We've seen a rise in proxy offers due to COVID-19, along with offers to buy/sell beer, which has led to an increase in reports and moderation actions. After talking with the mod team and several users, I've decided to revisit our long-standing no proxy/trustee rule. First, for those who aren't familiar with proxying, @sjguglielmo recently did a great job of explaining it: And a trustee is basically someone you trust and have authorized/designated with a brewery to pickup or received beers that you've purchased on your behalf. Like a proxy, but more formal. Second, the no proxy/trustee rule was put into place ages ago as users would often use proxy offers to mask what was essentially an offer to buy/sell beer, however, it's 2020 and I think we can allow proxy/trustee requests so long as there's absolutely no exchange of money and they're posted in the proper forum. Our rules have been updated to reflect this update. Reminder: Any form of buying, selling, muling, or monetary compensation for beers or services is not allowed and may result in a perma-ban without warning. Please report any posts or conversations. Third, speaking of posting in the proper forum, we now have a Proxy/Trustee Requests forum. Please use it and report any requests made in other forums/threads. https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/forums/proxy-trustee-requests.80/ And posts in this forum count toward your daily offer thread max. Finally, my apologies to those impacted by recent moderation actions. Although it was temporary and caused some friction, it did lead to my giving all of this more thought and applying this change. A change that loosens things up a bit, reduces moderation, and gives people a bit more flexibility when trying to obtain beers. Questions? Feedback? Let me know. I'm open to your suggestions on ways to improve all of this. Proxy on.
Thanks for continuing to monitor the situation and updating the sites rules as needed. This is a great way for BA's to interact during the pandemic and make good use of the changes breweries have made due to relaxing of liquor sale rules).
Thanks @Todd, I have used proxies in the past for releases I couldn't get to with pre-sale requirements. Thank you beers and box with prepaid label for a trusted trader/friend are different than buying/selling beer on the secondary market (which I personally won't ever partake in).
Makes sense, with the rise in breweries offering and encouraging this. Even with this option, it seems they're still selling less beer than they otherwise would be in a fully functioning economy, outside of the most hyped of hyped releases.
Thank you! It's the right call, even if just a temporary one until this blows over. @Todd I assume we leave the trade/feedback system out of this, no?
Great question. It's technically not a traditional trade, but I'm not opposed to using the feedback system.
It happens behind the scenes already but just saying it's okay is opening the whole trading group up to potential issues. More background checks. potential for thievery. We have already gotten so far away from what used to make trading great. This is a step further - just my opinion.
We know that it's been happening behind the scenes and openly across the site for a very long time now. Enforcing a no proxy rule would result in banning countless innocent users who are simply looking to help others to get a hold of some beers with no cash being involved. It would also create a ton of friction between mods and users. As always, we'll be leaning on traders to help moderate the community that they'd like to see. Report users who are looking to skirt the rules and take advantage of others.
I hope this encourages more breweries like Side Project to stay this way. I can't see us ever going back to the "standing in line for 3 hours" bottle releases.
“Hey can you lysol that before you pour mine?” I hope breweries keep selling and releasing beer this way. It sucks when releases sell out while you’re putting in payment info, but for the most part I like this beer to go model.
Seen it before for the Churchills finest hour event in San Diego even in borderline monsoon weather. Worst part of it all is that particular year it's was limit 2pp to those camping out and that beer hasn't traded for sh**.
