New Rating System +/-

It is sad to see so many users here with 1000+ reviews be "lead by bias" in the poll. To me, that is insulting to those who spoke their minds, and voted likewise.

 

Yet you think a user can distinguish or decide to give score of 4.00 vs. 4.01?

And the 5 numbers were not "made up". they were a rough grade of each component of the beer, to help you arrive at the final number.

 

No one's holding a gun to your head to review it man. I've had tons of beers that I wasn't in the right situation to review so you know what I did? I drank it and didn't think twice about it. If I want to review it, I will.

The single number is lazy. I'll just use Untappd in that case. More users, easier to use.

 

I overwhelmingly agree with the OP. I suppose there is a new crowd on BA that prefers simply deciding whether they like it or not on an arbitrary scale though. I personally find it hard to simply assign numbers. But taking apart the beer's individual components is much more enriching and helps me become a better taster.

The thing I liked most about this site in the past was that I always thought reviews were generally more thoughtful and extensive than on 'the other site'. This seems to have changed.

I enjoy the convenience of typing out reviews on a website like this instead of having to keep my own records, but this new development might make me reconsider.

 

Certainly not, but at least in a relative sense I can appreciate the desire to score two beers such that the one you prefer has a higher score, and that's easier to do this way than tinkering with the weighted categories. I really don't see how filtering your opinions through an equation improves them. If you wanted to rate a movie you saw, would you give it an X out of 10, or would you give it an A/10 for plot, B/10 for acting, C/10 for music, D/10 for special effects, and E/10 for overall, then weight them to let the equation decide your "true" impression of the movie?

But in the old method I wasn't permitted to give one number and leave some notes. Now I am. The old system prevented me from doing something that the new system allows me to do.
I can't stand Untappd as a tool to record my thoughts, it strikes me as strictly a platform to brag about drinking and or whaling. That has nothing to do with how many numbers are affiliated with a review and everything to do with how the information is accessed.

 

Don't like at all. Still not halfway as useless as Beerfly ratings with no category breakdown or actual review, though.

Prosit!

 

After rating a few brews under the new system I must say it is much more difficult to give a flat number to something that is much EASIER to give rounding to with nuances.

Why does mediocrity always seem to take precedence over thought? Personally I feel sorry for all those who have the thousands of beer reviews. It is a harsh reality that their thoughtful insight means little to those who are easily confused by a system that is so easy to understand.

Makes one wonder, WWMJS? What Would Michael Jackson Say???? It was his reviews that gave me the initial inspiration to try more than just simple lagers and ambers. The beer hunter would be proud of those who have spent so much time and toil to give credence to the craft revolution through thoughtful reviews and shun mediocrity.

 

I miss being able to score each part of the beer individually. I'm in favor of the old system

 

Do you have a place to view those inspiring reviews? Because when I searched for reviews by him, I didn't find individual scores for appearance, scent, taste, and mouthfeel, nor did I find an equation to decide for you how important each is. I'm left to conclude he would have no problem with the new system.

 

@Todd

I love this website and have been using it for over 12 years. Speaking for myself, I used my ratings as a logbook of every new beer I've ever had. It is my only one. As much as I love this site, my complaint here is that I lost a lot of personal information (my opinions of the beers). Frankly, I didn't care how others rated the beers, except when I was "way off" from the average. This allowed me to read why others thought so highly (or poorly) of a beer I felt differently about.

So, I've lost my ratings and my ability to note specific variances. A little forewarning would have been very helpful to save my data. All that said, I really do appreciate this site very much. I don't know if this possible, but could you reintroduce the old rating system until the end of the year, so I could copy my 3,100 ratings into a personal file? I'd hate to permanently lose all this information.

Thank you for the site and the consideration.
Steve

 

Indeed---they are called BOOKS. Granted they are sans keyboards and screens from China, but they are pretty interesting things with words.

 

I personally have mixed feelings, sometimes you don't have all the time in the world to be able to sit down and do a full review of the beer you're drinking and it's nice to be able to give a ballpark rating at the very least to mark the beer as one you've drank. Although, I much prefer reading people's reviews about a beer to just look at the average rating.

 

You really couldn't look at a beer for 2 seconds, smell a beer for 2 seconds, hold a beer in your mouth for 2 seconds, taste a beer for 2 seconds and then give it a fair shake? How is that any different than giving a random arbitrary number?

You only need 3-4 ounces to properly review a beer. You can still absolutely put down 5 easy numbers (really is it that hard to look at a beer and say yeah, that looks good or no it doesn't?) 2 of 5 of the old ratings were before you even lifted the glass with the last number being your number you're very intent on using. So those 2 ratings (taste, which I'd damn well hope you'd take into consideration when giving it a random 1-5 and mouthfeel which is very easy to rate as well)

It's just as easily used to give it an arbitrary number and some notes though. I don't like Untappd either for ratings but BA just essentially made it's rating system as bad.

 

Todd and company/staff have yet to respond, so I am going to wait till then and just for the time being doing what I am doing.

But... If this is the direction they are going, I would also like to please ask for a copy of my ratings with their requisite category scores as well which are no longer existing. SELECT * FROM tblBeerReviews WHERE user = smakawhat AND reviewdate between X and Y -> dump Excel

Basically, I'd like to echo Steve's sentiments, long story short.

Just was thinking of saying the same things Steve said cordially as well, but he posted it first.

Thanks,

- Ethan

 

I definitely prefer the "old" system.

It seemed to better promote the review guidelines set forth by the Bros. you had to consider all of your senses during a full review.

I also see similarities to bjcp reviews as a positive. I couldn't imagine getting a rating back from a judge that only had a final score and written notes.

I can live with tickers filling up the site with "hads," but I feel overhauling the review section will really diminish the usefulness of well-thought reviews.

I'm glad I got lazy this summer and didn't dump my handwritten notes as I had planned. Otherwise, I wouldn't have a record of why my ratings came out as they did.

 

If the idea of the rating change is to get tickers to provide some worthwhile commentary, I wonder whether it is working.

This is only a single example but I was curious about a beer that was released this weekend and wanted to see if there were any reviews posted yet. At first, I was pleased to see that somebody had reviewed the beer but as I scrolled down to read it I noticed that the BA (who previously was exclusively a ticker) wrote, "Bottle shared with a ... friend." To protect the BA's identity I have redacted a word (as I have no desire to embarrass him), but if that is going to be type of thing we get around here it will just gum up the works for those of us who try to give thoughtful reviews and like to read what others have to say about a beer we are reviewing.

 

I much preferred the detailed review system, too. This new way seems way too easy to give a beer a "quick" and cursory rating without any need to explain the "hows" and "whys"of it all. Why does this brew not surpass the next? Aroma not as appealing? Body too light/heavy?

No, sir, not a fan of the newer, lazier way of rating.

 

Almost unequivocally I check the "display reviews only" any time I look at a beer. "Tickers" are super annoying and they do nothing to compliment the rating system. 1's and 5's overall add nothing but mystery. Is this beer rated "1" because it was truly THAT bad? I doubt it. Give reasoning. This new system that encourages these things makes it even worse. Still upset about this, Bros.

 

I just went to review my first beer in a few days and discovered this new system had been implemented. I can't express how much I dislike it compared to the old system. Now I have 905 reviews done under a previous method and essentially no way to compare those beers, apples to apples, with those going forward. I know all beer rating is subjective, but at least the methodology was consistent. Now that's gone too. I put a fair amount of thought into every number rating I gave for appearance, aroma, taste, mouthfeel, and overall for more than 900 beers; to see all of those deleted with the press of a button is beyond frustrating.

Why couldn't they have allowed users to choose which method they want to use?