Beer Trading & Beer Karma

I'd pay to use ISO:FT if it means that most of the ridiculous traders would opt out. You'd still have the occasional professional Cam-Newton type-A's who would pay, but it would cut a lot of fat off to just make it a pay feature.

 

I'd like to think i'm a pretty good trader on BA and i've put in some good time on the site. I only have 119 Karma points. I'm sure there are others similar to mine. I wouldn't want to see a very high point requirement but a reasonable one.

 

Message a moderator.

I'm not sure how rigorous the vetting process is for deciding whether to delete a reported post or not, but it seems to me that random trollspeople run around reporting posts for no good reason. The end result is deletion in order to err on the side caution.

 

I am not sure how I feel about this. I have been a member of the site since 2011, even before that I read the forums a lot. I took my time reading the trading forums to make sure I was doing it right and wasn't going to screw myself or someone else. I have only been an active trader for the last year or so, but have made quite a few trades. I also have a few friends on here who are OG's who could vouch for me being serious about my beer and being a Beer Advocate.

That being said I have less than 20 karma points.

I don't post a whole lot, I am more of a lurker. I have an app on my phone where I reviewed quite a few beers, but I don't post them anywhere. I wasn't confident enough in my palate early on, and didn't want to post 2 sentence reviews. I didn't want to look like the n00b beer geek that I was.

I already pay for the magazine, I am not sure how I would feel about having to pay for the trading forums when there are free alternatives out there. I think if it were to be a combination of karma points and time, then I would be okay with that. Make it a few months of being a member before you can read the trading forums.

 

What about a time requirement + beer karma requirement OR a pay to post option for the ISO:FT section. That way you get either people who have paid money to post trade offers (and I don't think many people would pay to get threadshitted on) or people who have put in the time and effort to be able to post in that section. Seems to me that would get out most of the horrible trade offers that you see and a lot of the threadshitting.

 

You could clearly state that the report button in ISO:FT should only be used for specific requirements (****/hate speech/violent images/physical threats). As Rempo said, post sorting by creation date makes "problem" threads easily forgotten.

 

A couple ideas.....

1) All this talk of correlation between beer karma and bad traders. Maybe oldp0ort can pull the karma stat from each user on the bad trader list.

2) The discussion seems to be centering on building up karma points to gain access to trade or post in the trade forums. What about a system where creating a thread in the ISO:FT forum takes away karma points? You'd essentially be paying to play, but with accumulated karma points. Post too many ISO:FT in a short period of time, you'd need to rebuild your karma.

 

The trade forum will always have problems, but none of the problems I've encountered have ever made me think "hmmm, if only it could be like this...my way is better".

Threads shouldn't get bumped to top with new posts, that was a good change.

Pay to use/beer karma/time delays/reviews+post count-it's all unnecessary and way too involved. Less is more.

 

Karma: Bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad, either in this life or in a reincarnation

I always thought Karma was based on the quality of one's actions, not the quantity. However, this system rewards the quantity of one's participation. I look at most of the active posters with thousands of karma. Most of them have received warnings or timeouts. They have posted meme's, and cracked jokes, and had fun. I enjoy reading what they post. But that activity is specifically against the rules. And yet, they have the highest Karma. Karma's a bitch.

I try to contribute, but I avoid having fun on here, because I want to stick around and post without getting warned, put on time-out, or banned. I do this primarily because of the trading forums. But I do contribute in cellaring or Beer Trading Help when I have something meaningful to add. I miss the days when people could have fun without being labelled trolls. On the bright side, at least the 'trolls' still have the top karma.

How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.

 

I would suggest that if you institute a Karma rule for the ISO:FT that it apply to members who have joined more recently. Perhaps for join dates after the redesign or after 1/1/12.

 

• Fair enough.
• I guess, though I admit that it shapes my use of the site. Before I click "Post Reply" on everything I write, I have to take a moment to think "is this going to get me put on timeout". That's a shame.
• Very true. Though my point is that the system doesn't do a very good job of rewarding the quality of one's contributions. It just focuses on the quantity. I would think that quality contributions would be important to the site. Obviously, that's not easy to fix. Post:Like ratio is at least a measure of the community's recognition of the quality of one's contributions in the forums. Likes on ratings could have the same effect.

 

Instead of beer karma points, maybe new traders should have to take an ethics test first. It's then posted on your profile so we can all see what kind of trader you are.

Question 1:
Which is more enjoyable - delivering a box which puts a grin on your trade partner's face or receiving a box where you paid less than you had to in order to get the beer you want?

I'm not sure if this is a serious suggestion or not...

Edit: If people lie on this test, it could be reported and noted in their profile, too...

 

All I really do on BA is trade, keep tabs on local events and use it to stay in touch with BA friends that don't live in Chicago. That said, just from a rough observation seems like most of the harmless hijinx exists in the BIF thread, and the real:

exists throughout the rest of the site in just about every beer release thread and more, while the actual ISO:FT seems pretty tame to me. Most threads there never even reach 2 pages, and trade posts just come and go.

So I'm curious to know what real % of being a dick/reporting comes from the ISO:FT thread. Seems like trading is always getting unfairly called out. I don't know if your mod features or analytics break that down.

Also not familiar with websites charging for something other than content (NYTimes, Hulu, adult sites, etc.) Is this common? I can't think of any examples.

Thanks for engaging the community in the conversation.

 

I guess I'm not understanding what is the underlying problem - is it the mods have to deal with too many reports associated with beer trading, or beer trading tends to be the area where lots of people are "being a dick/breaking rules/being labeled as a troll"?

If the issue is the mods spend too much time dealing with "problem" threads in ISO:FT - remove/revise the reporting requirements for ISO:FT. If a few people are threadshitting/bickering in a thread buried on page 15 and nobody is reporting the thread based on revised reporting rules (****/hate speech/violent images/physical threats), how is that a problem to either the mods or the remainder of the BA population?

If the issue is there are too many people "being a dick/breaking rules/being labeled as a troll", I'm certainly not the dick/rulebreaker/troll person to consult on this issue.

 

I've been a member since 2005 and have 42 Karma points. I truly enjoyed beer trading. I've met some great people and had the opportunity to trade for and drink some world class beer that I cannot get in my part of the country. The way I see it, a beer karma point minimum is proposed to address problems with trading. For the good of the BA community I'm in favor of measures to address the problems. If a beer karma point minimum is decided please make the point minimum obtainable. I don't think I have the palate or creativity to put together a useful beer review, but I admit I could do more to contribute in other ways to collect points.

 

I would suggest that post:like ratio is a measure of popularity, not necessarily quality.