New Rating System +/-

Seems like you're moving toward a pretty flexible situation that will take care of a very large number of folks. Some will be able to Rate only, others will be able to Rate and comment, putting in what they consider a useful personal reminder or information for others, some will be able to Review with the categories in place (and a longer minimum character requirement to help differentiate full reviews from comments). That should take care of most folks who've commented here as well as lots of those who do rating and who do reviewing. If I want to look at Reviews only I can do so and if I want to look at all ratings, with or without comments I can scan those as well. Should work out well and increase the value of the information to many viewers.

One further suggestion about usability to assist those who write and edit reviews. Some write online, some write in word and then copy paste but may need later on to do a slight edit to correct typos or add something as they have more experience with the beer. The old Window onto the review was large enough someone could easily write and see most all of the review at once while writing or editing. The new window is a bit too small for that. Being able to see the full text (or most of it) at one time is very helpful in creating a coherent review. For example my review of Aventinus winds up discussing multiple years of the beer and providing a comparison of the years of bottle aging. I sincerely doubt I'd have been willing or able to do that with the new, much smaller, comment window.

 

I did not interpret Todd's update post in the Announcements to imply that there would be any change to the minimum review length, or a separation of "reviews" and "comments" like your post infers. Did I miss something?

 

Cancel "infers" and substitute "suggests."

Once the old review system is back in place there would be less to distinguish between comments associated with ratings and reviews associated with ratings unless there is a minimum size on reviews, much as there used to be. And with a comments box available people will be much less likely to complain about the length of reviews or dump in a bunch of irrelevant stuff to reach the minimum length. I figure the introduction of Ratings only was to encourage more people who were willing to to give a numerical score. Giving a comments box lets them talk price or age without having to do a full blown review. Those who review will be able to do so and the overal value of reviews will be enhanced.

 

let's just say i'm relieved... for now...

 

Just as I predicted. The Bros ALWAYS listen. /me patting myself on the back.

 

Would it be possible to get something like 'cost' or 'value' (speaking a monetary sense) back so we know how the establishment (be it store, brewpub, etc.) is priced? Something like that would be uniform across all place types and would be very helpful.

 

I agree. I feel the different categories really make me think hard about each aspect of the beer. I miss these fields.

 

I like the route you guys are taking with creating optional fields for beer categories. The more options people have to contribute the best way they can, the better. In that sense, though I don't use place reviews very often, I'd think re-enabling categories for place reviews as optional fields would give everyone the chance to contribute in a way they are comfortable with.

Thanks again,
Jeff

 

Will you be keeping the $ sign marks in that category; this way people will be more inclined to rate based off of dollar value instead of say...personal value (ie: "Wow this place's happy hour gets me drunk really quick 5*!!" )

 

I got several responses pointing me to the weighting ratios for beer reviews. Does anyone know how the place review scores used to be weighted? I've got the same question for Places. Thanks!

 

Thank you VERY MUCH.

Still love the hat by the way! Makes me chuckle every time I see it. Ahhhh---the good old days.

 

I'm very happy with the changes that are being made. It's a step in the right direction.

I just hope once these tweaks are implemented, the rating system will finally stay the same going into the future (i.e. please don't announce a smattering of new changes to the system two years from now!). I care less about the rating system itself than its consistency.

 

I am glad that more of the old flavor of the ratings will be optionally available to those of us that value that style. As a software developer I understand that these changes require significant effort. Thanks in advance for fixing one of my favorite web resources, beeradvocate.com.