Blog @ BPL

[Ken Thompson]

Anyone else notice the new blog header?

Wish we were more kept in the loop as what goes on here. No announcements of quite a few changes here. They just happen.

Kinda rude.

[Travis Leanna]

It's unclear to me what the purpose would be. The description of the Blog is essentially the rest of the website, especially the forums.

"The real goal of Pack less, be more is to give you some insight into philosophies of Backpacking Light, and more important, expand your horizons a bit in a way that prompts you to ask questions about what it means to be an ultralight backpacker and how some of these philosophies might be extended into other areas of your life."

That happens on the forums, in trip reports, and articles every day.

[Michael Ray]

> Wish we were more kept in the loop as what goes on here. No announcements of quite a few changes here. They just happen.

+1000

Not sure why they continue to do it since that was a big point that we all brought up. It doesn't keep your customers happy when you don't notify them of changes.

[Bob Gross]

I noticed this yesterday.

They do not state what the compensation range might be.

–B.G.–

[Eugene Smith]

Does compensation really matter? BPL is a reciprocating community, yes this happens within the forums on a daily basis to some degree, however it isn't structured very well and this is definitely one way to begin streamlining content here in their transition phase. I see the new blog@BPL as an opportunity for staff and members to share in a different context, outside of the forum boards where entries get buried in a matter of hours, sometimes minutes. How BPL will differentiate content between blog postings and weekly articles will be interesting. I am looking forward to what contributors will have to say in the blog and welcome the addition. This content should be free to the public IMO in keeping with the nature of web logs in general which is almost always open content.

[Dave T]

Between the alive/partially alive/dead web site, forums, wiki, store, RJ's own site, blogs, magazine, and whatever, it continues to be unclear to me what BPL is or wants to be, and what its strategy is (if there is one) to be there and/or get there.

[Eugene Smith]

I agree with you Dave T, there is some identity struggle going on and the execution of change here at BPL is occurring poorly at times and successfully in other areas- change can be healthy/required (*assuming it's carried out with purpose) and we'll see if it becomes sustainable. I'm willfully choosing to see past the shortcomings and maintain a bit of positivity in the increasingly negative and critical climate here.

[Ryan Jordan]

No identity struggle intended, but rather, an identity consolidation.

Much of the reason we closed the gear shop this summer, and stopped manufacturing gear, was so we could invest more on educational and informational media, which has always been our core.

The blog is a natural extension of that, and it gives us a rapid publishing platform to get (especially) news & BPL happenings out, opens the opportunity up to a wider base of authors and readers (forums are busy here, but the forum community is a subset of our overall audience), and explore topics that might not hit at the heart of "ultralight backpacking" (esp. philosophical musings).

In addition to the blog, we're investing into video education and (shhh) evaluating a website overhaul to bring new features and technology to bpl.com, including the UI, online features, new community software, and backend operations.

Not trying to be secretive, just reserving a few surprises and moving some things quickly as resources open up to work on them.

[terry a thompson]

Ryan,

Thanks for the update!

[Michael Ray]

> forums are busy here, but the forum community is a subset of our overall audience

I find this quite interesting. What other audience is there that doesn't participate in the forums?

> just reserving a few surprises

I think it's clear that the community doesn't like the "surprises" that have happened the past couple years. It's viewed as lack of communication. At least the Gear Shop closure was announced, but that's the only one I can think of right now. Launching something totally new is different, but changing things without warning just annoys folks.

[Richard Scruggs]

Thanks for the info, Ryan. Hope the "comfort level" of non-tech folks is a major consideration. Like my dad always told me, "keep it stupid, simple." Or something like that, don't remember exactly.

So for all my co-simples out here (you are out there, right?), just wondering about a few of the coming "surprises" . . . like,

What's a "UI" anyway?

And if "online features" are coming, what've we got now? Non-online features?

And as for "new community software" — will it be necessary to read instructions?

Lastly, as for "backend operations" — well, I won't even go anywhere near that.

Keep up the great work, but do please keep it stupid for simple ones like me.

And remember: "new" technology is the enemy of blissful ignorance.

[Ken Thompson]

Didn't want touch on the rudeness or the Wiki, Ryan?
We were talking about this very problem on the Trinity trip. We all wonder what the big picture is for BPL. What does it want to be when it grows up. And I'm sorry, your track record on delivering on what you promise is pretty pizs poor.

