Bruce said,
I can think of a number of things I would love BPL to write about that are new since April 23, 2008 when this thread started and many of these trends/products/technologies are changing each year: UV water treatment, hollow fiber filtration, filtration combined with other technologies: ionization, chemical (Roger Caffin did one excellent review), Handheld dedicated GPS, GPS and other apps on smart phones, USB powered devices for backpacking, solar power products to recharge those USB devices, batteries for those longish hikes, DWR down (is it worth the $, will it last as long as naked down?), new synthetic fibers for bags and quilts, etc. etc.
I like BPL, which is why I participate. Those things Bruce (I am not being critical) would like to see are also items other people probably would like to see too; all-in-all they are all just a twist on things that already exist or gadgets that might be nice to have; none of them will make my trips any safer, keep me warmer, or make my trips more fun — and there are probably folks who agree with me — and just as many who disagree. But this isn’t the point.
There is considerable quality content already here on BPL, of course finding it can be a challenge. Much of the best content was published by 2008, and since then a lot of what we see are just variations on a theme. Not to say none of it is pertinent, it is. However, this is not the content that is going to keep BPL afloat. It costs a lot of money to run this site and the world has changed a lot since 2002 or even 2008. Eight years ago, BPL was just about the “only game in town” when it came to lightweight backpacking. Now there are hundreds of quality blogs and ample social media that have become competition for BPL. Which brings up Paul M’s comment:
As I read this, I wonder how the lack of new BPL content affects the cottage industry. It isn’t hard for me to imagine a cycle here.
Take Luke’s Ultralight or Borah Gear. Here are cottage manufacturers committed to providing lightweight gear, but since BPL doesn’t do SOTM reports covering cottage manufacturers, the reader base has little-to-no idea of their offerings.
An active BPL could review some of this gear and it would probably boost sales for them, allowing them to bring new products to the market.
The cottage stagnation and BPL stagnation could be codependent on each other.
This was true in 2002 when a lot of the well known cottage companies like GG, MLD, SMD, Tarptent, and others were just starting, and a few years later with companies such as ULA, zPacks, and Trail Designs entering the marketplace. BPL probably had a large influence for these companies back then. But the UL market has matured. I have a feeling that if Phil Werner, John Abela, Andrew Skurka, Dave Chenault, Chris Townsend, or even Backpacker Magazine or Outdoor Gear Lab, and a host of others write a great review or article on their websites they might drive more traffic today than BPL once did. I’m not promoting any of these folks and I don’t know if they have any impact, but it is plausible. From what I have read a single Facebook or Twitter post can generate tens of thousands of views in just a few days: that’s some powerful stuff.
Point being, BPL needs to differentiate itself from the competition. What was once the best on the Web is no longer viable for sustaining it’s business model.
And who is going to write the content? BPLÂ doesn’t pay authors for articles. Yes, it might be a good vehicle for an aspiring author, but it’s a lot of work. No one minds if someone slaps together a blog post with grammar or spelling errors, but when people are paying to read content then the stakes go up — a lot. For example, I can throw something together quickly on my blog and get thousands of page views and I don’t care much about typos and such. When I was working and was paid to write technical articles, I would spend hours and hours making sure it was right before I submitted the first draft; it’s a different world.
Another thing… I often see Roger asking people to submit an article and he volunteers to do the editing. If someone wants to become a writer, here’s your chance.
Here are a few things BPL could do to make the site better.
- Catalogue all the articles and maybe some of the better threads into categories and create an index page. Maybe UL 101, how to navigate with a compass, winter footwear systems, stoves, pack rafting, etc. Make the gems easy to find. It would save Anna (Link) a lot of time :-)
- Finish articles that never published the promised sequels (holding my breath).
- More stuff like the tent stake holding power article. There have been a lot of threads about what size guy line works best with a LineLoc 3 — might be an idea for an article. Perhaps there could be a “sticky” thread for requests and members or BPL editors could create something; often the most difficult thing about writing is coming up with the idea or subject. There could be gear give aways for anything published by a member, and the gear could be donated by companies — its free advertising.
- Start contests for article submissions on specific subjects (not gear reviews; I especially like trip reports) and work out deals with gear manufacturers to donate gear as payment. 1st place, 2nd place, 3rd place.
- Whatever happened to the photo contests? It is probably a lot of work to do the judging, perhaps a group of volunteers could be assembled.
- Every year many people do thru hikes and blog almost daily. Why not link or publish one hiker’s trip on each of the major trails?
- Anyone have any other ideas?
Like I said earlier, I like BPL. My world won’t change much if BPL fails. I have no interest in writing articles for BPL, not that I have anything valuable to write anyway. The sad thing is members are asking for stuff, a lot of us are brainstorming as in this thread, and Jordan has seemingly disappeared. Things are backwards. I’m sure Ryan is busy, but  people are paying to be members here, so it is time to start running this site like a business and make the customers happy. Business 101.
