There's no way to log on---just an error message. Sad for the biggest backpacking community on-line...

You mean the one associated with the backpacker magazine?

Probably the weight of all the unrestrained trolls toppled it over.

I suspect tho that the software (never the best) is probably maxed out and the magazine doesn't appear to have been doing well. Every time I see another popup ad for it, they seem to be offering more and more to get you to subscribe.

That's not really out of the ordinary for that forum. Just wait a while and try again.

I learned that the hard way. Stay out of the political forum. The stereotypes are crazy. The only extremes I want to see on a backpacking forum are summer and winter.

I don't even bother with the forum there at all. Backpacker forums don't need political forums!

They let trolls pretty much do what they want, no matter what forum they decide to spit in - no thank you.

Agreed

Haven't posted there in over 6 years.

I've enjoyed discussing politics with friends and members here. While we don't have a "Political Forum", politics are very much a part of backpacking and worthy of discussion, so it's done in the "Off Topic Forum".

Remember when Bush Jr. wanted to sell off our NF land? I can tell you locals here were concerned and discussing it. And currently, here on this forum, the proposed "Government Shut Down" is also being discussed.

So I must disagree, Backpacking Forums do need a place to discuss politics, but they do not need a place to spew mean spirited political rhetoric, or to tolerate it.

I don't disagree with you that we need a place to discuss politics.

I disagree that any backpacking forum needs a political forum. All you have to do is look in the Backpacker forum for a lot of reasons why. The mean spirited political rhetoric flourishes unchecked, and the same people go into the backpacking subforums and do the same to the people in those places too. Having a dedicated forum just for political issues seems to draw them in and having no moderation whatsoever leaves the rest of the forum open to their destructive behavior.

Some politics as you mention are totally on topic - we all are impacted by legislation on wilderness issues, after all. I would trust folks here to be able to moderate themselves pretty well on hot button political topics. The tone here is set by the folks running the forum - and it's totally different here. Setting up a Political Forum is on the board owner of course... but I would hope that it would be specifically dedicated to politics relevant to backpacking/hiking! otherwise we'd have a bunch of really busy moderators.

Amen!

I love discussing politics. But the U.S. national and political party leaders set a poor example and the style of many media pundits panders and encourages despicable commentary (often personal and off subject). Between the anonymity provided by the internet, poorly enforced forum standards, and the failings of the American education system ;), a 'good' discussion is hard to find and maintain/continue online.

"I feel that if a person has problems communicating the very least he can do is to shut up." -- Tom Lehrer

FB

We do have the "Off-Topic" forum here. However, it is heavily moderated. A lot of new moderators have been added to keep it civil--if it isn't, deleted threads or even shutdowns are liable to occur.

This discussion might better be continued there, IMHO.