New Rating System +/-

I'm also sad to see the serving type note go. I remember when reviews for the same beer from different serving types were purged; thank God we were given notice that was going to happen - I went and saved all of the reviews I was about to lose. I think there was some promise at the time that people would get the deleted reviews emailed to them; that just plain hasn't happened...I think it was over a year ago. :/

I just submitted a review for New Glarus Dubbel under "the new system." As is often the case for me, my initial review was over the 5000 character limit. But now instead of telling me how many characters over I am so I know what I need to trim, it just says "Invalid Comment Length."

Now I realize I'm probably the only reviewer on the whole site who routinely runs into problems with the *upper* end of the character limit, but please fix that.

If we're stuck with this new system (and while I hope we're not, I've been around long enough to have seen at least two substantial changes to the rating system), could we at least get a separate review page that gives us a large text box to play with and detailed info about the character limit if we're running over?

This upper character limit issue is a further punitive measure against those reviewers who like to write in-depth notes.

Or should my review of New Glarus Dubbel just have been: "Tastes like dark fruit. Mmm." ?

 

Too long.

"Fruity." would suffice.

 

I think that what has rubbed me -- and as it seems many others judging by the responses in this thread, thoughtful or otherwise -- the wrong way is this: What attracted me, and I would venture many others, old and new, to this site is in the very name itself: advocacy. This site has helped me immeasurably to understand WHY I liked (or didn't...) what I was drinking. To understand what it was I was actually experiencing, and above all to APPRECIATE the substance inhabiting my glass, or can, or yard, or bottle, and the categorization was a huge part of that. This latest update feels like one of the larger and more transparent of the insidious seemingly minor ticks that add up and before you know it everything has shifted. That this vibrant community, so welcoming and passionate and warm has become just that much more corporate and generic, and made it seem that much more evident that we are not partners in the experience, but simply empty numbers to be expanded upon by any means necessary.

I realize that this site is a business, and as such wants to be profitable. That being said, just because McDonalds is a more profitable business model, I don't think my local restaurant should adopt their practices.
I also realize that my whinging is not going to have any appreciable effect on the system, but sometimes it feels good just to get some thoughts off one's chest.

While I think that the simplification of the rating system and the reduced character requirements is unnecessary, shortsighted, and a huge step in the wrong direction, and that the lower character limits WILL encourage the kind of brainless commentary marauding as reviews from which this site was such a welcome refuge, and that the loss of the specific ratings within category with no warning is frustrating and represents a great loss (moreso for those who have been around longer and have more reviews, but even for someone as relatively unseasoned as myself) of specific information (there's a huge difference between a '4' beer that has a great nose and taste but disappointing body/mouthfeel, and a '4' that tastes good and looks good, but doesn't do much in the aroma department), and that the update overall is largely a desperate heave to appeal to the more casual drinkers, and that the loss of serving type is extremely damaging and all the things I listed above, I can at least appreciate the upvote/downvote feature. It's not a perfect system, but I think that it has the potential to highlight useful reviews. Potential. Because I'm still a pessimist at heart (we prefer the term realist), I fear that the universal truth that popularity =/= quality (in fact they often times seem to run contrary to one another...) will not actually lead to the well written well thought out reviews rising as is intended. It just seems like another in the long BEP-ification of all things.

/nonsensical rambling rant

 

Still too long.

"Is ok" would suffice, as it is the minimum character while providing absolutely no information on the beer.

 

"Beer."

Can't get any less helpful than that.

Well, that's not true. Could say "gecko"...

 

I prefer: 'eh'

 

"Coming in 2015: BeerAdvocate linked to Twitter! 140 character max reviews!"

 

I don't necessarily agree with everything you say here (as reasonable as it all is), but I genuinely appreciate your input. I've enjoyed reading your reviews over the years and only wish I had 10% of your skill tasting and reviewing beers. Just thought I'd take this opportunity to say that. Cheers!

 

I blame @beertunes, with his goddamn poll showing the age of the average BA. It clearly shows that we are all dying off as we near our 50s.

