Replies to ratings?

I feel like this could get out of control quickly. Id hate to see review pages turn into entire forums with endless comments and replies, which then also opens the door to argument and drama. I'd love to see the "like a review" feature return, but I fear that a comment feature would inevitably disrupt the review process. I, for one, really hope this feature doesn't come to fruition.

 

Yeah, uh, nope-a-dope Ghostrider, the pattern is full.

 

I write honest reviews reflecting my thoughts and have no problem with someone else writing an honest view that seemly contradicts mine. BA members have a wide range of style preferences and taste perceptions and arguing won't change any of that.

I believe commenting on reviews will inevitably lead to conflict which only regress the conversation rather than leading it forward.

 

There already is a way to engage and counter an existing review.

Write your own review.

And there is already a ranking/voting system, its called rating.

And there are already brewery threads, where we can debate any given beer.

Seems like this problem has already been solved.

 

I oppose it. Reviews are a matter of opinion. If your opinion differs from mine, feel free to write your own review. But don't publicly attack me if we disagree on a beer. I used to post reviews on Yelp, and people would message me along the lines of "that's my favorite restaurant, how dare you not like it!" Part of why I got off that site.

 

Read review.

Like review, like it. It floats up.

Dislike? Then like a better one that floats up.

No devolution or negativity required in this scheme.

Good up, mediocre and bad not up. Simple as pie.

 

Exactly. Telling someone their opinion is wrong only works in court.

 

I am against allowing any trollish "experts"' being allowed to expand their negativity and self-aggrandizement into the review section of this site. If we are voting on the idea picture this as a no vote.

 

Re: likes and dislike buttons. Please do not add them. If a review is truly unhelpful or useless - report it.

While a dislike button could be used with good intentions, it could very quickly devolve into down-voting reviews that don't align with popular public opinion (i.e this hyped beer really isn't that good). Reporting an inadequate review leaves that discretion up to those selected to moderate the site, which is to say - hopefully less biased than the general user population.

@rozzom @dbrauneis @Todd

 

I like this in theory, but I can see the ways this can be abused by trolls to discourage people from reviewing. It could also be abused by unscrupulous brewers trying to artificially inflate good reviews/deflate bad reviews. But I don't like putting the "this helles sucks because it doesn't taste like a mango smoothie IPA" reviewers on par with good knowledgeable reviewers either....

My personal preference would be for the site to designate certain members as "expert" reviewers and their reviews float to the top or can be sorted separately. Experts status could be granted based on karma, or submited cicerone/brewer certifications, or voted in by the community, or their last name is "Alström," or just assigned at the whim of the site owners.

 

That is a good idea. “thanks, that's what we were aiming for”, ” sounds like the beer was mishandled/old. We'll talk to the distributor, where did you buy it?”
How many breweries have an (quasi) official presence on BA? Allowing a brewery to comment on a review could generate more interest in BA from the production side.

 

Allowing brewers to comment on a review can also be a slippery slope. Brewers have a vested / biased interest in minimizing less than stellar comments from independent critics. Correcting objective facts ( it was a blend of X and Y, not Y and Z ) is a good thing. Challenging subjective parts of the review ( There is no metallic flavor in our beer ) is more problematic.

And if you think trolls can intimidate new reviewers, wait until brewers start criticizing them.

In my view the brewer should speak through their beer.

 

I didn't realize it was that many. How many of those would you call “active” (make or respond to posts) on any kind of regular basis?

 

Brewers have the opportunity to get the objective facts right now. They can add the beer to the site, and put details in the Notes section.

If they don't add the beer themselves, and whoever does gets something wrong, they can submit a correction.

 

Absolutely agree with this. There's threads where beers can be "debated" (WBADYN, NBS, PM the reviewer, or start a specific thread). Having reviews open to comments/replies will discourage written reviews even more. There are a lot of people who are intimidated enough now that they don't feel comfortable writing reviews - we do not need another de-motivating factor. Sarcasm alert - I am sure that comments/replies to reviews would be completely respectful and constructive (eyes rolling).

Maybe the upvote/down vote might weed out some poor reviews, but they can already be reported. And what's a poor review - some people just try their best and don't use the "lingo" (i'd be one of them). Yes, some are obvious - the "this beer is f-n awesome" isn't a review. That I can understand, but just report them.I should heed my own advice. I read one last night that I should report - had absolutely nothing to do with the beer, just some sort of inside joke apparently.

Allowing brewers to comment on reviews doesn't seem reasonable either. Beer needs to speak for itself and showcase the brewer's talents on its own merit. There's many ways to engage a brewery and I don't see allowing brewers to engage from a review to be useful. Brewers on the site have the same mechanisms as we do to "discuss" specific matters. I have had more than one brewer tell me to my face how ignorant I am when speaking to them about obvious brewing flaws (different than "I don't like it"). Don't need that here in public.

This all seems like a solution looking for a problem.

 

I strongly disagree. Nobody rating or reviewing a beer should be afraid that the brewer might step in to contradict him publicly. People are highly deferential to professional brewers around here and tend reflexively to side with them in debates. A brewer that is known to respond to reviews likely quickly will develop skewed ratings in its favor. This is and should always be a site first and foremost for consumers, not a shill for the industry. Please don't add such a feature.