Whippersnappers (Old Man Rant)

Although fairly new to the trading in the past 6 months, I second the notion of going to a classified approach. I just don't see the benefit of self-promoting or threads shitting on active trade posts. Either it will find the right set of eyes or the crickets will sound loudly. Both give the OP has his answer and we can all move on. The only additional posts allowed should be from the OP to close the trade or edit it.

I do particularly enjoy the folks who thread shit and then turn around and say they are only interested in sharing good beer and not winning trades.

I say let the crickets speak for a supposed lopsided trade post. I know I have heard them a few times.

 

Some chick (new trader) wanted some beers. I had been messaging her because I had her want and she had a few beers (Three Floyds) that she could obtain (easily). After about 5 back and forth conversations someone piped in on her thread and offered to send her a bottle of her want (shipped w. nothing in return). I have no problem with this gesture by the other person but this chick didn't even respond to my message telling me this deal was already done.

I'm in no way bitter that the deal didn't go through ... it's just the common effin' courtesy to let someone who you've been talking to know it was closed in another manner. Good beer karma goes to the guy, but that chick clearly didn't deserve it

 

Usually when I get crickets, which happens often, I adjust accordingly by changing one of the factors you already mentioned. Venn diagram isn't that hard to figure out using seekabrew and/or searching regional forums and/or asking past trading partners from that region.

If I offer one style and it doesn't work out that I'll try to come up with a list of different styles the 2nd time. If that doesn't work than I'll offer more until it gets to the point where I think it's not worth what I'm giving up. I don't mean this disrespectfully but its not that hard.

Any friendly advice or constructive criticism which I always encourage in my iso's can be handled via pm. What I don't need is 5 different people chiming in whether or not they think its fair. It's always appreciated when someone says great offer but that doesn't mean jack unless someone responds to my offer which it all that really matters. Too many people try to protect the trade value of their beers by making snide remarks which in turn may sway a potential trade the other way.

 

you could always put a "stickey" with the top 20-30 super whales for newbies

I liked the 30 day wait I was chomping at the bit to get going

every trade I have done has been $4$

except my most recent it's a here's what I sent send whatever whenever this is with a "Champion" not Joe 6-pack lol

I'm gonna start a BA escrow service anyone want in on the ground floor

 

I get your point as well, it's a fine line with me whether or no to ban comments, trade value threads, etc. I just think overall they aren't necessary and serve as a means for people to pimp their own region, beers, etc for self serving reasons. I dunno, its not an easy call.

 

LIF's, I think giving away free beer hurts the trade value of that particular beer and they usually bring out the worse in people. They destroy the community as a whole

 

@Todd @F2brewers

How would you guys feel about requiring a minimum number of posts before somebody can post in the trade forums? Say, 25, 50, I dunno. I don't care if a person's posts are in a thread bitching about the price of Mikkeller, or pairing beer and chicken wings, it would show they at least are contributing something and exploring other parts of the forum. I'll see people posting in the ISO:FT forum the same day they register and their offers are often way off.

Maybe I'm crazy, but just thought I'd mention this since people are throwing out ideas.

 

This would be a much better idea than banning comments. Minimum beer karma requirements would work too.

 

I could be wrong but I believe this has already been done and if not it has been discussed at length. I think it just resulted in absolute shit posting. I'm not even referring to your examples, at least that would be something.

I guess part of the issue is who cares if someone's is off? I see that come up quite a bit as if people are personally offended. Yes, it can add "clutter" to the ISO's but how is that any different from some experienced trader trying to immediately go after and maximize their ISO by going after whales when they are the first to get their paws on some new release?

Not you personally @evilcatfish but if people are that turned off then skip it or pm the trader letting them know their offer probably won't get done and why. On the flip side, I also understand that publicly commenting on the ISO gives others a chance to see why that person is off but that goes back to how often is it helpful to the guy who posted or the guy commenting? Crickets will tell a person plenty as will a HELPFUL BA via pm.

For example, someone just posted an ISO: St Arnolds Bishops Barrel. I pm'ed the guy letting him know that Bishops Barrel may be hard to get because it was pretty limited and most places selling it were supposed to sell it for on premise consumption only. So while a few people did get bottles to go, it may be a challenge to find someone willing to trade them. That would have been helpful to others if I posted it publicly.

On the other hand, I could have publicly posted something like "lol, you're way off. This was a very limited beer in TX and people were lucky to find it anywhere, especially to go. You're going to have to add." That causes a lot of problems and leads to many more. Others start feeding off of that and it turns into a shit show, someone who may have a BB may now reconsider trading it based on one a holes comments, etc. *For the record, the guy had plenty of good beers I would have done the trade for.

Again, it's not easy to decide what to do and maybe it's not as bad as I think. Obviously the MOD's have a better idea of whether or not banning comments is more or less beneficial.

I've chimed in enough. Out

One last thing, while we're talking about banning lets ban @JayORear for starting this thread.

 

It seems very likely that adding a beer karma requirement and/or reinstating the 30-day rule would eliminate a whole lot of the recent undesirable threads.

Back on the original topic: There are great people and there are buttheads pretty much anywhere you go. IMHO life is largely a matter of avoiding the buttheads and seeking out the great people, and the craft beer world is no different.

 

Hey Old Guys, Please let me play on your lawn!

But more seriously, I appreciate when people publicly leave constructive comments on FT/ISO threads, certainly for some of the less common or regional beers, where distribution, availability and price may not be known. I usually learn something from those types of comments.

 

What purpose do these comments serve? If a trade is "off" it won't get done. If it does get done, and both parties are happy about it, who cares if the imaginary value is "off"?

 

I am all for taking away the ability to comment on trade posts like how it's done for the ticket section...let the crickets speak...nobody needs x region hyping up, pumping up the latest release or trying to devalue some other beer...

 

Comments can also be used to tag friends who may be interested in the trade, for one. Not every comment is someone saying "There were only 400 bottles of this released in Chicago, one per person. It will take a lot more to get me to part with one of the 12 bottles my tasting group got."

 

True, but is it really so much harder to PM your friend a link?

 

Yeah I guess I'm just not seeing how the ability to tag your friends is worth the passive aggressive comments and threadshitting. Send your friend a text or bm. I do it all the time, makes for better conversation anyway. 90% of the comments in there are not constructive and honestly seem to be making this "beer stock market" situation worse.

 

Yes.

Also, I personally like the community of the trading forums. Sure there are some dingbats here and there but by and large I like conversing with them. Nixing the comments would be a huge blow to that sense of community.

 

Moving those comments about needing to add to BM would increase the possibility of someone being dishonest. "Hey FYI you're probably going to have to add a second Fou if you want a prop, it was really hard to get," (as a ludicrous example), would be responded to with a bunch of folks calling that guy out for being ridiculous. Send that to a noob trader via BM and they may not recognize it as BS, and end up getting ripped off.

 

If you have 2 Fou Founes and you trade it for 1 Prop, then you didn't take the 15 seconds required to do a search and realize that's not a good trade. At that point it's your own fault. This is not secret information, it's readily available. Between regional forums, trade forum, and other websites that keep track of beer releases you can get a ballpark understanding of what is "fair".

You are basically saying that the trade boards should cater to people who are too lazy to look it up themselves. We're all adults, new trader or not, common sense is the real commodity around here it seems.