 

ugh... haven't been active for a while, but now i come back to find out about this. i mean, when were we ever going to get the email backups of our reviews? wasn't that a proposed "feature" you were supposed to offer a couple years back? and now we can't even get the archived 5-score breakdown in our old reviews?

i know it's your site, guys. but doing this w/o telling us beforehand or sending us the backed up data just feels really uncool.

 

I've read every post in this thread and agree with everyone who hates the new rating system.

Also, for what it's worth, I couldn't believe that people weren't complaining about this until I finally searched BeerAdvocate Rating System and found this thread (I'm hardly ever on the forums so I wouldn't even know where to look). Unlike Todd posted, however, there was no bias in my vote. I voted in the poll, then started reading the complaints. I'm sure I wasn't the only one who did it that way.

 

I am just finding this thread because it was mentioned in another thread. I agree that I don't like it. It seems that without the categories to ponder and without the ability to see what the ratings were in each category the overall score has lost it's meaning. I am not going to quit but, it seems that an easy solution is to use "the other site" for doing the actual reviewing because they still have the 5 categories and then transfer your rating here. I hope they do change it back. It is what made this site the premier place for information about each and every beer.

* eidt - you can always copy the individual category scores from the other site and add them as a feature to your review.

 

I think the 14 people who prefer the new system are Sirs Alstrom and Co.'s votes...

 

Some people are getting REALLY silly with the replies that they are posting.

 

I won't vote in the poll. I didn't like the old format, as the five categories didn't really reflect the way I wanted to think about beer. I'm a long time wine guy, and while I look at color/appearance, it doesn't factor in my rating. Instead it gives me information about what I'm about to drink (age/extraction in wine, malt level and roasting in beer). Likewise, mouthfeel/body is of minimal significance except in a very few beers. But I would prefer the ability to review it first and then rate it and liked the format feature.

Ultimately, the mobile app drove a huge amount of traffic to the site. Mobile is the future of everything, and the old 5 point system wasn't mobile app friendly. It is probably as simple as that. That doesn't mean that what they replaced it with can't be improved, it can. But I suspect that the Bros. know that in the future, if not now, most access to BA will be via mobile devices.

 

Interesting point. While I downloaded the mobile app, I find that I rarely use it as it is not particularly useful when reviewing a beer. Since that is my primary use for the site when I am not at a desktop, I forget that it does have some otherwise useful elements.

 

I can understand simplifying/streamlining the review process and allowing users to only enter a single score, given that BA is losing market share to sites like Untappd.

But I have yet to hear a good reason why removing the option to score all 5 categories is a good idea. It seems like that just reduces functionality of the site. And it's inconceivable that BA would just erase all the (5 category) ratings of existing reviews. What could that possibly accomplish, unless they're simply running out of hard drive space?

It seems like the best way forward would just preserve the previous 5 category rating system, but allow "Hads" to include written text. That way you satisfy both those who want in-depth reviews and those who just want to tick a beer and maybe include some notes.

 

Unfortunately, this may be the nail in the coffin for my usage of this site. I routinely double-posted my reviews to both BeerAdvocate (because I started here and like the former encouragement of thoroughness) and RateBeer (because I liked their statistics better). When I got a smartphone, I also started using Untappd for the social aspect of it. Maybe the Bros didn't appreciate that it isn't a zero-sum game. I happily used multiple sites and formats for different uses. I don't need a one-size-fits all solution to my beer obsessing. BA was my place to be the obsessive beer nerd who sometimes took 20 minutes of alternately sipping and noting to come up with a review. In making BeerAdvocate more like a hybrid between a full-review site (now only available at RB) and a quick-tick mobile app (which Untappd still does better due to more social connectivity), I don't know what value there is in continuing to use BA.

Maybe I'm being hyperbolic and will come to like the new format in time, but my hobby of beer reviewing developed so much because of the forced scrutiny of the prior system, and I agree with many of you that something is lost with the new, "dumber" system.

 

They shouldn't be; Todd just announced a new database server on the 14th of June.

 

Honey boo boo