NBS BIF #17 Hints and Hauls: Subaru Drivers Won't Keep Us From Our Magic Water Breakfast

@snaotheus

I absolutely add beers that I am not drinking, and for a few reasons.

One: especially when it comes to local or lesser-known breweries, I might know they have new beers out (or even older ones!) that others haven't added. Those beers might take a while to get added to the database, if ever!

That may not matter, except for point number ...

Two: many of us "older" folk aren't great with our phones. I use BA almost exclusively from a PC, not my phone. Tossing a rating on a beer from a phone is fairly easy (albeit not quite as easy as Untappd); reviewing is more of a pain in the ass; adding is an extra level of pain-in-the-assery.

If I am out and about and I want to review a beer and it's not in the database, that is a quite legitimate convenience barrier to reviewing or even rating it. I have to weigh whether or not it's worth adding the beer (and if you're not a mod, you can't add the notes), plus rating and/or reviewing it. It's not super stupid levels of effort, but it is effort, and if you're out with friends or your significant other, you might well just say, "Fuck it; I'll drop it some stars on Untappd."

But if the beer is in the database, that's one less hurdle to climb. Maybe you won't fully review it, but now it's very easy to look up, locate, and toss a rating.

But for me, there's a third point, and it's the reason I became a mod in the first place ...

Three: accuracy.

I have an unquenchable craving for accuracy and truth. I'd rather be "wrong" about my opinion in the process of learning that I lacked information, than "win" and remain ignorant (yes, I am strongly in the minority of humans on that point).

I want information to be accurate. I want databases to be up to date. I want things to be right, and reflect reality as best as possible. This is something that you'll completely understand if you're autistic, and if you're not, it may just seem bizarre to you.

But beyond that ...

Four: choice. If you look up a local brewery and see they have three beers in the BA database ... what the hell does that tell you? Is that helpful information, even if they've been reviewed?

But if you look them up and see eighteen, now you can see what styles they represent, what hop varietals they use, how innovative or traditional they may be ... yeah, you may not have ratings for all of those beers, but at least you have some information to potentially sway stopping by that spot as opposed to another - and nowadays, we have plenty of options.

I would rather have 30 beers without reviews than 2 beers with reviews. The former tells me far more than the latter (although 30 beers with 30 reviews tells me a hell of a lot more, obviously ).

 

Well, first of all, I've always been a PC guy. I grew up with a PC in the home, so much like how kids today grew up familiar with smart phones, I grew up familiar with computers.

Like snothouse, I absolutely detest typing things on my phone, especially if we're talking about a review (much less a post on the forum!). But to add on to that, BA is infamously not particularly phone-friendly. The user interface is based more around introspective review of beers, not immediate social engagement and easy ratings - where Untappd and Vivino (for wine) - excel. Apps like those make it very easy to quickly drop a rating, and if you feel like it, some thoughts for a review - but even if you don't feel like typing (or VTT), you can quickly select the tasting notes! "Hoppy," "juicy," "bitter," "roasty," et al. It's incredibly user-friendly for a phone in a way that BA cannot - but in a way that adds absolutely zero benefit for a PC user with a mouse and keyboard.

It's not to say that you can't get used to typing on your phone (or VTT) - of course you can. But it's obviously quicker and easier to type on a keyboard for the vast majority of people (pretty easily provable with characters-per-minute numbers, as well, come to think of it), so shifting to a phone for most of us is an inconvenience of at least some scale.

Also like snothouse, I'm well over 100 wpm via keyboard at 99% accuracy (well .... sober accuracy, anyway). No one is reaching that via phone, not even using VTT, and I'm damn sure not reaching it.

It's definitely a user-by-user case difference. I loved DOS, and hated Windows. I've obviously grown to tolerate Windows over the years, and am familiar with the interface, but at my typing speed, some functions are simply literally faster with a keyboard interface. I'll always insist that a trackball is infinitely superior to a mouse when it comes to fine accuracy, but obviously trackballs aren't in favor nowadays. Whatever you become most comfortable with will become your favorite medium for interaction - and as we are all Gen-Xers (technically, even though Mike is the old one here ), that makes a ton of sense. Technology changed dramatically over our lives, and whatever we decide works for us personally is likely to stick, unlike younger and older generations, who are more likely to be stuck with whatever their generation grew up with (do not get me started on millennials - and now zennials, I guess - who cannot do math in their head, read an analog watch, or survive without their smart phone, which is not a weakness that works in the demanding environment of sandwich delivery ).

 

Another Gen-Xer!

So first, yes: I feel like adding the beers promotes the brewery. I didn't mention that explicitly, but I totally feel that. It's definitely a reason I will add a beer that I'm not reviewing.

As for picture sharing, absolutely it's easier on a PC! Of course I can post a picture from postimages or imgbb or whatever site via my phone, but on PC it is so much quicker and easier. Load the site (quicker than the multiple taps it requires via phone), upload the picture (a touch quicker on PC, but not much), then copy/pasta (way quicker on PC, way easier to notice a problem or embedded spam, and way easier and quicker to fix it if it's wrong).

Good luck fixing your photo upload on phone if something goes wrong. On PC, it's easy. Not saying it's impossible via phone, at all, but there are definitely more steps, and more impediments to troubleshooting.