Ideas for further collaborative threads

Thanks for further comments. Any more? Don't be shy guys.

The beauty of a forum is that it can be used for many different things. Its a place to collaborate and trash out information and ideas. From that, sometimes, the information can be more neatly packaged into an article or even a wiki (another idea I will present sometime).

@Frosty: if you provide more details and even a framework for the trail grading, this can certainly be done. Start a forum thread, write an article with a table that gets updated, discuss other tools with me - lots of options. By FA's do you mean first ascents? Certainly. The Berg is only moderately developed in terms of climbing in my view. Lots of minor free standing pinnacles around, technical "passes" and gullies that are climbed rather than hiked, and peaks such as Devils Tooth and the Inner Mnweni Pinnacle still only have one route (naturally any additional routes would be of a fairly high grade with some degree of aid climbing). Again, feel free to start something and let me know how to assist you. Recently Gavin Peckham announced that the MCSA RD's for the Berg are in need of updating and need a new person to drive this - just putting it out there while I'm at it.

I'd like it if more members can feel the freedom of starting their own projects on the site and driving them. My own time is a maxed out already, even though there are many other things I'd like to get going.

OK, so it seems a security incident thread is something to go for - a place to record security threats, robberies etc. As Dragons Wrath relates to general mountain safety, this thread will relate to security. The Current state of things thread already caters for 2010 and can be continued to be used as such. A "Berg Alert 2011" thread can be launched in January.

As for observations about smuggling acitvities, some of it will be covered by the above-mentioned thread (in cases where they are a direct threat to hikers). Their activities are at times already reported in various threads on this forum and I think that members should continue to have the freedom to talk about that. I've had plenty to say about them in my own articles and pictures. To what extent we should formalise our observations about their activities remains unclear in my own mind. There must be a public concern and outcry (this issue is not well addressed or talked about sufficiently anywhere else), but it must be balanced with the safety of hikers out there. Certainly we should assist the authorities in this matter, which is definitely more important than creating a formal thread for reports.

OK, the POM idea - no more takers on this? I still maintain that we should start off with a 3-month period until it becomes more popular. Will give people more of a chance to contribute.

@plouw: That sounds funky. Offhand I can think that one can create it using Flash (any Flash boffins out there?), or by simply placing HTML link over an image, just that one has to work out the exact co-ordinates on the image for placing the various links. It also takes a lot of time, so if its driven and maintained by someone like you with the vision for it - fantastic.

@Frosty: get a thread going in the Climbing category. You may want to check with the modern day climbing pioneers that have opened up lots of Berg routes, like Gavin Peckham and Paul Fatti, I'm sure they could list a few. I'm interested in a long gully/chimney on the face of ka Ntuba Buttress, next to ka Ntuba Pass - not sure if its been climbed.

Right, I have started a "Featured Images" category in the Drakensberg gallery:
www.vertical-endeavour.com/gallery/drakensberg/featured-images/oct-dec-2010.html

In it is a sub-category for the first POM³ period, October 2010 - December 2010. Let the games begin!

Serious tribe wrote:

I am sure that I speak for all of the forum when I say thank you for all the hard work, time and effort that you put into the site, looking after its architecture and providing your valuable input.

Thanks for this.

Thank you for your kind words. Its all totally worth it when there is an active community that uses it.

I've started a thread to help promote and facilitate the featured images project:
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/14-drakensberg-general/1912-featured-berg-images-oct-dec-2010.html

And this thread caters for discussion on unclimbed routes in the Berg:
www.vertical-endeavour.com/forum/9-drakensberg-climbing/1911-unclimbed-berg-routes.html