This has been bugging me for awhile; I hope this is the right area to post it.

I used to like the blogs and articles BootsnAll posted on the home page. They were kind of fun and quirky. Now it seems they are dominated by lists that any of us could have written by doing a google search and then reading Wikitravel. I don't even beleive that the authors have been to most of the places they write about.

What's worse, the lists tend to be so damn parochial. Half the articles are about the strangest and the weirdest and the grossest.

I miss the old, intelligent articles, and I'm wishing Bootsnall would be a bit more selective again in what they publish. As it is now, I usually skip the first page and rush right into the forums.

It's true we're publishing a fair number of these list type articles. They're not for everyone and I can understand how seeing these things over and over can be repetitive. For new visitors and folks that come across BootsnAll via social networks, a catchy title or easily read list may what draws them in and introduces them to BNA.

We are, however, still publishing articles written by travellers, about places they have definitely been to. These are published every day along with the editorial features and I'm guessing those are the old intelligent articles you're missing.

And of course, we're always open to suggestions and ideas. What are things you'd like to read about in a travel article?

I like hearing honest perspectives. I don't even care so much on the topics, so much as I value something that is personal and unique - and not lifted straight from online surfing. I want to learn something, I want to take something away from the article.

But I just got your recent email, and there's almost nothing in the ten articles you recommend that isn't generic. There is nothing in there that isn't in Wikitravel or Lonely Planet. Even worse, the majority of the writers get so many of their details horribly wrong. They don't even crib from good books!

The only author who gave anything personal was on "Eight Traditional Foods," though I guess I should give some credit to the guy who published ten photos of vegetables.

But if that's all it takes ... how much do you pay?

Details of submission offerings here.

I tend to agree with Michael. I've rarely even read these lists articles because they just don't interest me, so I can't comment on their quality, but I must say since they've become dominant, I don't visit the main page anymore. Bootsnall used to be filled with stories about places I was curious about, and maybe these articles are still there, but certainly not featured prominently on the main page, and I'm too lazy to go looking for them unless I'm researching a specific destination.

As mentioned, they're updated on the home page every day right alongside the editorial articles. They are also part of our Daily Dose email that you can subscribe to and have them delivered every day.

Hey Michael, you definitely aren't the only one to notice this odd phenomenon. In fact, we had this same conversation in this thread.

Long story short, and just as Hydro said, it's not that we've stopped the Traveler Articles, it's just that we've added general interest features as well, and those do tend to be far more popular with most (but not all) readers, so they get a more prominent position on the homepage. The other ones are still there in the exact same place though.

It may seem like an endless parade of "list articles" but we are mixing in different subjects whenever possible. As someone else noted, the list articles tend to draw more traffic than other styles, partly because they can be scanned easily and they tend to be visually appealing, so people can get something out of them without committing to 15 minutes of reading and hoping it'll be interesting in the end.

We'd be thrilled if you had suggestions for articles you could write that might be popular with other readers. We are trying different things every week and we'll continue to experiment, so I hope you send us a pitch for a paid feature so we could consider it. We are also doing "expert" articles every Friday, and those are all about travel advice about something different every week. If there's a subject you know well you could share your knowledge with others and get paid for it too.

Thanks for being a member, and we hope we can keep you interested and maybe writing for us as well.

Roger

p.s. - I read every article we publish and one of my favorite in a long time is this hilarious Traveler Article about a recent ill-planned trip to Iceland:
http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/09-05 ... nners.html

Maybe it'll appeal to you too, but of course everyone's tastes are different.

While I'm at it, here are 3 other really great ones that many people probably missed:

A well written piece about going out alone in Ankara
http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/09-05 ... urkey.html

Great photos and first-hand account of visiting this stunning part of Egypt
http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/09-05 ... esert.html

And this is actually an Expert article about teaching English in Thailand, so it's a paid submission that most people wouldn't have been interested in, but even if you aren't interested in teaching in Thailand you'll still find it really well written and fascinating. Skip the top part about finding a school and you'll see the rest is still very entertaining.
http://www.bootsnall.com/articles/09-05 ... guide.html

Long story short, and just as Hydro said, it's not that we've stopped the Traveler Articles, it's just that we've added general interest features as well, and those do tend to be far more popular with most (but not all) readers, so they get a more prominent position on the homepage. The other ones are still there in the exact same place though.

So the short answer is that there's still good stuff, but it's hidden in the middle of a bunch of mass-market tripe. I can understand that as a business move, but I think what we're getting here is that it would be nice if there was a way to find the top-notch travel stories without having to manually filter through everything.

When I started coming to Bootsnall, you guys consistently published one article per day, and most days I would sit and read the whole thing, and it was good. I haven't looked at the front page in ages, as it's just too difficult to find anything worth reading. Maybe an "editor's choice" section or something would help balance the traffic benefits from having many articles of lower quality with the demands of us snobbish community members.

edit: Actually, you know what would be super awesome, if you ever have some developer time to do it? A story recommendation system where we could put in what stories we liked, and then have it spit back suggestions about other stories we'd like based on various factors (style being the big one, what other people who like the same articles as us have said...that sort of thing). Kind of a Pandora for travel stories. The big problem, I think is that you've got so much content and no way to filter it.

2wanderers wrote:So the short answer is that there's still good stuff, but it's hidden in the middle of a bunch of mass-market tripe. I can understand that as a business move, but I think what we're getting here is that it would be nice if there was a way to find the top-notch travel stories without having to manually filter through everything.

Not sure how being displayed on the home page qualifies as "hidden in the middle of a bunch of mass-market tripe". We're still publishing that one article a day that you used to sit and read all the way through and it's displayed right next to the other article we're publishing once per day that you're not interested in.

The Pandora style suggestion is an interesting idea. It would be super awesome. No idea how difficult it would be technically but something to think about.

Sorry if that was offensive, it wasn't meant to be. Having stuff on the homepage is fine, but it's just that there is higher volume running through there now, and so a reader has to filter a lot to find good articles. Are you still publishing one article per day, because my distinct impression from looking at the homepage that you are publishing at a higher rate. Of course, I don't check it every day anymore, so maybe I'm wrong.