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ThreadsDev along with UBBDEV each month honors one of our outstanding member communities that has developed a strong and vibrant community. This month we are proud to introduce our winner, CascadeClimbers.
We took a steep climb up the mountain range with chillin to find out how he gives his community a lift.
UBBDev/ThreadsDev: First off congratulations on winning first place in the ThreadsDev Content contest and for having a great community!
chillin: Thank You it is a great honor to be recognized by ThreadsDev.!
UD/TD: Tell me about the history of your site and when you got started.
chillin: Jon and I were on a climb in the North Cascades National Park (Washington State) in the summer of 2000 when we dreamt up the idea for the site. We wanted to create an online community for folks that love to be in the mountains in the pacific northwest.
Our real dream was to have a route report database where people could publish trip reports (much like what is at summitpost.com now) and in all honesty, I bought a UBB.classic license as a last second idea. The ubb forums acted as our "route report" system while we developed one. As you can see, the site took us in a completely different direction and now the forum is the most important part of the site.
UD/TD: Where did the name "Cascadeclimbers" originate from?
chillin: The Cascade Mountain range stretches from roughly southern British Columbia down into Northern California near Mt. Shasta. The mountain range is quite diverse in the different areas and boasts some of the most beautiful alpine scenery in the US. The range is probably best known for the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, but there are many large beautiful volcanos and other peaks that we love to climb... thus the name, cascadeclimbers.
UD/TD: How many members are on your forum/site, both total and regulars?
chillin: Here are our IIP stats.
New Members: 3 Last 24 hours 31 Last 7 days 150 Last 31 days
Boards: 14882 Total topics 197381 Total replies
Totals: 3983 Members 212263 Posts
Max Online: 61 Members 39 Guests 100 Total (07/08/03 03:56 PM)
Users that have logged in the past 24 hours 137 Users that have logged in the past 7 days 535 Users that have logged in the past month 871
UD/TD: Which are the most popular forums on your board?
chillin: The "Climbers Board" is the catch all category, this is where folks post almost anything climbing related. The other popular forum is affectionately called "Spray" where pretty much anything goes. We have had some epic threads in there, great fun, great distraction from work.
The other boards break down the mountain range into smaller geographical areas, and folks post trip reports there and ask for "beta"/information about climbs they are thinking about doing.
UD/TD: What kind of threads are typical on your forum?
chillin: Anything from trip reports of excellent climbs, to political discussions, to threads about poop. Some of the more memorable threads though have dealt with some climbing accidents, most notably was the tragic death of famed Swedish climber Goran Kropp. The forums have also been used as an arena to investigations in to climbing accidents (eg what happened how to learn from it) and an lengthy investigation into a speed ascent of Mt. Rainier (a 14,416' volcano in Washington state).
UD/TD: When did you start climbing?
chillin: I've been climbing out of bed every morning for a long time I grew up hiking and backpacking in Washington state, but my caught the climbing bug during college, around 1997 or so. Jon was the one who introduced me to climbing.
UD/TD: Which is your personal favorite mountain/ledge?
chillin: My first big mountain was Mt. Adams, and 12000+ volcano in Washington state. Because of this, it will always hold a special place in my heart. This past spring I had the pleasure of going back and hiking up again, and skiing down. That was fantastic!
UD/TD: Besides the Forum, what other content do you have on your site?
chillin: I have tweaked out a CMS called Mambo Site Server to use the .threads user database. This allows folks to log in once for the photo gallery, the forums, and the CMS system. Any registered user that is logged in can "publish" a thread post into the CMS system. This allows the good posts (eg great trip reports, or important news) to be archived and easier to find on the non-forum pages. This has worked out pretty well and I had a ton of fun hackin it out.
The PhotoPost gallery has been a big hit, that is one of my favorite parts of the site. Many of our forum members go on trips all around the world, and its neat to see pictures from their adventures.
UD/TD: What are the other main interests of the members on your site (obviously climbing) - what else?
chillin: There are quite a few of us that enjoy snow skiing or snowboarding in the winter time. All of us I believe share a general love of the outdoors and the mountains... so anything that involves getting out there is high on our hobby lists. Many of us are also internet geeks (obviously).
UD/TD: If you had to make a choice of the types or styles of climbing which would you pick?
chillin: I haven't tried some types of climbing, like Waterfall Ice climbing, but my personal favorite is ski mountaineering, this involves traveling usually long distances on your skis, preferably up a big mountain, and then having an excellent ride down. That combines 2 of my favorite things... what else could I ask for?
UD/TD: Maybe a snow-mobile/4-wheeler? How do you promote the site?
chillin: The site has always been only promoted through word of mouth, or word of email I should say, and has been a grass roots movement. Outside of originally submitted it to the engines, we have done zero optimization for search engines nor any advertising, it just took off!
UD/TD: After a long hard climb what do you like to do?
chillin: In the winter.... go home, and drink beer in my hot tub. In the summer, nothing beats jumping in a lake to cool off, and then follow up with multiple beers.
UD/TD: Lather, Rinse, Repeat Again Congratulations on winning 1st place in the contest
chillin: Thank you Chuck, and thanks to all the moderator's at threadsdev for the great resource at threadsdev.com
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
How do you promote the site?![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Again Congratulations on winning 1st place in the contest
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