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Ticks posted on mountain project page

Original Post
nds · · Oceanside, Ca · Joined Jun 2011 · Points: 1,840

I've noticed a trend of people claiming "ticks" on their personal page for routes and boulder problems and then comments such as "hung on rope a couple times", "fell at the crux", and other comments that indicate they have not achieved a redpoint or a clean send. To my understanding a "tick" implies you have completed the climb without falls or rope hangs. Is my view correct or is a tick simply an "attempt" on that climb??

Carl Sherven · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2007 · Points: 210

I only tick if I got a clean send, but others might use it for other purposes. They might want to remember some specific climb that they really enjoyed working, and want a reminder to try again next time they are in the area. They may want to use the website to keep an electronic list of places they've been and things they've gotten on. It might also mean that they "fell at the crux," but got it clean when they tried again, but didn't word it well enough for someone else to know that's what it means.

S Denny · · Aspen, CO · Joined Sep 2008 · Points: 20

omg they're breaking the rulez

FrankPS · · Atascadero, CA · Joined Nov 2009 · Points: 276

A "tick" is whatever you want it to be. I had one start to burrow into me a couple of weeks ago...

Monomaniac · · Morrison, CO · Joined Oct 2006 · Points: 17,295
nds wrote:I've noticed a trend of people claiming "ticks" on their personal page for routes and boulder problems and then comments such as "hung on rope a couple times", "fell at the crux", and other comments that indicate they have not achieved a redpoint or a clean send. To my understanding a "tick" implies you have completed the climb without falls or rope hangs. Is my view correct or is a tick simply an "attempt" on that climb??
Your view is correct, but there are a lot of clueless gumbies out there that don't understand the definitions of common climbing terms.
Jason Halladay · · Los Alamos, NM · Joined Oct 2005 · Points: 15,153
Monomaniac wrote: Your view is correct, but there are a lot of clueless gumbies out there that don't understand the definitions of common climbing terms.
Well, then, color me a clueless gumby. My personal use of the "ticks" feature includes marking a tick for any attempt on a route, e.g. an onsight, onsight attempt,red point or even the occasional shameful TR. With an aging mind, my memory fails me sometimes and I know I won't be able to remember if I was on that one four-bolt 10a route at the Gallery ten years ago, or whatever. Using the "ticks" feature this way helps keep me honest.
Once I've sent a route I don't add subsequent ticks on that route.
M Mobley · · Bar Harbor, ME · Joined Mar 2006 · Points: 911

yep, clueless gumby here too. maybe I would understand the terms less like a gumby if I wore manpris and spent weeks and months working the same 80' climb over and over again...

Ryan Nevius · · Perchtoldsdorf, AT · Joined Dec 2010 · Points: 1,837

I don't really care what other people use ticks for. Personally, I mark a tick every time I send a route clean. Falling, hanging, etc does not warrant a tick in my book. That way, the tick breakdown is a more accurate representation of the types of routes I send. From that, I'm able to determine the level I'm actually climbing at. For others, it may be different.

M Mobley · · Bar Harbor, ME · Joined Mar 2006 · Points: 911

Though I dont really use the feature I'm with Halladay , its nice to remember all the pitches completed. I personally do it with the rating system. For me its about getting to the anchors and knowing I can do the route, onsighting memories usually never escape the mind and redpointing shit just plain bores me. tick away, its no 8aNU here.

Chris Plesko · · Westminster, CO · Joined Oct 2007 · Points: 485

I use it like a log book of everything I get on. When I redpoint or otherwise send, I note it. If I dog the crap out of it and it spanks me, I note that too. I don't feel like keeping a separate log book, MP works great for that for me.

Mike McLean · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2009 · Points: 310
Monomaniac wrote: Your view is correct, but there are a lot of clueless gumbies out there that don't understand the definitions of common climbing terms.
I'm not sure if you're doing sarcasm, but I'll bite ... "Tick" isn't a climbing term (at least far from common). It's an MP feature.
Tradiban · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Apr 2004 · Points: 11,610

How bored do you have to be to stare at other people's "ticks" on their personal page?

