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Hello, Trailspace blog readers. We’ve been even busier than usual at Trailspace lately. In addition to hiring Tom Mangan as our new assistant editor, here’s what else has been happening around here.

1. New Gear:
We’ve added more than six thousand new backcountry products to the gear guide this fall alone, including ones in the following new categories:

• Knives and multi-tools 
• Portable power
• Bear safety
• First aid kits
• Dog gear

So, let those gear reviews rip and tell your fellow backcountry types how your outdoor gear truly performed. Did it meet or exceed its manufacturer’s promises, or crash and burn?

2. Even More New Gear:
We’re not done though. With 34,146 products in the backcountry gear guide and counting, we’ve got plans to add even more hiking and backpacking gear and new categories to the site. If you want to weigh in and suggest a gear category, please leave us a comment below.

3. RSS Feeds:
Did you know you can subscribe to this blog as an RSS feed? It’s easy and convenient. If you’re already a blog subscriber, did you know there’s also an Articles RSS feed? You can get all Trailspace news and articles — like Hiking and Camping Safely in Bear Country, Outdoor Fuel: New Bars, Chews, and Bites, and the latest profiles — delivered directly as we publish them.

4. Follow Us:
Lastly, this isn’t new, but a reminder that you can become a fan of Trailspace on Facebook. You can also follow us on Twitter for site updates and commentary.

If you have site feedback or suggestions, please leave us a comment below or in the Feedback forum. Thanks for reading and being part of Trailspace!

The Federal Trade Commission is taking on bloggers who’ve been paid for their posts or wooed with freebies from companies that they cover. Personally, this sounds like a great idea to me. If a company sends you a product and you tell readers it’s the best thing since sliced bread, your readers deserve to know how you acquired that product and how you came to that conclusion, so they can gauge your credibility.

What I find far more troubling is that some companies are able to buy space on blogs and pay for positive coverage. Trailspace readers should know that we have never been paid or in any way compensated for a blog or article on our site (though we’ve had some offers, to which I reply, our blog is not for sale).

Trailspace’s editorial team decides what outdoor subjects and gear we cover on the basis of newsworthiness, potential reader interest and needs, and the time we have to devote. Our editorial and advertising functions remain separate. (I’ve also had disgruntled people threaten not to advertise on the site if I didn’t let them break our forums’ community rules. Too bad, I say.)

Full disclosure: we occasionally get samples of products for gear testing, but it is our policy to always divulge when a product has been provided by the manufacturer for that purpose.

Our mission at Trailspace is to help consumers find the right outdoor gear for them through gear coverage, reviews, and information. I strongly believe that getting greedy for the sake of some extra money or gear would destroy our credibility and trustworthiness, completely undermining that mission. It would be like shooting ourselves in the foot.

So, what makes a source trustworthy (or not) to you? Do you think it’s evident when a source is shilling a product? Tell us below.

Back to the FTC's new guidelines, while the FTC’s intentions sound good, apparently the 81 pages of rules are drawing many, many protests, specifically for being overly broad, inconsistent, confusing, and far more severe to bloggers than traditional print journalists (hey, how about disclosing the entire travel industry?).

I’m going to start reading the guidelines now to see how they might apply.

For more info:

FTC Announcement: FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials

FTC Guide (PDF)

Some coverage:

FTC Blogging Rules Draw Online Protests (CBS News)

FTC: Bloggers, testimonials need better disclosure (AOL Money and Finance)

Why the FTC's truth in blogging guidelines are truly terrible (Daily Finance)

I'm very excited to report that we’ve hired Tom Mangan as assistant editor of Trailspace. You may recognize Tom’s name from a series of cottage gear maker profiles he wrote for Trailspace earlier this year. Tom is also the author and publisher of the popular hiking blog Two-Heel Drive, a 20-plus-year journalism veteran, and an avid hiker and backpacker (that’s him above on North Carolina’s Stone Mountain).