[Mary D]

If the forum population is only a "subset," who is not part of that subset? Some folks don't post much, but that doesn't mean they don't lurk! That's how I got here.

Remember that those nonmembers in the forum are all potential members. Please don't dismiss them as "only a subset"; they are your future revenue source! Also remember that we MLifers won't be furnishing any revenue in the future, so maybe we shouldn't the most important source for your business decisions. (Sorry, fellow MLifers, but it is quite true that we probably won't be sending BPL any more money.)

Like Richard, I'm puzzled about the meaning some of your terms. While I assume that "backend operations" does not refer to the TP vs. pinecone controversy, I sure don't know what else it could mean!

I also can't see what a blog would do that isn't already happening in the forums. The main problem with the forums is that the info is so unorganized. By adding another source, though, you are just making things more complicated.

And why can't the blog be on the backpackinglight.com site?

[Jay Wilkerson]

Well said Mary D and where are the BPL stickers?

@ Ken I remember those conversations–When ever we hike we always talk about BPL and it funny ways.

[Bob Gross]

"Like Richard, I'm puzzled about the meaning some of your terms. While I assume that "backend operations" does not refer to the TP vs. pinecone controversy, I sure don't know what else it could mean! "

Mary, often it is the sales office and showroom that constitutes the frontend of a business, and that is about all that a customer sees. Then often it is the backend operation that takes care of order fulfillment, billing, and all of those unattractive tasks. Customers seldom see anything on the backend unless there is a problem.

–B.G.–

[Mary D]

I worked for 20 years as a management accountant, which was certainly a support or, if you prefer, a behind-the-scenes role, but we never were called "backend." I consider that term insulting!

What about all the other terms Richard mentioned? I'm equally puzzled!

[David Chenault]

Is it so hard to believe there are a lot of people who read articles but don't read the forums?

Getting the good out of the forums requires a fairly substantial, and protracted, time investment.

[Ryan Jordan]

Sorry about the reference to the backend…it actually may be sort of true, however…ah well. Moving on. I'll try to address your other questions:

1. Surprises vs. Communications. We try to communicate the majors, and be very careful about it: major manufacturing runs, print magazine, subscription increases, MLIFE introduction, gear shop closure, etc. We solicited feedback for a period of a few weeks on what to do with the Wiki. The nearly universal opinion was to CAN IT, so we did. Generally, here's my rule of thumb: If it's something that negatively impacts the membership benefit, then we mostly certainly try to communicate up front.

2. Michael wrote: "What other audience is there that doesn't participate in the forums?" I'm speaking mostly about paying members who do not participate in the forums, which constitute the vast majority of our membership.

3. Richard asked to keep it simple. I know a lot of you hate the current forum software. I can sympathize. It's not very sophisticated. We are shopping. In fact, we're starting the process of scoping out an entirely new web services platform – forums, subscription management, content management. It's not something we can do on the flip of a switch. We have to move some backOFFICE functions over to a new platform before we can do some of the public facing stuff. This is a major initiative in 2012. We're starting with subscription management. I'll keep you posted from there. Regarding Richard's desire to not have to read instructions – I'm with you, and this will be a mandatory feature of anything new we bring in. It will remain intuitive and simple. The goal is still to foster conversation amongst the community.

4. Regarding Ken's desire to have BPL deliver what we promise: I share that wholeheartedly. It is our desire that decluttering the business by casting off manufacturing, and the gear shop, will allow us to focus energy, develop, commit, deliver.

5. The blog's goal is to reach out beyond the BPL community in an attempt to drive the growth of our audience here. It's that simple. The forums are really busy here, and for the vast majority of "interested bystanders", too busy/time consuming. The blog can address some of that. So while it can be integrated with BPL, and maybe one day it will, we're just giving this a shot as an outreach activity more than anything. Who knows what will come out of it, but we'll never know unless we give it a go.

6. We have pursued three failed avenues with stickers. I'm sorry, but even with stickers, I'm not going to bring anything to market unless I can get behind it. We are working on a fourth avenue. Thanks for your patience, and please no flames about "they're just stickers"…

7. As for the Gear Swap…well…for now it gets to be their privilege. We'll see how it goes.

For what it's worth, I'm not married to anything, but I will try different things and explore them, with or without communicating to customers at every turn. I will commit to you that I won't remove benefits from paying members without careful discussion in advance.

