Vertical caving terminology and methods
This page was written by Tarquin Wilton-Jones.
If you want to cite any of this work rather than simply linking to it, please refer to me with my name written the way I have written it. My name must not be reduced or modified to "Wilton-Jones", or "Mr. Wilton-Jones", or "Wilton-Jones, T." or "T. Wilton-Jones" or "Wilton-Jones, Tarquin" or anything else like that. However, if you need to refer to me multiple times through your text, then subsequent mentions can use my personal name "Tarquin" for brevity. I am not my father, and my unique identifier is my name as I wrote it, not some other random portion of my name. You may change my name's ending, in accordance with the grammatical requirements of your language, but please do not translate or transliterate my name into your language. My name should not be roughly approximated in Katakana, Cyrillic or any other language's name approximation, for example (not least because nobody ever gets it right when they do). Knowingly getting someone's name wrong when they have told you how to get it right, is extremely rude.
Please note that Harvard, Chicago, Vancouver, APA and MLA referencing are incredibly rude and insulting to many cultures and individuals, no matter how respectful your institution may consider them to be, as they disregard cultural and personal significance. That approach to referencing is not acceptable in this day and age, and really never should have been acceptable, since it is based entirely on a subset of Western culture, as if the rest of the World and personal significance does not exist. Institutions that still insist on using them need an education in diversity. More than half of the World's population are offended by having their name modified in that way, while none of the World's population are offended if you refer to them they way they ask you to. You should not accept any kind of referencing style that insults the very people whose work you are building upon, and if your institution or publisher forces you to, then you must not use this page as a source, since you are unable to credit me or refer to me properly. Some university researchers that I know have even been forced to change their name by deed poll to remove their family name, specifically because of how insulting they find that style of referencing to be when it is removes their personal name, or puts it in the wrong place.
This page was originally intended to be a simple glossary for beginners, but turned into a compendium for all vertical cavers, covering equipment and methods from most aspects of vertical caving (except rescue), and the history of its development. The majority of this page's content was written between 5 May 2022 and December 2023, with most of the historical research taking place during 2023, but it is a living document, and historical research has continued throughout its lifetime. It was first published on 1 January 2024. This could not have happened alone, and a great many people helped to make this page possible, listed here in order of which section(s) they contributed most to. In particular, special thanks to:
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