It’s now been one month since Bouldr officially launched, so I thought I would give a quick overview of what will be happening next.

1. A(nother) New Design

We have grown tired of our current look - as a first attempt at getting a site theme going, it is a pretty poor attempt. We have been developing a new theme for a little while now, so as soon as we are happy for it to be released, we will roll it out. Be assured that there is a lot less black involved!

2. Improvements to the Explorer

We have a couple of nifty (unfinished) enhancements to the explorer that should really open up the interface. At the moment, it is a rather dull search system - hardly exploring, really!

We want to give you the ability to discover new areas and climbs rather than have to search for them - our re-factored explorer should give you this ability.

3. Some Top Secret Stuff

Irritatingly enough, I can’t tell you much about these few new features. Be assured, though that they are exciting enough to keep us working long hours to get them ready for you!

I hope that I have whet your appetite in preparation for a number of big updates in the coming months. Keep checking back for new stuff, or grab our RSS feed if you’re tech savvy!

We have spent the past couple of weeks going over Bouldr as it was on it’s birthday.

We looked and thought about what we could improve, examined what we had created and why, then we took apart most of the code, and put it back together to produce today’s release - a faster, friendlier and simpler Bouldr.

A quick roundup of those features:

• Bouldr Explorer - our brand new search tool for getting around the climbs listed on our site.
• Bigger images of climbs, giving you clearer views of the problems and routes listed.
• Simpler climb editor, with tabs for each section so that it splits up nicely.
• Location search for placing your climb
• Clearer account page
• New front page, with the latest additions displayed.
• A bucket-load of fixes and small tweaks here and there.

The boffins at Bouldr HQ are pretty pleased with themselves, however, they realise that there is still much to do. We are still refining everything we can as well as developing new and exciting features.

As always, your feedback is always welcome - just nip over to the contact page, and send us your thoughts.

Watch this space for updates!

Google are still developing the second version of their excellent Maps API, and as yet, they advise against it’s deployment in real-world applications.

We however, will be using the updated API when we roll out the next version of Bouldr in a week or so. Our testing so far has given us enough confidence in that the new version is stable enough to be used in the ways Bouldr will use it.

The main benefit we can see that will come from using the new API is (as mentioned in an earlier post) the additional detail levels of aerial imagery - many of my favourite locations are now clearly visible, including (surprisingly) Bell Hagg.

With any luck, coverage of Stanage and The Plantation will also be improved soon - I’m still wondering whether I can see Business Boulder or not!

Anyhow, the new release of Bouldr should be completed within the next two weeks. That’s the plan, anyway.

When contributing images of climbs to Bouldr, there are a few general guidelines that can help make your contributions better able to convey the route:

1. Take the image of the bare rock-face only - try to ensure that there is no-one climbing the route or problem when you take the picture, otherwise, the climbers body will obscure the face, and your image may lack essential detail.
2. Take the image when there is ample lighting on the face of the rock. This is not always possible if the route involves a large overhang, roof or resides in a cave, but if the sun is behind the rock, then silhouetting and glare may reduce the level of detail available.
3. Make sure the image is of an appropriate size, and frames the area you are interested in well. Images where the actual route is minute compared to the width of the picture won’t be very easy to annotate.
4. Ensure you have permission to add the image to Bouldr. Uploading copyrighted images will cause them to be removed at best. At worst, legal wrangling may follow (ugh!). Check our terms and conditions for more information regarding the legality of all this.

As the dust settles at Bouldr HQ, a brand new service is born: A place to share your climbing experiences, show off your latest route or find a new challenge at your local climbing area.

Bouldr has landed!

But the code monkeys at Bouldr HQ are far from finished yet. We currently have several new features in development, just waiting to be released into the wild. We will be constantly tweaking and adding features to Bouldr based on what you want, and what we think we can do better.

What is more important to us, however, are the things we haven’t thought of yet - those overlooked things that you want adding. We want to be told what to add next; after all, Bouldr has been created to serve you!

Have fun!