2014 Staff Picks

Hi Donna

> Get some women on the team and have them do some gear reviews as well.

OK, I will call you on that one. Write some gear reviews yourself!

Seriously – I have asked several female readers for articles, they have said OK, but I have yet to receive any of them. Can't publish what we don't have.

The normal route to being labeled Staff is to contribute for a while. It would not make sense to do it any other way.

Feel free to email me direct for help and advice – I have worked with quite a few authors over this.

Cheers
roger@backpackinglight.com

As one of the people that dropped the ball….Roger has a point.

"RJ…

No Darin Banner or Mike Martin?

What happened between BPL and Mike Clelland? Skurka use to be around much more. Remember the Great Western Loop podcasts?"

Symptomatic of the downward spiral?

"Feel free to email me direct for help and advice – I have worked with quite a few authors over this."

Great. You could start with RJ.

–B.G.–

> Symptomatic of the downward spiral?

I do NOT handle any of BPL's finances, nor do I have any of the financial data …

Yes, you could call it a downwards spiral. I believe that would describe the BPL income stream after the Global Financial Crisis. We all got hit. What can you do?

Cheers

"I do NOT handle any of BPL's finances, nor do I have any of the financial data …

Yes, you could call it a downwards spiral. I believe that would describe the BPL income stream after the Global Financial Crisis. We all got hit. What can you do?"

It was a general comment; nothing to do with you. And what I am talking about, in any case, has little to do with finances. At least not directly.

NM
Apathy wins.

There have been women on the staff before, but after all the turnover, there aren't any now. I don't see that as a problem in any way, and I am sure there will be some more women on the staff in the future. People seem to come and go.

I always look forward to the staff picks. Most of the time it is stuff I already know about or doesn't apply to me, but sometimes I get a few ideas. I also just like to see what other people are using, and really like.

I have hiked with a few BPL authors in the past (none of them are currently active writers for BPL), and I think they were paid something like $300 for their articles, so not much. These people aren't getting rich for sure, and I don't think Ryan is either. Of course all of these people had day jobs that paid the bills and I am not sure what else Ryan does anymore other than BPL and Guiding. My guess is he is able to scrape by on the income from BPL, the BPL School, his personal guiding, and perhaps some freelance photography and public speaking.

I too miss Mike Clelland. I am not sure what the falling out was, but he has seemed to disappear from the staff and the forums as well. I didn't always agree with his views, but I always thought he had excellent gear list critiques and I think we all respected his back country skills.

It's just an article with people's list of their favorite 3 pieces of gear for 2014. Most of the gear is well known and documented all over the web. How this thread has quickly disintegrated into complaint after complaint is mind boggling.

Wait…

Oh, my calendar indicates we are in the middle of winter. That explains it.

Luckily I am in prime desert hiking season, so I have no complaints.

I can assure you that writing articles for BPL is not a lucrative thing, most probably do it more for the love then the money.

I generalyl avoid "downward spiral" debates because BPL has been "dying" for a long time but somehow it never quit dies. I was bored once and dug up a bunch of the old pdf files of BPL, back when it was physical magazine. There was some cool stuff for sure, and also so not so great stuff. I think we remember it fondly because it was new and novel back then. I don't think BPL articles have gotten better or worse, there were never enough authors doing enough things to have a constant stream of perfect stories and gear reviews.

While I'm on the subject I have done BPL articles and its a pretty pain free process, if you have an adventure or a gear review try submitting it.

I liked this article. Nice mix of newish gear like the Unaweep and classics like the buff.

In my opinion, the best BPL Trip Report article was written by a lady about a year or so ago. As Roger said, if the lady hikers don't submit article, what are they supposed to do? I blame Kat.

I suspect if BPL would respond to tickets, and concerns raised in the Website & Forum Admin/Support sub forum, there wouldn't be much reason to gripe on these Editor's Round Table threads since these issues would be dealt with elsewhere.

My hat's off to Roger and David for keeping this ship pointed more or less in the right direction.

