It's Time to Embrace Ratings

Ya know, it just dawned on me, what if there was a way for BA members to ultimately rate or even just like beer reviews (not 1-5 ratings or New Beer Weekend likes) and subsequently the highest rated or most liked reviews by members would or could be awarded a couple of karma points on a quarterly basis or sumpin' to that order? Simple incentive to observe more reviews, review more and to do it well. Scrappy thoughts this morning. Beer Advocate is awesome! Cheers!

 

I think janky is closer to junky than hinky, but I'm not a komputatar-savvy youth.

I enter all my reviews from a machine, with the combination of a tiny keyboard and fat fingers, there's no way I'm reviewing from a phone.

 

Click on your username in your avatar box, then click on the number of your beers (or places, it will give you a stats analysis for that too), and you'll get a bar graph for your ratings with a list of your beers below. To the upper left of the graph is a line with your numerical average. On the line above that is a small bar graph symbol. Click on that and you'll get a further analysis that you can select by using a few filters listed on that line. Enjoy.
( For non-Society members reading/trying this, I don't know what you'll get.)

 

I also want to point out that the numerous people here who are negative about ratings, short reviews, using an app, ect. (basically all the things Untappd represents) are more than likely a product of survivorship bias. You are not hearing many alternative opinions because those users have already left. The evidence is in the precipitous drop in ratings and reviews statistics Todd posted in the first post. More anecdotally, if you've been paying attention to subtle clues in people's posts, you'll note that most of the users here are older, like 40+. So, there's big portion of the younger population that is mostly unrepresented in users here, either because they left or never had enough interest to participate here in first place. I've been here long enough to know that wasn't always the case. This site is not replacing it's members and is slowly falling into obscurity (has been for years). Rating/review systems that the majority of people don't want to use is a significant part of that decline. So, people can continue to act high and mighty, feeling superior to the masses with their long-winded reviews until the lights go out, or there can be change. I like Beer Advocate enough that I want it to survive and return to the industry leader it was, and I think that's going to require embracing major changes.

 

I'm 26 and have been on here since I've been 22 but I agree I'm probably an outlier here at this point. I feel like people do stay here in spite of some very obvious flaws that could've been corrected years ago, but these things do drive a lot of people off so totally agree on the survivorship bias. Think you're spot on about the probably course this site will run

 

Multiple thoughts after skimming most of this thread.

• I don't think the app was any easier or better than the website, even on a phone, just different. I put a BA website link on my phone's home page.
• I like reviewing with a full keyboard better than a phone.
• @Todd - I know you have a large to-do list for reviews, please tell me a save button is on there. Many times I want to walk away from a review and come back to finish or edit before posting.
• @Todd -Have you sliced the review data into age, geography and member-since buckets? It may give you insight on how to promote reviewing.
• I review a lot more than I used to, mostly for NBW. I have a mental template that I repeatedly use and I format it kind of like a science experiment report. I try to document the variables - serving type, source, can date, temperature, glassware etc. I've even created a template in Google Docs, but I don't use it as frequently as I thought I would. Besides saving time typing, it auto-saves. When done I just cut and paste.
• The beers new to me that I don't review are usually because I'm too busy socializing. It happens a lot.

 

Just thinking out loud here, but I suspect that as other social media platforms gain increasingly easy-to-use functionality, BA members/users, and especially younger users, will come to consider that ease-of-use and functionality as the new "normal". As a result BA will be faced with having to do continuous significant improvements just to avoid looking dated and even obsolete. A good example is the on-going "jump through more hoops relative to other social media" method of trying to post pictures here. I used to post pictures almost daily here. Now I say "screw it, I shouldn't have to do all these extra steps using some other secondary software to get photos in the correct format", so I don't.

 

Yep… Not all “Mobile Devices” are the same.

 

I'm 28. Joined a little over 7 years ago.

And my friends and community's thoughts on BA make me think I'll be the only one for my area for a long time. Some old school craft stereotypes have survived too long.

 

Very curious about this - how do age demographics stack up on beer database participation? And has this changed significantly since the app was cancelled?

 

For those who care
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=janky Usually an thing
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hinky Usually a situation

 

I personally wish I could store a picture of the beer with my rating/review because as they say a picture is worth a lot of words. So, really, is it possible to have a camera option that was super simple to use and upload a picture of the beer maybe similar in size to the picture on the left. You could also have it so others could report the image if they thought it inappropriate.

 

Users profile beers (written or not) are all just ratings now on profile page.

 

Not sure what the thinking behind removing the “hide ratings” option is, but it makes the site less convenient to this user.

 

I think it is a great idea to embrace the diversity of ways different individuals may want to use the site! Those who review and like to read reviews can continue to do so. Those who rate and find the average of aggregated ratings a useful guide for beer styles they enjoy are also catered for. As an aside, I think the existing rating system should continue, but would not mind if it was an option to simply post an overall score for those who prefer. Anyhow, I see no downside to the change.

 

Right i know. My comment was the way it is displayed now as ratings.

 

Thanks. Hadn’t noticed that. I’ll just throw in the comment that, as a fairly active BA, I sometimes find that these updates designed to attract new users seem to take away something I already had, rather than add something new to my user experience. Each time makes me appreciate the convenience of other platforms a little more.

To put a finer point on it, the only things keeping me coming back here are reviews, forums and habit. Most of my friends have long since left; there are better BIFs and trading on other platforms now; and if ratings were my jam, I’d obviously be on Untappd instead of BeerAdvocate.

My 2¢.

 

My take. I am all for doing whatever it takes to get more people on this site. I really enjoy writing reviews and reading other reviews so I will consistently use them. When I write it is more for my own notes, so while I would be happy if others got some use out of them, I am not too keen on like or dislike buttons. I am also active on Untappd and I appreciate the badge concept there. Keep up the good work BA Admin team.