Stayers and Leavers

Alcoholism...

In all seriousness, this site provides a format I'm familiar with and a forum full of regulars that I've grown to trust. Additionally, this site emphasizes the respect of beer more so than other apps and sites. Furthermore, all of the up-to-date beer news I could want is on the front page. And it really is as simple as that. I'm celebrating my 10 year anniversary of BA membership this year and I couldn't be more happy about that fact.

Edit: Not to mention the most extensive and reliable database of beer reviews in existence IMO

 

I've stayed, because, for its flaws and quirks, BA is the Funnest Place on the internet for beer. I'm also a knife nerd, and, I will tell you that the knife forums are not overly fun to hang out at.

I've never been a street car nerd (I do love race cars though) but I bet those forums are more fun than the knife forums. I'm no metallurgist, but, I'd enjoy talking about various types of Stainless Steel as much as I do the multitude of hops here. The knife forums? Thems some humorless bastards.....

 

I am a stayer, despite not being able to enjoy beer nowadays, for the strange reason I get to read about beer I love in a way that is as close to enjoying it as possible. Reviews and descriptions by people as passionate about fine beer as am I are what keep me going. I am still at the point I don't socialize with other beer drinkers when beer is involved (too tempting), so this is as close to beer socializing as I get. I bet I'm the only "stayer" with this reason.

My other main hobby is mushroom picking/edible plant foraging, and thankfully neither health nor COVID did a thing to curtail that. I wish there was a site for mushroom info and community as excellent as BA.

 

I came for the beer, stayed for the whisk[e]y.

BA.com is far and away the best website on the internet is why I stay. The main reasons it's No. 1:

1. The beer review database and review system is perfect. The Brothers Alstrom take it very seriously and have been good shepherds of it because they wisely understand it's the foundation of the site.

2. The WBAYDN and New Beer Sunday/Weekend threads surely are the best virtual bar on the planet. I've learned as much about music as beer through WBAYDN, and the people I've virtually met through NBS/W are amazingly kind, thoughtful and contagiously enthusiastic about beer.

3. Now that I've gotten so much into whisk[e]y, I've stayed very active on BA.com because of the "Other Beverages" forum, where I've learned a ton about my new favorite hobby thanks to some of BA.com's brown-drink folk.

Every hobbyist should be so lucky as to have a site like BA.com.

 

Mostly to bitch about pastry/milkshake/hazy/kettle soured beers and reminisce about classic styles
But Also to get news about breweries, new releases, check scores and reviews.

 

I joined in 2014. I was 22. I joined to gain knowledge to try to get into the brewing industry from cooking but that never worked out. I guess I stayed for the conversation. I was gone a few years but I came back idk the reason but I’m here occasionally. I drink a lot less now. Work a ton. There are several people who aren’t around anymore I remember being big posters but things happen.

I have other hobbies like my side hustle of fixing cars, food, tattoos (some here know I’m covered heavily) but right now my job is to provide best I can and make sure some children grow up proper and safe. I’ll be around.

 

Been here since 2014 with a couple of “sabbaticals” here and there, even going as far as deactivating my account temporarily. I enjoy the discussion and reading others’ reviews. The time I spend ebbs and flows depending on other responsibilities (older parents & in-laws, 4 kids, work, church, etc.). The forums are what keep me around and active.
I left for several months due to some heated discussions in the Founders lawsuit and other diversity-related threads. I’ve even been accused of not being “qualified” to express an opinion on such matters (hence my current avatar). Cheers to @Todd (and the mods) for cleaning things up, taking the issue seriously, and more recently, putting a spotlight on Black-owned breweries. I have noticed a difference in the tenor of those kinds of discussions and BA feels like a more welcoming place as a result.

 

I don't recall how I found the site but been here going on 16 years. I signed up to learn a bunch about beer, and I'm sticking around to learn another bunch. There's a maturity in the forums that keeps me interested, and I really use the Places feature whenever I'm going to plan a trip.

I look at it from a give-and-take approach. I try to leave a little knowledge by writing Place reviews, some beer reviews, and add a modest number of new places.

 

The reviews are what brought me here. My joining here was prior to Untappd's soaring popularity, or InBev's purchase of another review site. Over time, my reasons to stay have varied: to learn about beer, review beer, participate in NBS, participate in BIFs, and discuss NA beer / coffee. Here lately, those reasons have been whittled down to reviewing beer and discussing NA beer.

