Whippersnappers (Old Man Rant)

Would it be at all possible to allow each OP to choose whether comments can be posted on his/her thread?

 

That's already been done, can't remember why exactly it stopped. It still doesn't prevent people from thread shitting when someone leaves their trade open for positive help.

 

Okay let's try a more realistic example.

"Hey guys I'm new to trading and I really want to try some heady topper, I've got a bottle of Kiwi Herman, not sure how much I can get with that."

"Well $4$ would get you a four pack, Heady is really hard to come by, but I can do this for you."

If the first person accepts this at face value, he's getting ripped off. Let someone else "threadshit," and the OP will probably realize he can get Heady by offering up some of the Alpine IPAs instead, and doesn't have to give up their most sought after bottle released in recent months. This kind of thing happens all the time.

Great idea if at all possible.

Allowing OPs to delete comments on their own threads would probably help that, if that's theoretically possible.

 

I strongly disagree. The majority of comments in trade posts are pure garbage. Very few are useful. I dont need someone to tell me "this due is an awesome trader!" or "nice offer, dude!", and it certainly doesn't help anything. I liked those forums a lot more when there were no comments.

And I would agree that there are a LOT of immature/ignorant/rude/etc traders now, seemingly more than in the past (based on nothing more than my own experiences). Part of that is an influx of new people, part of it (in my opinion) is the move to this "official trade feedback" system from a previously self-enforced system based on reputation. Some of the problem can be blamed on new people, while some is also a consequence of the loss of a lot of well-established traders in the past few years. So I think something needs to be done to right the ship, as they say.

 

Doubtful, allowing someone to delete their own threads could and would let people manipulate their own thread thus doing just as much harm if not more than allowing no comments at all. It would be great to keep all the comments that praised what a great and fair trade it was (since many people with that beer will say so for their own best interest) and delete the majority of comments that I didn't like because I felt they might hurt my trade. Then some noob comes along and perceives my ISO to be fair when in actuality its not, its a bunch of homers chiming in.

You've brought up some decent points and there is no perfect solution, there are positives and negatives to each side.

 

And I strongly disagree. I read the ISO:FT forum almost every day, and posts with comments in particular, and doing so has increased my success rate in trading dramatically.

You only have to look at the view counts to see whether comments are valued. ISO:FT threads with a lot of comments have significantly higher view counts.

 

I personally could do without any comments in the ISO/FT threads. Too many homers, hypers, and value seekers posting in these threads. Too many people chiming in saying "this is off", " lol", "I did this trade, so your off based on what I did", " I've got (x) beer with this bottle count, so I should get this beer", blah,blah. All of these comments create havoc, especially when all I want to do is trade beer as do many others on the boards. Let the "crickets" speak for themselves.
Yes, some are helpful, but there are more useless comments than helpful comments in my book.

 

Thoughts from a whippersnapper to this site:

This community, like many before it at some point will have to come to terms with its expansion and the diversity of the people that partake in what they are passionate about (craft beer). I am not saying any of what the OP said was wrong, or unfair, but this is a trend (not exclusive to beer advocate) that any long time member of a forum community is going to have to face and come to terms with (and likely has). There are pros and cons to small, exclusive communities, and rapidly growing communities.

I for one believe if you are willing to do your due diligence you can walk away from your trades satisfied here. But for the people who have been here (not me), you have to have seen the direction this community was going, and that direction (as the mainstream outlet for any hobby) is going to result in new people cutting their teeth where you call home until they (we) have learned the proper etiquette through their (our) experience.

 

Again, this could be avoided with a 15-20 second search. These are beers that change hands often. And if they weren't then the user could make a thread in the trading help section like "Hey, I can't find any closed trades for this obscure Fantome bottle, can someone post what they've given up for it in the past?" This just seems like another excuse for people to not do their due diligence which is obviously an issue if we are talking about a 30 day probation just to keep people from posting half assed ISOs.

 

You're assuming accounts created today search before they post. This whole thread is about people who very clearly don't. You're saying they deserve to be ripped off because they're noobs, I'm saying no one deserves that.

 

Yeah I guess I don't see the need to hold people by the hand. This beer trading stuff is really not rocket science, I think most people know how to use a search engine. If someone's happy with the trade they got done then they didn't get ripped off in my eyes, this hobby isn't about maximizing the value of your bottles.

 

It does say in the rules trade at your own risk. This isn't rocket science. If you can drive at age (16), enter into the service at age (18) without anyone holding your hand, surely at age (21) trading beers shouldn't need a "Dear Abby" figure. If your that addiment about people getting ripped off, BM them your opinions.

 

This entire forum of "Beer Trading Help" is a "Dear Abby" figure. When I was new to trading I absolutely appreciated the help from others on the proper way to go about it and how much my bottles were worth and all that. And I was a long-time lurker and perused the help forums extensively. I still needed help after all that.

 

Yeah I mean I still can't figure out the "values" of most of this stuff. If it doesn't get done I gotta offer different bottles though, that seems to be the consenus

 

With the 72hr re-post requirement I'd rather get a good idea of how far off I am than have to repost a new offer every three days only to find out I'm still off.

 

Based upon personal experience in the Pacific forum and the daily 'Visiting San Diego...' And 'Where can I find Pliny' threads I sometimes doubt people's ability to use a search engine.

Just because something is easy/familiar to some people does not mean it is for all. Just because someone doesn't pick up trading easily or quickly doesn't mean they should be punished by lack of information or non-direct information.

 

Trading beers you have for beers you want doesn't seem like punishment. If both parties are stoked about the trade, and it's fair $4$, who cares if the made-up values are slightly off?

 

"Hey guys I have this beer called Cable Car Kriek I picked up a few years ago but I'm new to the beer trading scene. I've had plenty of pliny and its ok but would love to try some heady. Would like to offer up my Cable Car Kriek for a few four packs."

You wouldn't want to intervene and say "btw, if you just offered up some pliny you'd be able to get some of that heady, and that CCK you picked up a few years ago is worth upwards of $1000," on his thread?

Again an extreme example, but seriously. I don't like seeing people get taken advantage of. Allowing comments on trading threads helps prevent that, and I think that's worth a few douchbags.

 

in the incredibly unlikely event someone was offering a CCK for heady topper I would hope anyone who didn't the he was trolling would send a heads up. but yeah... That's ridiculous. I give up haha, cheers.