For me, running a website like BPL is as much an interesting experiment in seeing the social / behavioral reactions to changes and whatnot as anything else. If it improves our long term prospect for sustainability and member retention, all the better of course. I really don't do anything here to incite wrath in any of you – I promise.

Thanks for the feedback, as always.

[Ken Thompson]

We all wonder what the big picture is for BPL. What does it want to be when it grows up.

I know I still want an answer to that. The blog sounds like a temporary patch.

[Michael Ray]

> Surprises vs. Communications. We try to communicate the majors

While I and most other MLIFEers suggested restricting Gear Swap, just doing it cold turkey wasn't a good idea. A simple post there notifying of the upcoming change could have tempered the response of some. Perhaps splitting into a Buying and Selling forum again would be good since a non-member wanting to buy an item is not impacting BPL but IS reducing the chance for a member (and non-member, of course) to sell to that person.

> Michael wrote: "What other audience is there that doesn't participate in the forums?" I'm speaking mostly about paying members who do not participate in the forums, which constitute the vast majority of our membership.

I bet they just lurk. They may not even log in. I did for at least a year before becoming a member. What's the point of paying to be a member if you never come to the site? Oh, and to Dave, I don't believe people only come to read the articles. Until this past couple months, they'd been so few and far between anyway. I do miss people like Dan Cunningham that haven't posted in over a year.

> So while it can be integrated with BPL, and maybe one day it will…

Now you've puzzled me. You mean you aren't going to have the new domain name redirect to a blog hosted on BPL???

Regarding stickers, etc. why don't you just upload some artwork to something like cafepress.com or zazzle.com and let people get what they want? It costs the consumer more but those that want it will get it. You don't have to invest any time or money and you can set prices to get a small revenue stream. I've ordered t-shirts and bumper stickers from them both, but they offer a huge range of things that can be customized.

Richard, UI = User Interface, the look and feel of the website and how you navigate around it.

[Tony Wong]

Ryan,

Thank you for taking the time to jump and give us a sense of what is on your mind and where BPL might be headed in the near future.

I think you nailed it….this is very much an experiement of sorts to try out new ideas and to find out what works and does not work.

The only way you can get better and improve is by tinkering, just like we all do wtih our backpacking kits.

Some of the ideas work out and others don't.

I say, go for it and experiment away….simply communicating what you are doing and your intentions will go a long way to keep people's heads from getting too hot.

Oddly, it seems to me, that when there is change, there will always be people who think the worst is happening to them.

Change is always hard, you can not make everyone happy, but change is the only constant in life and business…change, adapt, or die.

-Tony

[Ryan Linn]

"2. Michael wrote: "What other audience is there that doesn't participate in the forums?" I'm speaking mostly about paying members who do not participate in the forums, which constitute the vast majority of our membership."

I'll speak up for this. Ever since I stopped working in an office, I haven't had time to deal with the bazillions of posts that get spewed around in the forums. Once a week or so I can come in and check the "recent threads" to see what's new, but I miss a heck of a lot. And much of what I find in the forums is not too useful for my time– there's a lot of great information and discussion, but I have to dig through tons topic drift, pointless debates, and long posts by some folks who seem more interested in putting in an opinion on every thread than in giving useful information.

In the past few months, I've found the SOTM articles and a few good gear reviews to be much more useful and economical for my time. True, they're not as comprehensive or exhaustive for every topic as the forums, but if you have limited time, they get the job done.

So yes, there are at least one of us who don't spend all our time on the forums and like to read the articles.

[Clint Hewitt]

Ryan,

When I first heard about BLOG@BPL, I immediately thought of people like you and Phil and your resepctive blogs Guthook hikes and sectionhiker, what came to mind was BPL featuring Blogs like the ones you guys have or creating a housing for them kinda like what has been suggested for cottage gear manufactures having a "mall" here on BPL. I am not sure if that is the intended purpose or not, Im not sure how it is going to function at all in fact or what the true concept is, but if it is to feature more individuals sites with structured gear reviews and trip reports I think it is a great feature. Sifting through Gear Swaps gets annoying. Im sure there are blogs out there like Guthook and section hiker that I would enjoy reading just as much but just do not know about.

Its nice to see BPL trying new things.

[Ken Thompson]

Go for launch in the next month or so? Update?

[Cayenne Redmonk]

I checked out packlessbemore.com, looks great !

I think for a backpacking blog, I would do it different.

[Author]

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