Whiteblaze.com champions the Appalachain Trail. After a rash of undesireable posts, the following message now appears when you try to access the site.

"Things have been getting out of hand here in the forums on WhiteBlaze. This is not what the web site was design for. It is an embarrassment and I am sure others will agree. We have new users coming to the web site every day and when they have to see the bickering and arguing over stupid useless things it turns them away. Should we shut down the web site? It has crossed my mind a few times.

With the wealth of knowledge we have here on WhiteBlaze and all the good information I can not see putting it all to waste and not sharing it with people planning to thru hike or section hike by shutting down the site.

With this said we are going to have to set forward some pretty straight forward ground rules for posting. There will be Zero Tolerance when these rules are implemented.

If you are put on an infraction or moderated status there will be no explanations. We are tired of listening to the whining and sniveling about “Joe Blow can get away with it but I can’t” or “Joe Blow was the one that started it”. We are all adults here. Start acting like adults please.

This is not directed at everyone. The ones that it is directed are will know who they are.

We will start all of this and have the web site back online maybe Wednesday sometime"


While it's unlikely Ryan would go this far, all posters need to be aware that forums like WB and BPL are privately owned and operated; the 1st ammendment does not apply. You can not just say anything you like to anyone you want with impunity.

Thank you for sharing this with us. I have seen more than one poster driven off when they dared to question or offer an opposing viewpoint.

I know "Mama" taught us all better than this.

Its good to see that Whiteblaze is finally putting their foot down. The way many of the posters would derail a topic or bicker is one of the main reasons I decided to stop visiting WB and kind of turned me off from the AT as a whole. I sincerely hope we can avoid that kind of situation here.

Adam

Same here. In January I posted a thread at WB called something like "long rant". The point was to highlight how so many threads were hijacked by the usual suspects ( Q ; I am looking for a solo tent... A: you don't want a tent, get a hammock/ Q: what type of mat ... A : why use a mat when you can use duff...) to the point where real information was hard to come by. My post was followed by several pages of replies most containing totally inane comments, one of the exceptions was ST Rock explaining that the gear/review/ultralite forums were essentially a free for all and only the straightforward one was restricted to the topic (!). I never bothered after that.
Franco

Adam said: kind of turned me off from the AT as a whole

I've experienced both WB and the AT. Don't be discouraged by anything on the web to get turned off from the AT. The AT has many great miles of hiking. Incredible variety. Tradition and history.

As for WB, think bobcats. They're fine when they're out in the wild, but crowd too many of them into a small web site and fur will fly. Herding bobcats doesn't work well.

For BPL, think of a pack of wolves. The alpha that keeps the pack stable is a common goal - seeking lighter-ness. We'll growl and show teeth, but usually not bite each other.