I don't know Ryan. There may be some serious personal issues (medical for example) where I would be sympathetic to his silence on some of these issues as he may be needed elsewhere. As it is, I have no idea and we're left to assume the worst. A simple "we're working to resolve these issues and I hope to have a solution in the next couple weeks" here and there with some honest follow up would go a long way.

I truly enjoy BPL for the friends I've made here and the knowledge I’ve received. I've read the usual books, Skurka's for example, but BPL has been without a doubt the best resource for me to get my base weight down to 8-10lbs.

I think some of us are just growing a bit weary of walking past the same pile of crap in the living room day after day. We can't clean it up ourselves and those who can, won't.

Flame on.

aI think some of us are just growing a bit weary of walking past the same pile of crap in the living room day after day. We can't clean it up ourselves and those who can, won't.

This is perhaps the best the best analogy for the simmering frustration I've seen (and felt, at times) on the site. Well said.

del

And yet you post too.

"to fill the voids in their lives that allows them to get so needy and emotionally invested in an internet discussion forum they don't own or have a stake in." Everyone who has contributed to the community of BPL has a stake. Caring and wanting better should not be unappreciated. BPL is the forum community for me. The BPL I love and am emotionally invested in is the place where I have met and made real friends over the years. So excuse me while I go back to living my void filled life.

Thanks for belittling others peoples feelings.

I think that's a bit unfair, Rick. Folks have legitimate gripes, and when those gripes go unheeded time and time again, it can get quite old and frustrating, whether you're getting outside or not.

And, sadly, I think if two simple changes/fixes were made, lots of ill will would recede: fix the ads so that unrelated, racy ads are no longer shown. It is a bit ridiculous to have some posts edited to remove swearing because 'kids use these forums!', but to continue to allow ads to kids that, if clicked, would be far worse than a casual swear word.

And folks have asked for eons now to have gear swap moved to its own subforum like chaff was. It obviously wasn't that hard to move chaff, shouldn't be hard to move gear swap.

It has little to do with 'filling a void,' and lots to do with expecting basic services for fees rendered.

del

I've sold a lot of gear on Gearswap, stuff I probably would have had a hard time selling anywhere else.

With a stroke of the keyboard I get the best ultralight backpacking information available. All for $5 a year!

I kind of like the "Date Russian Women", "Date Thai Women" ads. If I get desperate enough I might do just respond to one of them.

"So if you really want to make a point and hit him were it hurts the best strategy is not to login or post at all. Seriously."

So is this goodbye then? See ya. If you see us getting smaller. it's 'cause you're leaving.

I've been debating the pros/cons of going to a canister stove for melting snow and I think I've narrowed it down to the Kovea Spider or the MSR reactor.

I read through a few old threads but my basic question is for sub zero F temperatures, will an inverted canister stove in liquid feed mode and the upright reactor in a water bath perform more or less the same? I've never used my Soto ODR in those temps and my snow melting has been limited to white gas.

The one benefit I see (assuming both will perform equally) is that there's a larger margin of error with the Kovea in cases where user error has led to frozen or dry water bottles. For the record, I realize melting snow without some water to get it started is a very inefficient way to get 'er done.

del

I met Ken and Doug and many others here because of BPL . Real, caring people. They don't YELL either, which is a plus.

I bet RJ is paying most of his bills with just the posts from Bob Gross.

Anonymous

This thread has helped me finally figure out what BPL really stands for:

Bitching, (com)'Plaining, and Lamenting…

amazing… who knew?

billy

You know that whining about whining is still whining right?

;)

…basic question is for sub zero F temperatures, will an inverted canister stove in liquid feed mode and the upright reactor in a water bath perform more or less the same?…

Ian, I might be able to help you with that decision shortly.

I have been waiting for a serious cold snap to do some testing with the inverted canister Kovea set-up and it looks as if we're about to receive the first real dose of winter this year. Close to zero tomorrow night and Wed morning, so I can test right out on the deck.

Yes, I also have a Reactor and when it gets really cold the Reactor needs some help. I'm going to test the Kovea inverted without the cozy, then with the cozy and a snack-sized baggie of water in the base (also inverted).

I've also been working on another combo involving a snowpeak Giga and a Primus Eta HX pot that is very promising.