Most of it has do with buying climbing and rock and ice magazines, then putting all of the previously free content behind a paywall. The magazine is trying to make money off selling NFTs, seems desperate and ironic.
All of the data submitted to Mountain Project was provided by the community for free through crowd sourcing. The owner actually bought the site back from
rei and then sold it a second time to on-x. Two the owners started webshots back in the 90s. He and his partners are serial entrepreneurs that profited of the free labor.
Current a lot of people in the climbing community are unhappy that the user submitted data is not available to use in other applications. As a result there is large effort in my local community to keep climbing areas from being added to the site.
As mentioned above Open Beta is a better and more honest alternative since it’s operating under a CC license. Mountain Project along with what has become Outside Magazine are two the most controversial outdoor apps in use. They are largely thought to increase crowding and other conflicts that come with managing limited resources. Mountain Project in particular is a good example of how to screw over a niche community for personal profit. At least someone in silicone valley got rich, right?
https://www.outsideonline.com/business-journal/brands/outsid...