The good ol’ days on BP

[Shiloh Lundahl]

Most of you have not have been around BiggerPockets for over 10 years. But I have. And I've seen a lot of changes. Changes from ownership to CEO to website layout to what appears to be the mission and purpose of Bigger Pockets. 

First off, I recognize that I do not own BiggerPockets and the individuals or entities that do own BiggerPockets have the ability to make any and all decisions regarding the purpose and function of BiggerPockets. Therefore, This post may not serve any purpose. However, if by some chance, this post does get to some decision-maker, I would like to share a daughter or two to bring back some of the glory days of BiggerPockets.

First off, the layout today, in my opinion, is not nearly as good or user-friendly as it used to be. Bigger Pockets used to have the top three trending forum discussions on the front page. The featured discussions drew people in and led to great engagement. If you land on the front page of BiggerPockets today, it's hard to even know that a forum exists. You have to go search for it. The things that are front and center are all of the sponsors. So you're not sure exactly what the website is about. It seems like a website that advertises versus the primary purpose of it back in the day was to provide information by investors for investors.

The search function has also changed quite a bit. It used to be very easy to search members by Location or by what they had in their bio according to what they did primarily. For example, if I was looking for a BIggerPockets member that lived in Mesa, Arizona, that was a wholesaler, It was easy to filter that and come up with a list of people in Mesa that we're wholesalers. Then I could send a direct message to them and ask them to add me to their wholesale list. I can also search for information in the forums according to post date. In other words, if I wanted to see who was talking about Costa Rica in the last three or four months, it was easy to search that out. But now it really doesn't have the same searchable filters or at least they don't work correctly.

The meet up map is no longer there. There used to be a map where you click on a state and then it would show you what meet ups were happening when they were happening. They got rid of that entirely. I've mentioned it a couple of times to people like @Scott Trench but nothing was changed to highlight meetups anymore. It's almost as if BiggerPockets couldn't monetize something then it stopped focusing on it, even if those features were really helpful for the BP community.  

Those are a few of the things that I've seen change over the years that I think has lowered the website user experience. But I am interested in what any of the old timers have to say. Would you say that the BIggerPockets website layout Is better today than it was say 10 years ago? What do you miss about how The website used to be. Or what features does it have now that you like that it didn't used to have?

[Dan H.]

Quote from @Shiloh Lundahl:

Most of you have not have been around BiggerPockets for over 10 years. But I have. And I've seen a lot of changes. Changes from ownership to CEO to website layout to what appears to be the mission and purpose of Bigger Pockets. 

First off, I recognize that I do not own BiggerPockets and the individuals or entities that do own BiggerPockets have the ability to make any and all decisions regarding the purpose and function of BiggerPockets. Therefore, This post may not serve any purpose. However, if by some chance, this post does get to some decision-maker, I would like to share a daughter or two to bring back some of the glory days of BiggerPockets.

First off, the layout today, in my opinion, is not nearly as good or user-friendly as it used to be. Bigger Pockets used to have the top three trending forum discussions on the front page. The featured discussions drew people in and led to great engagement. If you land on the front page of BiggerPockets today, it's hard to even know that a forum exists. You have to go search for it. The things that are front and center are all of the sponsors. So you're not sure exactly what the website is about. It seems like a website that advertises versus the primary purpose of it back in the day was to provide information by investors for investors.

The search function has also changed quite a bit. It used to be very easy to search members by Location or by what they had in their bio according to what they did primarily. For example, if I was looking for a BIggerPockets member that lived in Mesa, Arizona, that was a wholesaler, It was easy to filter that and come up with a list of people in Mesa that we're wholesalers. Then I could send a direct message to them and ask them to add me to their wholesale list. I can also search for information in the forums according to post date. In other words, if I wanted to see who was talking about Costa Rica in the last three or four months, it was easy to search that out. But now it really doesn't have the same searchable filters or at least they don't work correctly.

The meet up map is no longer there. There used to be a map where you click on a state and then it would show you what meet ups were happening when they were happening. They got rid of that entirely. I've mentioned it a couple of times to people like @Scott Trench but nothing was changed to highlight meetups anymore. It's almost as if BiggerPockets couldn't monetize something then it stopped focusing on it, even if those features were really helpful for the BP community.  

Those are a few of the things that I've seen change over the years that I think has lowered the website user experience. But I am interested in what any of the old timers have to say. Would you say that the BIggerPockets website layout Is better today than it was say 10 years ago? What do you miss about how The website used to be. Or what features does it have now that you like that it didn't used to have?

I have been on BP 11 years and never had the search functionality you describe.   How bad is the BP Search function?  Bad enough that I use Google to search BP.   It is the worst of any forum I participate.   I never knew that it once was usable.

i agree with your items, but I fear the users are doing more harm of the forums than BP and BP should take on the challenge of eliminating AI posts and poorly disguised self marketing posts.

i question the purchase price of BP company and fear its value and benefit has peaked.  I think the previous owners may have exited at near peak value.

I justified my pro membership for RentRedi (still Present), Rentometer (discontinued), my use of the forum (pay for something I use) and BPCon discount (i have not yet decided if I will be going and was far from thrilled at the Orlando location).   It is likely I no longer get my money’s worth.

hopefully BP can address some of the issues.