[leetcrew]

injuries come from pushing the limits of your skill and physical fitness. an aggressive climber is much more likely to get injured on a bouldering problem, but you can still mess up your hands crimping on a toprope route you haven't trained for appropriately. you get to choose whether you want to be this person. I never "fall" on bouldering problems. I just climb down if I'm not confident I can make a dyno. I'll never tackle a V8 this way, but who cares?

as for the social aspect, I'd say that depends a lot on your local gym. the toprope area tends to be pretty packed where I go. people are either climbing or belaying; it's not a good place to stand around and chat. in the bouldering area, there's almost always an active conversation going about the newest problems. I find people are very open to a quick chat between problems.