Beer vs. Beer Threads: Allow or Nuke?

They are useful in deciding new beers to try and trade for. It is nice when you have tried one of the two being discussed and then you can decide based on this if the other one is worth trying.

 

I am with the Whatever crowd.

 

I have to say mad props for including our opinions in a decision like this. I find them useless though. If you wanna know how a beer compares to others I drink a beer, find a review from someone whose thoughts are on point with mine and has a ton of reviews and then find their review of that other beer. Also you can just create a thread about the beer you just had to discuss the nuances of it and other beers instead of this vs that.

 

That's a huge problem but not only with those threads, regional ones too. People need to learn to search and do it or stop being lazy, it really takes 2 seconds. I think it was last week that someone posted a question in south atlantic about what to do in atlanta. Really? There was a thread just the week before that one that answered all his questions in greater detail than the one or 2 people that constructively responded to his thread since we had all just offered advice the week before. Its just something that really irks me.

How about maybe implementing some way that repeat threads get automatically nuked via keywords? I have no idea if that's possible or not.

 

I've seen threads saying I really liked x beer, which other similar beers should I try. Those are better IMO than the vs but I wouldn't mind the vs ones if there was a mod to nuke the repeat ones or a program that somehow nukes it without needing a mod. You can just search and revive the thread if you have something new to say.

 

The underutilization of the search function is stupefying.

 

I don't really care, occasionally they can spur a good discussion and hey, we've all submitted dumb threads from time to time.

 

I say keep em, especially since it's newer users that tend to create them. You might scare a lot of people off deleting one of the first threads they create.

What harm do they do to the site or other users beyond "I don't like looking at the title" or "they're annoying?"

 

I'd agree. There's prob. a 'top 5' of new user threads- IE beer vs beer, what's the best beer, how to cellar a beer, is this beer old/overpriced, how do I trade beers- deleting these will def. scare off new users. I think a lot of BAs need to look at a poster's join date before jumping down their throats for a repeat/boring topic.

 

I voted yes, not because I like the threads, but because I think banning them is unnecessary. Clearly, enough people find them interesting or informative that they choose to 1) start them or 2) respond to them.

Lots of people don't find the threads useful (myself typically included). So just don't read them!

IMO, introducing rules like this leads to the forums becoming constricted and confusing as people either try to work around them or wonder aloud if they're violating them.

 

If you don't like them , don't read them. This is a beer forum. Let us talk about beer.​

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I personally am tired of the heavy-handed thread locking around here. Unless it has deteriorated into name-calling and insults there is really no reason to lock or delete a thread.​

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Even if the thread is about a site suggestion that has been shot down it would be nice to be able to voice our opinions about the decision. If you don't want to hear them, don't read any farther.​

 

I'm curious why that's a problem. Isn't that part of what a community does (especially an internet community)? Rehash the same discussions and arguments over and over?

 

the flip side of the coin is the dumb threads like 'Why BROS haven't you done X Y or Z???? You guys are ignoring the will of the people!!11!'

meanwhile, the topic has been beaten to death and adressed by the bros over and over again. See: mobile apps, QR codes, site updates, beer karma, magazine FAQs, the list goes on...

I can see why those get locked.

 

Nuke em, as others have stated i don't think they have any value. They could, but rarely ever do.

 

I say the weirder the poll the better. Would make things much more fun.

Cheers!

 

PLINY VS HEADY TOPPER/EAST COAST IPAS VS WEST COAST IPAS Just ban those...

 

I don't particularly care for those types of threads, mainly because I am not interested in the content. However, I voted to keep them for two reasons:

1. People who don't like them won't participate in them. And if the two beers are like "beer A vs. beer Z" then people will let them know. In effect, this stuff will be regulated by the users. Perhaps there can be an entirely seperate community dedicated to these types of discussions, that no who doesn't want to see them won't.

2. I don't agree that the Bros should be regulating these types of discussions. If the discussion turns away from beer, then I believe they have the right to redirect or close down that forum. But if someone wants to discuss any beer topic, no matter how poor or uninformative it is, they should be allowed the freedom to do so. If it doesn't do anything for the community, you will see that in the life and quality of discussion (see #1).

 

That was easier when join date was displayed under your name.

How about as a compromise every one of those just gets a link back to the last time it was posted, and then locked? The reason this irritates me is that it shows that the OP doesn't actually care about whether this has been discussed before. If he doesn't care enough about the topic to spend 30 seconds searching it, then I'm not sure why we should care enough about his getting scared off by a deletion to keep it alive. And you can say "What's the harm?" but the harm is the propagation of the sentiment that you don't need to search before posting some inane bullshit that's been posted 800 times before.

 

You'll never break that mentality for a new user. They will always post first and search later, if at all. That's a problem that's way bigger than just BA.

 

You can certainly lessen it. This happens way more on BA than other forums of a similar size that I've been on.