Really old Places reviews

Go to the establishment, sit your ass in a seat, and order some shit. It's called being assertive or "giving it a try." If I told you that beer sucked, would you not buy a beer? It's 2013. You're allowed to do things without other peoples approval, you know?

 

While this guy came off like a real douche, I kinda agree with him. Also though, like you said, there are other places to go to for reviews of places. I like to go to Yelp and take a look at the pictures in hopes of some tap handles in the pictures (if there's no quality BA reviews that is). Also, just searching "craft beer" will tend to yield some pretty good results IMO.

But I think what it comes down to is that we, myself included, should do a better job of reviewing places on here. We all will benefit from it.

 

I'm unclear how phasing out old reviews helps you get the information you're looking for, seeing as how removing old stuff won't create new reviews.

 

point taken, but so is his. countless places these days are overhauling their beer menus; a years-old review could easily paint a starkly inaccurate picture of what an establishment offers today. that is to say, i'd rather have no information than incorrect information.

 

relying on place reviews is crippling and ruins the fun of going somewhere new.

 

How was he being a douche? I'm genuinely curious, to me he came across as direct and honest, both desirable qualities.

 

While I agree that visiting a place is always the best, I also agree that a review from 5 years ago may not be valid anymore and could be phased out. Beers may have changed (the brewmaster may have even changed), along with the food, servers... And let's not forget that places relocate which clearly changes an old review.

 

I think anyone who visits a restaurant or beer bar based on one piece of information is doing himself a disservice. I use BA Place reviews as a starting point in a lot of situations. I then Google the place and look for corroborating reviews from sites like Yelp. I would rather have the old reviews to at least give me a starting point and then make my own decisions about whether or not to visit a place based on additional snooping around.

In regards to the first response about sitting my ass in a seat. This may work great for places in my neighborhood. However, I'm not just going to sit my ass in the first seat that comes along if I'm travelling or on vacation. Reviews are important tools for determining which places are unique and warrant a stop on what may be an extremely limited time budget.

 

Well just a second there professor....it takes an act of congress and lots of planning for me to get a night out so researching where I might have the best experience ahead of time is a must.

 

I think a bigger problem is how old reviews can refer to an establishment that has changed ownership or completely gotten its act together beerwise (or fallen beerwise), and is the same place in name only. I always laugh at this old review of Chez Moeder Lambic: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1227/?view=beerfly&ba=bros The place has new ownership, has been completely refurbished and an entirely new focus on beer. The only thing it shares with the old establishment is the name and location.

Not sure what the solution is other than the reviewer revisiting and updating the review or maybe deleting based on how inapplicable it is.

 

I've also come across reviews that are as old as BA itself. If you see 200x date, the review is pretty much useless. But there is a difference between stores, breweries and bars. High-rated bars tend to survive. While there's always a chance that something trendy becomes less so (as usually happens in NYC), those reviews and ratings are likely to persevere for a few years. Reviews of breweries and their taprooms are pretty much obsolete within 6 months, with a few exceptions, as many have been expanding and modifying their public faces. Brewpubs that suck never improve, even when they are popular, and the best ones tend to start bottling eventually, so see above. The biggest shifts are with stores--a new buyer or one that moves on can make a huge difference. But filling shelves with craft also is only a recent trend, so stores that had high rating/good reviews four years ago and haven't kept up now suck and those that were barren two years ago but jumped on the bandwagon may be much better than their reviews show. Overall, you can usually trust the low scores and bad reviews no matter how old they are. It's the good ones you have to worry about. Instead of waiting for the site to update itself, just go there, try it out and add your own review.

 

There are so many different ways to find the best spots in a given area. The Places list is a good starting point. Next, check the forums in the area where you want to look. Almost always there has been a similar thread and if you don't see one then just post. If you have regular trading partners here, ask them. Odds are if they can get those bottles you want they can also recommend a good spot. and if a place sounds pretty good, check out their website for a tap list. I travel all the time and have used each of these ways to figure out where to g for some good beer.

And if you do go to a place, review it so that it has a current review and information.

 

"If you see 200x date, the review is pretty much useless"

You've gotta be kidding--so unless its from 2010-present--it shouldnt be considered. I know of plenty of places that havent changed at all in 10-15 years or even 20, so to use your 3 year old thing just makes no sense at all.

 

You're actually proving my point. I'm sure you know of places that might have been quite good 5 years ago and now are just gone. So when the last review is from 2009 or earlier you have no idea whether it's on the list of those "plenty of places" you know or not. 1) You're overinterpreting. The issue is latest reviews being old, not usefulness of old reviews. 2) You're exhibiting classic base rate bias--you know X is false for 1, so it must be false in general (even as a probabilistic statement). If the latest review for a place is from 200x, you can't rely on it. That's all I said. You've said nothing to the contrary.

 

I disagree. First of all, beer menus change so often at any respectable beer place that using reviews to glean that kind of information is a waste of time whether you're reading a five year old review or a five month old review.

But more to the point, removing those old reviews still doesn't paint a picture that's any more accurate. At least with old reviews still being available, users can read and evaluate on their own by looking at the date and deciding how much of a grain of salt with which to take the information.

If you prefer zero information to "incorrect"* information, then you can simply not read the old reviews. That's what I don't understand about asking to phase out old reviews--all it does is remove a piece of information for people who might want to look at it, while changing absolutely nothing for people who prefer no information.

*the reason I put "incorrect" in quotations is because you can't really say whether those old reviews are incorrect or not. That's the whole problem with old reviews in the first place--you simply don't know how accurate they are.

 

I have found the best way to phase out old place reviews is not to pay any attention to them.

 

Fair enough.

 

Huh...weird that Yelp has been so successful then