thought as being the worst of the bunch, they were very passionate about their hobby/sport/passion. I had some offline email discussions with them and they were amongst the most knowledgeable and nice people you would email with. Sometimes people let their passions go in a basically anonymous setting. On AMC's Mountain & Molehills which was the more rant filled section, I had the alter-ego Mr. Sarcasm.

 

[Mike P.]

If you're in the mood for a chuckle and a few WTF's it's a decent afternoon.

That might be the best reason I've seen for joining FB. (Besides selling all my data points to FB's other customers so I can get ads on Coke, IPA's, hiking, Marvel, Wall St., and see what fake news is being sent to me by Cats, dogs, Billy Goats, Trolls, and how I can inoculate myself with a very diluted bleach cocktail - I'm being cynical - DO NOT DRINK BLEACH!)

 

[Mike P.]

Can't find (nor remember) the VFTT threads Sanbu is talking about, so I'll answer Mike P's variation of the question.

Looks like RocksOnTop is no longer in business.

I seem to recall both the AMC and the Mt Washington Observatory had pretty active forums once upon a time. Can't find them now, but WhiteBlaze.net is still running.

There are a few sites aimed at technical climbers, that include trip reports, conditions, etc. - MountainProject.com, NEIce.com. Ditto for skiers - e.g. timefortuckerman.org

Summitpost.org is still running. The encyclopedia aspect is still useful, but the trip reports are becoming infrequent and the forums are practically silent.

There are lots of meetup groups for hiking and climbing - some are more organized than others. Most are not particularly useful for Q&A nor designed for sharing reports and conditions.

The pre-Internet clubs remain active - you'll run into big groups out on the trail once in a while. AMC, ADK, MIT Outdoors Club, Dartmouth Outing Club... Some have online forums for members.

Couldn't tell you about Facebook. I have an account for business reasons, but I don't use it for anything else. From my experience with Facebook, though, it's probably not easy to search for anything.

I know of some active fora aimed at other regions (e.g., Pacific Northwest) but I assume the threads Sanbu was asking about were focused on the Northeast.

Another local club for Western MA is the Pioneer Valley Hiking Club, over 200 members and they hike, a lot! http://pioneervalleyhikingclub.org/ My Brother-in-law is a member as he & my sister-in-law live in the area.

Their link page has a lot of other groups and useful info too. http://pioneervalleyhikingclub.org/blog/links-3/

 

[bikehikeskifish]

That might be the best reason I've seen for joining FB. (Besides selling all my data points to FB's other customers so I can get ads on ...

You (We) are not FaceBook's customer - you (we) are the product.

Tim

 

[Mike P.]

You (We) are not FaceBook's customer - you (we) are the product.

Tim

You are correct sir, both product and then volunteering to receive some of the customer's advertisements while other customers use and manipulation of the product (us) is more nefarious. (Possible word of the day - Nefarious)

 

[hikerbrian]

Summitpost.org is still running. The encyclopedia aspect is still useful, but the trip reports are becoming infrequent and the forums are practically silent.

I used to visit summitpost every day back in the early/mid-naughts, and man, that place was amazing. I probably read every single article and trip report on the front page for a couple of years. Taught me a lot about what was possible, and also that different people assign different meanings to the words 'spicy', 'exciting', 'exhilarating', etc. There was a guy who called himself The Chief. Super ornery and opinionated, but posted prolifically, including a tutorial on how to solo A5. Good lord. But as with so many other such collections of independent people online, widespread bitching and moaning nearly imploded the whole thing, and The Chief and many other prolific posters up and left and took all of their content with them. What a shame. I mean, there was some amazing stuff on there. Truly amazing stuff that took real effort to put together. Content that was clearly a labor of love for the contributors. There's a psychology/human nature lesson in here somewhere about the differences between in person interactions and online interactions. I imagine this is the stuff of Ph.D. theses in the humanities for the next several decades.

 

[Mike P.]

I used to visit summitpost every day back in the early/mid-naughts, and man, that place was amazing. I probably read every single article and trip report on the front page for a couple of years. Taught me a lot about what was possible, and also that different people assign different meanings to the words 'spicy', 'exciting', 'exhilarating', etc. There was a guy who called himself The Chief. Super ornery and opinionated, but posted prolifically, including a tutorial on how to solo A5. Good lord. But as with so many other such collections of independent people online, widespread bitching and moaning nearly imploded the whole thing, and The Chief and many other prolific posters up and left and took all of their content with them. What a shame. I mean, there was some amazing stuff on there. Truly amazing stuff that took real effort to put together. Content that was clearly a labor of love for the contributors. There's a psychology/human nature lesson in here somewhere about the differences between in person interactions and online interactions. I imagine this is the stuff of Ph.D. theses in the humanities for the next several decades.

