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Pennsylvania site improvements and/or additions

Original Post
William Sonoma · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2012 · Points: 3,550

Anything need to be updated, changed or improved to the Pennsylvania Mountain Project Web Site? Maybe nothing needs to be done; maybe there could be some improvements? What's your opinion?

If you climb in PA this weekend take pictures and upload them to this site! There are many routes and/or full areas with no pictures. Pictures are super nice for identification and to "get your bearings" when in an unknown area.

Thank you for your time!

joeforte · · palmerton, pa · Joined Aug 2009 · Points: 404

There is a lot of misnamed routes and bad beta listed on here. I corrected a lot of this years ago, but it has been edited again to be incorrect. I think the info on here should be compared with local guidebooks and checked with local climbers to insure the info is accurate.

The fact that ANYONE can post info up on here is a problem. Areas that are private property are listed, and this hurts access, especially when the locals are working with land managers to open these places up. The fact that anyone can post info also means that I can call any cliff and any climb whatever I want, which ruins the credibility of this site.

William Sonoma · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2012 · Points: 3,550

Thanks Joe! You have some good points for sure.

Let me know what specific areas (and accompanying information) and/routes need to be corrected and I'll do what I can. PA is not a popular climbing destination (obviously), however quality information is still super important!

Anyone else have anything to add?

kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608

I agree that MP moderators should take a strong interest in addressing situations witn access to climbing on private (or public) land where it might not be currently legal.

For other stuff, hopefully the new MP feature of "Improve this page" will help. But that depends on knowledgable people taking the time to suggest specific corrections, climb by climb.

Anyway bad beta and misleading route descriptions on MP are not just a problem for Pennsylvania -- also for the Gunks I think.

joeforte wrote:The fact that anyone can post info also means that I can call any cliff and any climb whatever I want, which ruins the credibility of this site.
For me it just shows that MountainProject shares the credibility problem of 99% of the Web.

For me the most valuable part of a route page on MP is the Commenta (and often the photos). Normally I get a much better basic route description from a paper guidebook (and MP is often much less helpful than a guidebook for how to find a specific climb). Of course the Comments aften disagree with each other -- so then I have to figure out who to believe (just like on most of the rest of the Web). But at least I am made aware that there is a question, and I get to see a range of opinions.

Local guidebooks are good (even if written by someone who moved away to Oregon). But a great thing about MountainProject is that you can raise questions about the guidebook info, and just make corrections -- by using the Comments feature of MP.

Like the most recent paper guidebook I know that covers eastern PA is really valuable for many things ... but the natural world and human world keep changing, so some parts of it once were true, but now are misleading. And some points were just confusing or mistaken from the start -- which just shows that guidebook authors are human (especially when 5.12 - 5.13 climbers try to guess the correct rating for a route in the 5.5 - 5.8 range).

joeforte wrote:The fact that anyone can post info also means that I can call any cliff and any climb whatever I want ...
Funny it happens that I'm now on a trip in a region where many cliffs and climbs are called by multiple names -- not just on websites but even in different paper guidebooks. So I made up my own web page which attempts to match up the different names for my favorites.

Ken
Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Northeastern States
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