Unfortunately, last spring Doug began lashing out against Fred and several others who often posted helpful answers for the newbie queries. Many times it was simply to point them to the topic within Fred's work. At one point, he banned VersatileFred. Privately, I pointed out to Doug that Fred's work had over 50,000 hits in just two years! But he ignored all of that, and requested that I remove all of Fred's work.
This is the part I just don't get. Why - WHY - would Doug take such a stance?! These resources were what drew me to the WPSMB in the first place, as I'm sure has been the case for many, many others. They are invaluable to a first-timer, and have probably prevented a number of bad or possibly fatal mistakes. Without them, newbies have to register on WPSMB and ask their questions (probably Doug's motivation), but won't get anything approaching the scope of information these notes provide for a safe Whitney experience - assuming they get any responses of substance at all.
Personally, I view this as bordering on recklessness - sacrificing immensely helpful information to drive, presumably, more message board traffic and membership. For a man who is in many ways a Whitney legend, and knows the dangers the mountain holds as well as anyone alive, it simply makes no damn sense!
If 12,000 people attempt Whitney each year (a number that sticks out in my mind, but I can't recall where I read it), several thousand are probably trying it for the first time, and I'm betting many of those have little to no high altitude hiking/climbing experience. The wealth of information in Fred's orientation notes is an absolute bonanza for these folks. Knowing full well how critical - and accessed - these notes were, removing them strikes me as dangerously irresponsible and in direct opposition to the core principles of such a message board - information sharing.
Again, Steve, Fred, wagga and others responsible for creating and maintaining the WHA/Zone - thank you. I'd much rather be part of this type of board - one with a real, guiding mission - than on the fringes of someone else's Cool Club, looking in from the outside. As long as the door is always open - in deed as well as word, particularly for newbies - I'm sure the Zone will continue to grow and prosper, webcam or no.