I use it for note-taking exclusively. Perhaps there should a separate feature for ticking purists to measure their dicks? That or join 8a.nu ;)

Scott O · · Anchorage · Joined Mar 2010 · Points: 70

Who gives a shit? I don't put everything up there, but I like to record the climbs I've been on. MP's tick list is the most convenient way to do that.

Jon Lachelt · · Fort Collins, CO · Joined Feb 2007 · Points: 0

I use the tick list for my own personal record of outings with friends... not as a way for someone else to judge my climbing prowess. I'm with Mike... "tick" list is a general purpose term. On MP it, who cares how you use it?

MegaGaper2000 James · · Indianola, Wa · Joined Apr 2011 · Points: 20
Monomaniac wrote: Your view is correct, but there are a lot of clueless gumbies out there that don't understand the definitions of common climbing terms.
Hey administrator, what's that guideline, you know, #1?

Oh Yeah. Don't be a jerk.

To me - and it sounds like to the rest of the people on here - a 'tick' is reminiscent of a check mark, a note that indicates you did something. Period. It doesn't say anything about style, or ethics, or redpoint, or pinkpoint, or pumpscend, or dolfganger, or any other climbing mumbo-jumbo. That's what words like 'redpoint' are for, in the notes section.

To give a brief example of how absurd this has become: there are now bolted cracks in the world. Perfectly protectable, aesthetic lines, with bolts every five feet all the way up. Ostensibly, if you clip those bolts without falling, you redpointed it, and under the "only redpoints are ticks" dogma, you could 'tick' that climb. But then again, if you're clipping bolts - pre-placed gear - on otherwise protectable sections of a trad climb, isn't that just pinkpointing? And if you 'only pinkpointed it', you shouldn't be able to tick it, right? Call the climbing police!

How bored do you have to be to stare at other people's "ticks" on their personal page?

I use it for note-taking exclusively. Perhaps there should a separate feature for ticking purists to measure their dicks?


+10,000

At the end of the day, it's you and the end of the rope and the fucking rock.
nds · · Oceanside, Ca · Joined Jun 2011 · Points: 1,840

It's a discussion of how people use a feature on this website. I use the mountain project website mainly as a source of information for my local climbing areas. It's nice to get up to date info as regards conditions of routes, grades, access, etc. I use the "tick" feature to catalogue climbs I have completed. The "to do" section seems more appropriate a place to list things you have not yet completed.
I list my "ticks" not as a bragging right (it's obvious many people climb much stronger than me) but to serve as some resume for comments and grade suggestions I may offer to specific climbs. If I have never completed a 5.12 and I'm suggesting a route is a 5.12 when everyone else calls it a 5.11 I am not really qualified to make that suggestion. This is my opinion, and I posted the forum topic out of curiosity of how the mountain project community would respond.
It's easy to say it all doesn't matter and to just shut up and go climb. You apparently took the time to check the forum page and make a response, so just enjoy the discussion. That's all I'm doing. Its a rest day and I'm bored.

Ryan Williams · · London (sort of) · Joined May 2009 · Points: 1,245

I didn't even know you could tick routes. I thought that's why people went on 8a.nu?

Doug Lintz · · Kearney, NE · Joined Apr 2004 · Points: 1,196

Well shit, I've been using the ticking system to keep track of routes I've looked at. I didn't know you had to climb them too.

Forestvonsinkafinger · · Iowa · Joined Mar 2008 · Points: 2,090

What are the chalk marks people put all over the crux sections of climbs? I thought those were tick marks and always wondered why they would be a feature on MP? The best thing is when people put "tick" marks where the holds aren't, I always laugh clipping from these terrible ticked crimps only to find the jug hiding twelve inches higher.

Leo Paik · · Westminster, Colorado · Joined Jan 2001 · Points: 22,800

Interestingly, the term "tick" used to often mean one ascended a route in the manner it was originally sent (i.e. free route was sent free, aid route was sent "aided"). Over the years, things have changed. I remember people getting upset about the chalk "tick" marks on difficult routes that were used as mental aids in redpointing routes...and then harder to clean crayon "tick" marks on longer projects like Salathe or Sphinx Crack which annoyed other folks. People mean a variety of things with "tick" these days. On MP.com from my observations, there certainly are lots of ways folks use the "tick" functionality.... Principally, it's whatever works for you.

grampa potate · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2011 · Points: 5

No TICK!!!! Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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