As assistant editor he’s in charge of Trailspace’s online gear catalog database and will write and edit outdoor gear guides, comparisons, and reviews (hey, that sounds like a good gig!). Welcome on board, Tom!

Press release

After a long week prowling the aisles at Outdoor Retailer, it's easy to go into gear overload. This afternoon our intrepid editor Alicia took a well-earned break and disappeared into the Wasatch high country (if only for a couple hours). That's what it's all about.

I'm excited to announce the release of some major new features here on Trailspace:

The most obvious and widespread change is that every page on the side is wider, to take better advantage of today's larger screens. This should make the site easier to use, with more information on every screen, less scrolling, and a nicer visual appearance.

Along with the wider layout we've redesigned the Trailspace home page to provide easy access to the most-used and current content from all across the site, including recent articles, reviews, active forum topics, and more.

Speaking of member content, a lot of you have been asking to upload and share photos of your hikes and other adventures. Well now you can upload, store, and organize photos and photo albums right from your profile, or even while composing a forum post. (Just click on the "Insert/edit image" icon in the post editor.)

Finally, the old News and Gear Guide areas of the site have been combined and rechristened "Articles." The new Articles section of the site is better-organized, with a number of new topic areas that make it easier to find fresh and relevant content from a variety of authors.  You'll also find it easier to comment on articles, with comments now displayed right on every article page.

As always, if you run into any bugs, or have suggestions for changes or improvements, please post here or in the feedback forum or just send me an e-mail.

We’re looking for a few, talented, outdoorsy freelance writers to write profiles, gear news articles, and gear reviews and comparisons for Trailspace on assignment.

If you’re a detail-oriented writer who's passionate about backcountry recreation and the gear that goes along with it, you might be the right person for Trailspace.

Interested? Send an e-mail detailing your professional and personal qualifications to editor@trailspace.com. Please provide links to appropriate writing samples, if possible.

It’s Tax Day. As members of 1% For the Planet since 2006, we donate at least one percent of annual sales to environmental organizations. From national organizations, like the American Hiking Society and Leave No Trace, to our local land trust and the Maine ATC, you can see which outdoor and environmental groups we supported in 2008.

Want to suggest a favorite environmental organization? Tell us about it and we’ll consider it for future 1% For the Planet contributions.

We think that along with gearing up and getting out, we have a responsibility to be good stewards of the wild places near and far that we enjoy.

For more info and to see who we’re currently supporting, visit Trailspace’s “Giving Back” section: www.trailspace.com/about/giving-back/

 Trailspace turns 8 years old today. Happy Birthday!

If we were celebrating a traditional anniversary, the eighth would call for a gift of bronze. That could mean backpacking boots with bronze loops (ala the Merrell Phaser Peak Waterproof) or some climbing hardware, like the Metolius Astro Nuts or a Black Diamond Pulley. A commerative bronze summit marker of a favorite peak would make a nice gift for your outdoor sweetie too.

Tonight we launched a bunch of improvements to the site's search engine. The search box in the sitewide page header is the same (we didn't want to clutter the interface), but the search results page is much improved:

- First of all, you'll actually get a search results page consistently. It used to be that if you searched for an exact brand or product name, the search engine would redirect you immediately to the brand or product page. For a lot of people this worked out pretty well, especially when using the gear reviews, but it made life difficult when trying to search the forums. So now every search will lead to a full results page, which will include a big bold summary of the brand or product in cases where it used to redirect. Here's a good example.

- From the results page, you can refine your search by area of the site. Options include the entire site, gear reviews, forums, and articles (which includes the news, gear guide articles, and the blog).

- The layout and look and feel is improved. The ads that Google puts on the results page are now displayed down the right side instead of up above the actual search results. The colors also match the rest of the site a bit better.

As always, bug reports or suggestions for additional improvement are welcome here or in the feedback forum.

