Roger,
This has always been a great site.
A while back there was an invasion of automated ads being posted on the forum threads, and BPL managed to stop it. Before, during and after that episode I was a paid 'premium' member, and had been for several years.
With the new ad invasion, done by BPL itself, also came a 'doubleclick' feature, but only on the BPL website. This is a feature that I occasionally run into when visiting an unfamiliar site that comes up on a Google search, usually when trying to source some hard to find material or other.
What it does is partially disable the back button. It can be circumvented by right clicking on the back button, and clicking past the doubleclick entries on the list that comes up. But when I do that, I can't go forward to the page I was on before backing up. So, when composing a post, and needing to go back to review other posters' comments, links, or concerns, I can't go back to composing the post in progress, and have to start all over again. This means printing out hard copies from threads in order to address other posters' concerns and ideas.
I filled out and sent in contact forms to BPL several times about the above, and ended up with only a snippy answer, to which I responded as politely as I could, and got no response.
I readily admit to being severely IT challenged. That is because at my age, time is more precious than ever, and I'd much rather spend it donating the skills I do have to others than sitting glued to a computer for hours and hours trying to acquire new IT skills. So it boils down to whether a website is friendly or not. If it's friendly, I can use it as a tool to communicate without wasting much time. If it's not, I'm at the mercy of the system, and would be better off doing constructive things, like building my own gear, working for my trail club, developing workshops for others in my profession, etc.
Currently, I would have to say that BPL is not a friendly site. That's because being IT challenged, and being at the mercy of some of those who are not, too much time is being spent wrestling with the site. That is too bad, because the articles on the site used to be its greatest value, and when that changed, the members took up the slack on the forums, preserving much of the value of the site. But a number of the more experienced backpackers, some quite well known, also stopped contributing.
Lately, the ads have been muted a little, but that is not the real problem here.
I've spent much of this Sunday reading and reflecting on this thread, searching for apps that might allow me to navigate this site, being bilked and having to uninstall a few, and generally, just wasting a lot of time. If this site is unfriendly, it's going down, and you are not going to be able to keep it afloat by yourself.
The next step at this end could be to take the computer to a technician, or several because it's hard to find a good one, blow a lot of money to make sure the computer is operating properly and get the apps to stop the doubleclick. After that, maybe it's time to look for information elsewhere, which is very sad given the great help other backpackers have been here, people like you who are willing to give their time to sharing information and helping the site. But each of us has a breaking point. I got into this site when recovering from major surgery and needed alternatives for spending time without overexertion. But I'm better now, and may try something else. Maybe one of the sites from your country, who knows.
Hope all is well.
Sam
