We are currently working on a moderation system  that will allow anyone with a special interest in a particular crag or area to take charge of its pages in the Topo Library. You can take a look at an outline plan of the scheme here.

Whilst we have already thought a fair bit about how the system should work, Your suggestions would be very helpful at this stage so if you have any thoughts we invite you to put them on this thread.

I moderate the crags round where we live for UKClimbing. I think it's important for the success of wikitopo that (i) the input is good quality (ii) that people are encouraged to buy the local guidebooks. Re point (i), if someone who doesn't climb simply attaches a photo of a crag to link to his/her business, with no route info, it's not adding to (and is actually diluting) the quality of wikitopo as a whole. So some form of moderation is needed. Re point (ii), speaking as someone who bolts routes (partly) financed by guidebook sales, I have actually seen people (Swiss!) trying to digitally-photograph my copy of the guide, and you can imagine how I convinced them to shell out the princely sum of ?14 (=7 bolts only, half a route!) to actually buy the guide. So I think wikitopo
(i) should have moderators for areas who guarantee the quality of content
(ii) should have links to where you can buy the guidebooks...that way people are facilitated to buy the guidebooks after seeing details of an area on-line

ciao Peter / The Lemon House

Agree with all Peter says and have little to add for now, but will give it some thought. His second point is a good one.

Quite a few pages already have guidebook lists but I cant see how to add one. I think wikitopo could be an effective way to promote guidebooks - especially small scale home spun publications.

What sections of wikitopo can be moderated ... is it just crags or could a whole area or country be "taken charge of"?

The outline scheme looks like it would be possible to take control of a section of the topo library and just sit on it to stop free content from developing. I think there should be some mechanism to prevent this.

That is an interesting point. How about letting the same area be covered in more than one "project".

For example, Dan101 has set up a Glen Nevis section. Could I then come along and set up "Andy's Glen Nevis Guide"? Dunno if this is a good idea though. Maybe its one for wikitopo to decide on on a case by case basis.

Thanks to everyone for your comments so far. Some good points have been raised. In response to Peter's comments regarding guidebook links I would just like to say that this is on the todo list. Also, regarding linking topos to other websites, I think the guidelines  go some way to addressing Peter's concerns about this. Also we will be making some refinements to the topo library browser that will allow topos with no routes and locations with no topos to be filtered out of the view.

In response to Andy's(?) suggestion of more than one project for an area or crag, I think this is one to avoid as it could end up making the topo library bitty, complex and difficult to use if it became common practice.

Please keep the comments coming in.
normal12b.