I still have a binder of printed out reports from Summitpost for several dozen walk ups in the Sierra that sounded interesting, in the Lassen area and as far north in the Cascades as the Three Sisters for a trip I never did. (or not yet)

 

[Mike P.]

So in doing some snowshoe research for Scouts regarding rentals and revisiting the posthole threads here and at the ADK website and seeing one Trail Condition report from NETC blasting postholers (again) I stumbled upon this guy and the NH Terrifying 25. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8tVPPRNC-oQ

Of particular note to this thread, after he ascended to Table Rock the safe way from his childhood, he let it be known that he didn't have a WMG so he picked one up. he then learned that for Table Rock, you'd need an additional map. (I'll have to check the maps from the 25th Addition which used to have less detailed maps for Monadnock and a couple of other areas, possibly Dixville. To the best of my knowledge, while a couple of the members here have trip report sites or used to, (Dave I still visit from time to time) how many of you have youtube feeds? For the most part, I think of this group and those at ADK High Peaks as being the choir. I'm also thinking that if we are providing easy to view content for Facebookers and Meet Up Groups, they are getting it from FB, All Trails and you tubers.

My initial thought after looking at the Youtube video above was he's a nice enough guy and pretty honest, however, he's pretty green and not just his coat. While we never stop learning, I'm thinking he's pretty low on the curve still. (Thinking Day trip back when he joined in 2013 or the rest of us, going back much further. He's come a long way.)

Should we consider being more accessible? Do we owe the hiking community more access? i don't mind being an online close knit group either, just asking the questions and stirring the pot. Alos realizing the Mods would be busier too. (Doing the same thing within our BSA district wondering if we shouldn't own a couple dozen pairs of snowshoes so we can get scouts out by the troop. It appears that the only scouts out there are those whose families embrace snowshoes on their own.)

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Should we consider being more accessible? Do we owe the hiking community more access? i don't mind being an online close knit group either, just asking the questions and stirring the pot. Alos realizing the Mods would be busier too.

I am open to suggestions. I've tried a few times to give the site away to others who have either been strong supporters or strong critics, but have not had any takers. I am still open to that if anyone is interested - I do want to know your plans for the site before I do.

We offer membership to anyone who asks - there really isn't a bar higher than simply asking. If we opened up to anyone at all, it would easily be 99.9% spam and bots and nobody wants that.

Content is king. If people offer trips and events, maybe more people will come. If there are more trip reports with pictures, maybe more people will come. It's a very difficult sell compared to social media sites. I've looked at newer forum software but even that doesn't convince me anything will change. You all have been good enough to ring the bell when I ask and we're paid up for 2+ more years at this time.

Tim

 

[Mike P.]

Anyone who asks? I knw at one time it was referral from an existing member. I might be able to find a few new members.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

Anyone who asks. Spammers and scammers don't ask. Does not mean new users will post, however. If you want to promote the site, then write compelling content with beautiful pictures and share links tirelessly on every social media channel you have. That's the competition.

Tim

 

[Hachi]

Anyone who asks. Spammers and scammers don't ask. Does not mean new users will post, however. If you want to promote the site, then write compelling content with beautiful pictures and share links tirelessly on every social media channel you have. That's the competition.

As a new user, I think this site is one of the best around. Quite a wealth of information, and more active than others I have found. As far as posting though, to be honest, it can be quite intimidating. I acheived a personal best in my first post in which I was called ignorant, stupid and insane. For what it's worth, I was a bit ignorant about the particular subject, and did learn quite a lot through that thread. I continue to read, but I don't post much.

 

[Tom Rankin]

The Catskill situation

We have our own web page, which has useful information about the club and the peaks, along with a discussion area (google IO) and a facebook page.

Other Facebook things:

'Aspiring Catskill 35ers'

'Catskills Trails Conditions'

'Catskills All Trails Challenge'

'Future Catskill 3500 Members'

Other entities:

http://catskillhiker.net