Bot FAQ
Back in 2017 I started on the idea to create a Mountain Project bot for /r/climbing because I saw so many posts of a climbing area where most of the comments were people asking about the area (What's the grade? Where is this? etc). Since I'm a programmer by profession and hobby I decided to make one! In May, 2019 I released a "beta version" of the bot on /r/MountainProjectBot and in July I released it on /r/climbing. So if you haven't heard about it or didn't know !MountainProject was a thing you could do - don't worry, it's pretty new!
Requests: The bot looks through various climbing subreddits (see below) for comments that follow the format !MountainProject {search query} (eg !MountainProject Red River Gorge) - full notes on syntax here. It then uses that search query to find a match against all routes and areas using a custom-built database parsed from MountainProject.com. The bot then replies to the comment with a brief snippet of information on the found route or area.
MountainProject links: The bot will also automatically reply to comments with MountainProject links with info about that route/area.
Automatic replies to posts: For every post, the bot attempts to find a matching route based on the post title. If it finds a matching route, the bot will automatically reply to your post. If you don't want the bot to consider your post for an automatic reply, you can request to be blacklisted via the feedback form below
The bot is active on the following subreddits: /r/climbing, /r/climbingporn, /r/bouldering, /r/socalclimbing, /r/climbingvids, /r/mountainprojectbot, /r/climbergirls, /r/iceclimbing, /r/rockclimbing, and /r/tradclimbing. If you want to see it somewhere else, let me know!
No. A search for "red river" should match "Red River Gorge". When determining a match to a search query, the bot ignores spaces, letter casing, and any symbols - full notes on syntax here.
If there are multiple matches to the search query, the bot returns the result with the highest "popularity". "Popularity" is currently just the page views on MountainProject.com
Can I add words like "route" or the name of the area (eg "Powerless, Exit 38") to better specify the result I want?
Yes! You can see full notes on syntax for specifying locations here: https://github.com/derekantrican/MountainProject/wiki/Bot-Syntax
The bot monitors comments it has replied to for the next 24 hrs. If you update your comment to include additional information (eg change it from "!MountainProject Bat Cave" to "!MountainProject Bat Cave, NRG") then the bot will update its reply. If you edit your comment such that the bot no longer needs to respond (ie you remove "!MountainProject" or remove all the MountainProject links) then it will delete its reply comment.
Please use the feedback form to request to be blacklisted by the bot. Blacklisting will not affect specific requests for the bot (usages of the !MountainProject keyword) - just unprompted replies.