Forum guidelines clarification

As a paying customer I expect reasonable service – unfortunately the service has gone downhill over the past couple of years. Ryan Jordan has chosen to not address any of the issues in a clear and transparent manner. Instead it appears it’s up to Roger to deal with all customer complaints.

I understand that the decision to “upgrade” to a “better” platform has been a disaster and it may be financially impossible for BPL to do yet another “upgrade”. So I think BPL is stuck with this mess for a while.

For “Lifetime members” (or whatever they’re called now) there is no choice to not pay and walk away. The only option is for BPL to provide some prorated refund of the fee charged upfront to let them walk away if they so choose. Fat chance of that happening!

As much as I agree with the point of view expressed above that no business need tolerate the dissent etc, this entire mess is a creation of BPL management who allowed the situation to devolve to this current mess.

Ongoing candid communication from Ryan Jordan is one way to address customer concerns; unfortunately all we get are meaningless “strategic updates”. It is not rocket science to post periodic updates on the way forward; most people on here see the value provided by BPL.

Instead BPL has come to this – deleting posts and entire threads.

My post above was reported?

RE:  “A business cannot make all of its customers happy, but it cannot ignore a large segment of its customer base and survive over the long term. Since the customers here are paying members, the management must listen to them if they want to grow the business.”

One customer’s “happiness” button might not be the “happiness” button of another customer.

Most folks find they can’t always have their cake & eat it, too.  That means prioritizin’ — for some, money is #1; for others, #1 is looks; for others, #1 is enjoying/sharing life experiences they value highly.

Dylan had something to say about that stuff, like the closing for “Talkin’ World War III Blues” which speaks to the “value” offered by BPL, its tolerance, and its “business” practices as related to the “dreams” of its community:

“Half of the people can be part right all of the time and

“Some of the people can be all right part of the time but

“All the people can’t be all alright all of the time

“I think Abraham Lincoln said that

” ‘I’ll let you be in my dreams if I can be in yours’, I said that”

Or, like the Notorious Cherry Bombs put it with “It’s Hard To Kiss the Lips at Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long” —

The angst directed at BPL could be more bearable if folks adopted the priorities Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty espouse for money, good looks, and what those two great artists value most (life’s important stuff — for them) in “You’re the Reason Our Kids Are Ugly” —

Happy trails!!!  And sweet dreams, too!!!  To be, or not to be . . . continued.

ha, ha,… yeah, I was looking through your post Kat to see what was inappropriate

must be someone accidentally clicked on that button?

Most of the value I have gotten out of BPL has been the experience and advice from members that have backpacked for a long time and all over the place. I rarely read articles. I did not invest in the packrafting DVDs so I did not expect those nor do I expect better software etc. Since it is the knowledge and sharing of the members that have made BPL was it is to me, I would like to see the community respected enough to be given explanations when posts and threads are deleted and when members like Bob Gross and Ken ( Dave T.) disappear. I think that is reasonable request.

+1

Let’s not overlook the value other members have given each of us over the years. It is not a minimal contribution and may be more important than most of the articles published here.

A community is only as strong as the sum of its members.

So the OP asked for clarification. No feedback from the moderators or the owner, but someone had time to read and delete posts in this very thread, without comments or communication to anyone (or else there is a software glitch or Russian hackers doing it). Here are a couple posts that were deleted from this very thread…

Someone is definitively there but unwilling to talk to the community.

Hello Everyone,

We are formulating a response to recent questions about forum activity and moderation.

We are not ignoring your pleas more info, but we have some other issues that are taking priority right now, so we appreciate your patience.

In the meantime, please review the forum guidelines, which are available as a link in the sidebar from every page in the forums, and here for reference:

Are Forums Moderated? What are your guidelines?

Until then, I am closing this thread and will reopen it when I respond in detail.

I’d like to ask for your patience on this, and to refrain from venting critical sentiment towards BPL, or towards me personally, on the BPL forums.

If you need to vent, or have questions, or would like to request clarification about something, or would like a refund on your membership, or aren’t getting the customer support you need via the HelpDesk, or for any other issue that you feel our moderators, support staff, or myself are not sufficiently addressing for you, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly at publisher@backpackinglight.com.

Thanks,
Ryan