Like saying goes, be the change that you want to see. There are tons of experienced, articulate and thoughtful members already here that could choose to participate. High effort posts get too often ignored.
Making posting free would probably significantly increase traffic but I can’t see how that increases incentive to make high effort submissions. Seen this happen for 30 years across every single board from motorcycles to racing to audio design to fishing to backpacking, they all just die in a sea of low effort noise.
For example, reddit ultralight is dying as well. Posts there increasingly don’t focus on ultralight and by the mods opening up the participation its been taken over by trad backpacking conversations. Nothing wrong with trad, its just not what the subreddit is meant to be.
If BPL wants a place for people just to fraternize, I agree, open it up for free. If they want a place aimed at high effort submissions, maybe look at a different tact such as better engaging with the clientele here. I see they try (“tell us what you think” after an article is posted) but that doesn’t really work. Real personal engagement is needed to make a positive change.
Another factor causing decreased participation is that its much easier to find the information now and less expensive to go ultralight so the novelty has worn off for most of those already here.
I appreciate how BPL is pivoting more towards skills articles, probably in response to this.
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