I’ve talked about Al’s Blog many times over the years.

I’ve lauded the insight and simplicity, I’ve praised the transparency, and today I’m going to give them a virtual high five for having the guts to make a change that is absolutely for the best but few people agree with.

The change?

Last week they completely removed the comments section from the blog.

Time & Place
Over the 10+ years SlopeFillers has been a thing, a few dozen posts have found their way into mainstream ski beyond the resort marketing community it’s designed for. In those moments, the comments section went from a great little discussion about the merits of my perspective, to a hate-filled opinion-fest.

In other words, it was like Facebook.

It was those moments – and the increasing frequency they occurred – that led me to remove comments from SlopeFillers more than three years ago. Folks could whine and argue and hate on things on Facebook as much as they wanted, but if I had the choice I didn’t want that same dialogue (or lack thereof) to happen on my site on my watch.

The Decision
And it’s a similar reason Arapahoe Basin made their decision. From Al’s beautifully succinct post about the change:

“I will be making a change to the blog today. The comment section will be removed, but there will be a direct email link to me. More than ever, I want to hear your questions and comments. Via email, I think we can do this more productively. The blog does go automatically to the Arapahoe Basin Facebook page. If you still want to make public comments, you can do it there. Thanks. I look forward to hearing from you.”

I know from experience that, for the most part, the only people who will take the time to reach out personally are those who are ready to have a civil discussion.

So this move from Arapahoe Basin is both simple and smart.

Doesn’t Change Opinion
But it’s also gutsy, because will everyone like it? Of course not.

The one thing I know for sure is that Al’s Blog is NOT going to be yet another distribution channel for their exaggerated opinions about what’s happening around Arapahoe Basin.

Which is such a great move.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.