weight weenies

I think that's a great idea! Would it be possible for BPL to set up something? A place to enter the ACTUAL weights of gear. Then if you were interested in buying something, you could just type in the name and a REAL weight came up.

I think plans for a wiki are (or at least were) in the works.

That would be a good place to have something like this. And FWIW, I like this idea too, especially for the more mainstream manufacturers who must use some sort of special scale that gives the weight on the product if you were on the moon.

Adam

However BPL puts it together, please do so in some rational order — such as alpha by type (backpacks, shelters, etc.) and then alpha by brand and finally alpha by model name.

I rarely bother with BPL's current user reviews due to both its dysfunctional structure and its inane content.

The current BPL user review listing — sorted by posting date with duplicates here, there, and everywhere is completely dysfunctional and frankly an embarrassment to BPL.

The inane content quality is the result of overly eager hikers jumping in to be first to post — prior to any meaningful experience with the gear they were purporting to "review" — and assigning 5's practically all the time.

A good, usable review database requires proper structure and editorial review. What we have right now is basically a collective waste.

No user review on any website you can probably find has editorial changes made to it. Then it's not a "user" review, but some editors.

A suggested format and guidelines would work?

If you take a look around weight weenies [starbike] you'll find the forums are going great but the actual listings have not been updated in several years.

<"A place to enter the ACTUAL weights of gear. Then if you were interested in buying something, you could just type in the name and a REAL weight came up."

That's a good idea but I wonder how the system would deal with differences between the same items. For something like say, a shelter, perhaps it would indicate a high, low and average weight?
Weight variances are bound to happen just with the different scales people use.