Should we bring back New Beer Sunday?

It can't be. It has reached the point of maturity. It is what it is now, and there's no going back. For it to possibly improve, it has to happen on its own. Any attempt to force this amorphous blob into a certain shaped box will only end in spillage.

Let @Shanex kick it off on his Friday afternoon (roughly Noonish Eastern), and first mod to wake up Monday morning can lock it. Let it go free-range and feral.

 

And in ones regional WBAYDN thread as well. Two days, moar ticks!!!!

 

Two points after my initial comments.

1. Thanks @Todd for posting the initial link for the first transition thread. I am now embarrassed, as my NBS tracking was off one this whole time (not remembering NBS 805 was also NBW 1, a combined thread). I will rectify my count this Sunday, including a tribute to NBS (850) which was not recognized the previous week.

I believe it's proper to post "correctly" within each thread if one wants to cross post, including "triple cross posts". I never understood just copying and pasting the same exact post and plopping it in multiple threads.

I start a proper full review in NBW/NBS, then add a cross post in WBAYDN, linking the full review and encouraging folks to stop in, providing a one / two sentence summary review of the beer for the WBAYDN crowd, and then whatever banter and or music is warranted.

For a cross post with a style tasting, these posts should (IMO) also be specifically tailored for the respective audience, speaking to the specifics of the style and the ongoing discussion within the style thread. I don't know what goes on in the BIF threads which seem to drive much of the current participation in NBW/NBS, but it makes sense to also keep to the spirit of that thread as well.

This post musically powered by Rush: Spirit of the Radio.

 

Please by all means keep us posted on your vote.

 

NBS was special and now it's gone, RIP. I'm glad I had a few years with it but it's time to move on. NBW is the current incarnation and it's up to us to mold it into something worthy of the NBS legacy. Or not.

 

Just like beer flavored Jello!

 

I'll add a few thoughts to my original post, although I'm still abstaining from an actual vote since I'm unsure how much I'd like to participate going forward.

1) A lot of people have mentioned how all off-topic conversation was restricted with the change to NBS to NBW. Perhaps there was strict moderation for a while and that has loosened, but my experience hasn't matched that at all. People talk about how they're spending their weekend, what they're cooking, what music they're listening to - you and I have exchanged follow-up comments on that topic multiple times - in addition to beer reviews, and that hasn't felt frowned upon. Maybe NBS has an order of magnitude more off-topic content, but I haven't gotten a just-the-facts vibe from NBW at all. That said, I'm also not looking to use NBW as one of my primary social outlets, so my expectations are quite clearly different from many of the people who have chimed in.

2) Constraining it to Sundays reduces the viability for West Coast participants more than East Coast BAs, especially for those of us who tend to drink in the evening or at night. I realize the argument about whether the expansion has boosted participation is already played out but @JayORear already pointed out that the pandemic has likely had an effect on how people spend their time.

3) I'm probably going to lose some people here, but nostalgic longing for the ephemeral greatness of online communities is a fool's errand. Over the past 20+ years, I've watched forums, groups, and other social communities grow, peak, and decline, across a variety of topics - beer, hockey, music, etc. In nearly every case, the decline was both hastened and exacerbated by a regressive clinging to the ideal of precisely what the community should be, and fighting anything that drifted from that, whether administratively introduced rules or organic shifts due to changing members. People change, communities change, the world changes - sometimes those changes are bad and it's worth working to reverse them, but expecting a static experience over the long-haul, or working to recapture your perceived ideal is unrealistic.

 

Seriously dude, if I had 100 human lifetimes available to me I still would bow out of continuing to engage you in a discussion of anything.

If you want to chalk this up as a win then knock yourself out.

 

Thanks for this, @Xul. What's happening for me, as another relatively new member of this thread and BIF, is that this discussion is serving to make me question my own involvement going forward. I think I can count on one hand the number of truly constructive posts here, that is, posts that are actually suggesting ways that the thread can evolve and change in a healthy way. The more this thread reads as myopic and clinging to some past glory-days ideal, the less I'm inclined to participate more. I can only imagine what someone who has never participated on the thread thinks of it now. Who wants to join a bunch of grumpy BAs bemoaning the loss of "that certain something" that no-one has yet convincingly defined or defended?

Just my two cents, but I'm not sure this current poll/thread hasn't outlived it's usefulness. Like @Xul, I wonder if it isn't serving to hasten the decline of NBS/NBW. The vote to return to NBS is convincingly, if not overwhelmingly, a "no." As for me, the current conversation is starting to leave a bad taste in my mouth.

 

I felt kind of “weird” saying that toward the beginning of the thread. But these 7 pages and thousands of words have reinforced my point.
I don’t care who wins the argument, it’s just not a fun drinking environment. Especially with a bad taste in your mouth.

 

@JayORear , @bret27 , if y'all like NBW as it is, that's great! I would urge you to carry on with the enjoyment you're having. As one of the staunchest of the Old Guard, I've accepted that the thing is a different thing now. I still post in the thread, after all. Don't let us grumps prevent you from having fun now.

 

Hey I was the old guard in my opposition to changes in the BIF. I spoke my piece, gave my reasons, that was that. It is good for all of us to speak our piece IMO.

 

Yup.