 Trailspace turns 7 years old today. Happy Birthday!

As members of 1% For the Planet, we donate at least one percent of annual sales to environmental organizations. We think that along with gearing up and getting out, we all have a responsibility to be good stewards of the wild places near and far that we enjoy.

Now you can visit Trailspace’s “Giving Back” pages to see whose efforts we’re currently supporting. There also are lists of our 1% For the Planet recipients for each fiscal year. See which environmental organizations we supported in 2007.

Want to suggest a favorite environmental organization? Tell us about it and we’ll consider it for future 1% For the Planet contributions.

Photo: Hugh Rose Photography

Congratulations to Radé Svorcan (aka mountainman333) and to the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative. Radé’s December 11th review of the Leki Makalu Antishock trekking poles was randomly selected as the winner of our first 1% For the Planet donation contest, which we held at the end of 2007.

Radé selected the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative (Y2Y) as the recipient of a $250 donation from Trailspace in his honor. Through science and stewardship, Y2Y seeks to ensure that the wilderness, wildlife, native plants, and natural processes of the Yellowstone to Yukon region continue to function as an interconnected web of life.

Radé is an engineer and lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. When he finds some free time he likes to spend it in the mountains, doing anything from mountaineering to photography. So far he has fit in trekking trips to Patagonia and Peru, and climbs up Mt. Whitney, Rainier, and peaks in the Rockies and Andes. Unfortunately Radé has been working off-site and couldn't send us a photo to share from his many adventures.

Congratulations, Radé! And thanks for helping Trailspace support a worthy cause. 

Don’t forget to write that gear review. Now through the end of the year, Trailspace is holding a 1% Percent For the Planet donation contest. Here’s how it works:

1. Write a valid gear review on Trailspace now through December 31, 2007.
2. We’ll randomly select one reviewer out of all the valid entries.
3. The randomly-selected winner will tell us which environmental group, out of more than 1,500 in 1% For the Planet’s worldwide network, deserves $250.
4. We’ll send that approved environmental group $250 in the winner’s name.

This is your chance to do some good for your favorite environmental cause, on our dime.

Here’s your chance to do some good for your favorite environmental cause, on our dime. Now through the end of the year, Trailspace is holding a 1% Percent For the Planet donation contest. Here’s how it work:

1. Write a valid gear review on Trailspace now through December 31, 2007.
2. We’ll randomly select one reviewer out of all the valid entries.
3. The randomly-selected winner will tell us which environmental group, out of more than 1,500 in 1% For the Planet’s worldwide network, deserves $250.
4. We’ll send that approved environmental group $250 in the winner’s name.

So who should it be? Leave No Trace, the Backcountry Snowsports Alliance, the Prickly Pear Land Trust? It’s winner’s choice. Write a review and you could decide. We’ll announce the winner and the environmental group they selected in our January newsletter. For review writing tips check out "How To Write a Killer Gear Review."

As a member of 1% For the Planet, Trailspace donates at least one percent of annual sales to environmental organizations. Learn more about 1% For the Planet at www.onepercentfortheplanet.org.

I’d wager I’m the only person who’s read every single one of Trailspace’s 11,800-plus and counting gear reviews. That’s a lot of opinions on outdoor gear, clothing, and footwear, and I’d like to think I’ve learned a few things in the process, like not only what gear to avoid, but also what makes a good gear review.

The best gear reviews, whether positive or negative, come from thoughtful, observant gear users who put themselves and the details of their experience into their reviews. Good reviewers need not be the most experienced outdoor enthusiasts, but they always keep their audience in mind and anticipate what gear questions their fellow hikers, backpackers, and climbers want answered.

To help everyone write great gear reviews and share their experiences with the rest of us, I’ve pulled together some tips on “How To Write a Killer Gear Review.” Read it over. Write a killer review. And help your fellow backcountry enthusiasts gear up and get out.

Read “How to Write a Killer Review” »