I can't get the gear reviews by BPL to come up in an organized manner. When I go to "gear" and hit "more reviews" they just come up chronologically. I can use the search function to find specific reviews, but it would be nice to be able to browse them by category like the reader reviews. I feel like I must just be missing a link or something but I've been looking for a while and haven't figured out how to doe this. Can anyone help?

This has been pointed out for some time without response or fix from BPL. See this Bug Report thread.

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/8812/index.html

Hi guys,

We're trying hard to make sure the "bug report" forum stays for bug reports only. We are VERY aware that the gear index will be a welcome enhancement, and it is going to be addressed as quickly as possible.

Thanks,
Ben

Ben,
Not to be argumentative, but the gear index should not be viewed as a "welcome enhancement". When this site was migrated to the new version, there was a gear review index (albeit not very user-friendly since it was one long paragraph) which came and went in the early days; one day there, the next gone. The code exists in the ether somewhere; how long should it take to find and restore something that worked at one time?

The Reader Review category index came over fine from the old site and has remained intact. Why should this one be such a problem that it takes months to restore? Sorry if I come across as irritated but this is a major inconvenience for those of us researching for new gear purchases.

Thanks, though, for responding to the posts.

Hello everyone,

I'm not sure I understand.

We ported over all of the queries from the old site.

They are currently organized under the "Gear" Tab, see the submenu (gray) that pops up under that tab when you view that tab.

Please let me know if there are specific queries that are missing.

Best,
Ryan

Hi,
I understand the frustration/confusion of the previous poster. I would suggest moving/adding the link "gear review index" (located on the upper right side of the screen) next to the "more reviews" link. That would be much easier to find.
Best,
Sven

Ryan,
When you select "Reviews" under the "Gear" tab, the next screen up is:



This screen is totally unnecessary since we've already selected reviews; we don't need a sub-menu page that again presents us a choice of "Gear Reviews", "SpotLite Reviews", "State of the Market Reports", or "Reader Gear Reviews". Those options(and more) are what the gray menu bar provides.

Then, clicking on "More Gear Reviews..." takes us to the first of 8 pages of 391 reviews in chronological order. There is no category menu (Sleeping Bags - Down, etc.) where we can quickly drill down to see what specific pieces of gear in that category have available reviews. See "Community | Reader Reviews" for the desired set-up.