As for leaving, I've taken some 'sabbaticals', more often than not the reason being is the echo-y-ness of the forums and the IPA d00msday sentiment. It gets tiring to read. And for those reasons, it's caused me to step back, either from use of the forums or the full site.

Speaking to local sentiment, many of our local beer scene members were apart of the great purge here on BA sometime ago, so local views of the site are not favorable, stalling any discussions on other platforms to get local users active in BA. Beyond that, the friends I had who joined often stopped returning due to: user interface in giving ratings, and/or forums being negative (i.e. "why should I discuss beer if they continuously bash on what I enjoy?")

 

I am still here because of the community, forums, and information. I originally started using BA to find good beers. Then used BA for trading, then to learn more about the industry and now mostly to browse forums and for the information on the home brewing forum.

So much good stuff and so many good people. why would I leave?

 

I joined 15 years ago (and like @PapaGoose03 cannot remember how I learned of the site) in order to learn more about beer and to be able to pick places to visit on my travels. Beer Advocate was, and continues to be, very helpful in this regard. I've also met some really fine people through this site. Finally, I like to hang out with the "regulars" on WBAYDN.

 

I joined BA a long time ago - in May, 2003. I've found the site to be extremely useful, in different ways at different times in my beer appreciation history. Initially, I enjoyed the forums for beer talk, trading, and recipes and also for looking up how others would rate beers so that it would help me decide what beers to buy. The places reviews were also extremely helpful for finding quality watering holes/package stores near where I lived or when I was traveling.

There were several years where I was almost inactive on the site, yet I still enjoyed craft beer and would use the site to look something up occasionally.

Fast forward to this past summer when I started writing my own reviews (hidden benefit of the pandemic, perhaps?). I only have 102 reviews so far since July 2020. I'm really enjoying the process of reviewing a beer and recording my thoughts to paper, er keyboard. Some of my friends have enjoyed reading my reviews as well.

The site continues to be the most consistent one out there for beer knowledge and appreciation, in my opinion. It will continue to have its loyal followers and hopefully gain lots of new loyal followers.

 

I have been on here since 2007, and lurked a long time before that. Once I moved to Houston, I got really involved with the Southwest forum here. We would have monthly tastings, at the least, and going to various brewery events (such as they were then). We also tried to give quality reviews on places and beers as much as we could. Since I travelled a lot for work at the time, I tried to keep Places as up to date as I could for my travels. I haven't been doing the Places updates, for Houston at least, very well lately. There are definitely things I can send in updates for (mostly closures now...). There was a good group that I got to know because of that. The Southwest forum use to be really active, but almost all of those guys have left the site. Can't really say why...

Also, I liked the Magazine when it first came out, was always a participant in the LNBA threads for a while. My interests in that had peaks and valleys, but am now pretty much a regular for the WBAYDN thread. Especially back then, the internet was a way different place. I never got into Facebook or any of the other social media sites, and basically used it for Beer Advocate and to obsess over Miles Davis when I had free time, now its basically life.

Since most the people I knew in the Southwest thread don't participate anymore, the WBAYDN and NBW threads are what I do most, and I really started doing those more after the first lockdowns. I would like to continue to add stuff to Places, and keep that going, but things being as they are, not a lot of new stuff to add. Not that I don't go out on occasion, its just to spots I know well and feel comfortable with safety guidelines, and its only a few times a month now (I use to go out a lot ha). Anyway, thats all I got. Good thread.

 

Wife made an account almost six years ago because she saw a magazine that led to the online presence. I was getting into some home-brewing, so it seemed like a good resource. I like the tracking aspect because I go through a lot of beer, rightly or wrongly, so it’s a helpful history. Trading was new to me, but it’s been a great resource for getting some delicious brews that might never see distribution here.

I almost left recently when I got an unsolicited PM telling me essentially that I try too hard to be liked, but I’m really not, and just barely tolerated. I should get some friends IRL. I felt like an a$$hole. Nowadays, I don’t get too “funny” and just lurk around trading forums and post a couple pics and throw in some likes. It still bugs me, but does having a person who sits on a (virtual?) barstool all day long enough to decree that I’m the bar simp warrant me leaving something I enjoy? Not yet anyway.