How should we handle regional opening/closing threads?

I agree that a dedicated thread for each opening/closing makes more sense.

The information and discussions are much more specific and relevant than they would be in a catch all thread.

 

Personally I feel like catch all threads are better with dedicated threads warranted for more notable cases.

 

Yes, this. If there was no discussion, just the announcement, then the other alternatives would work. Discussion surrounding the open/close of even one brewery could blow up the thread.

 

As long as a dedicated thread in each region is specific to each state, I'm okay with doing that (which is pretty much the way we've been doing it). I don't see that much discussion about new breweries or newly closed breweries to justify a thread for each brewery or incident.

 

What if we just asked the owners to stop closing their breweries so we wouldn’t have this problem?

 

I voted option 1. Requires less digging.

 

There were 495 openings and 418 closings last year across the entire country. I think there's room in the regional forums for a dedicated thread for each. Those numbers are likely to continue to decline as the market continues to mature.

 

EDIT: Too late for above, but the way we do it now as I said above isn't completely accurate. At least for the GL Region we have a catch-all thread for each state for any news, so a dedicated thread for each state just for openings or closings would make that news easier to discover.

 

I can see merits for both, but feel the two reasons a dedicated thread for a state is to track overall trends / view the big picture, and the fact many openings/closings involve small enterprises that will not generate much discussion because only a few people may be aware / impacted.

The Anchor situation is the exception in terms of exposure and impact of a closure / reopening across many BAs.

In the regional forums I follow, a few popular breweries in each have traction for active individual threads, but a large portion of posts are held in catch-all threads covering a specific topic, beer style, etc. across a large metropolitan area or state.

I do appreciate the chance to provide input, so thanks for the poll and opportunity to discuss.

 

What are you going to recommend to people who want to start up new breweries? If we were able to discourage most of them, we wouldn't have as many closings.

 

I would encourage BA to add a Brewery Trade option in the forums. That way people looking to exit and enter the industry can match up. For example: ISO struggling brewery with at least 10 barrel system; FT fresh Pliny.

 

I don't understand why there needs to be a hard and fast rule here. If something notable opens or closes, make a thread. If it doesn't seem thread-worthy, throw it in the catch-all opening/closing thread.

Not everything is worth having a policy about.

 

Most openings and closings will barely elicit a mention let alone a comment thread. If each opening or closing is it's own thread, the vast majority will fall off the first page fairly quickly and then be lost in the shuffle. If there's a single thread it's much easier to browse through and see what's happened.

And any major closing or highly anticipated opening could still have it's own thread

 

In the NW forum, we don't have opening/closing threads. We just put that information in the individual state news threads we have. Seems to work well enough. If there's a major event (like Fremont being sold to SHG) that gets its own thread.

 

Deciding which cases are "notable" would be a slippery slope ...

 

Dedicated thread is the way I like. Going through a bunch of posts in a general thread is tedious and time consuming to me and some could get lost in the shuffle, if you know what I mean. The search is more effective with the dedicated threads as well. I haven't posted any new closings fearing that the info is there...buried.

My 2 cents.

 

And I’ve stopped posting, because the additional openings / closings I’ve come across were not going to generate much discussion on their own within a dedicated thread.

A few announcements have been posted by others in the “Chicago breweries that don’t need their own thread” thread.

Yes, we have that in Great Lakes.

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...-that-dont-need-their-own-thread-2024.675789/

 

I don't know. I don't see how a lack of discussion of a brewery closing is all that detrimental .
You see the dedicated thread, you "get" that the brewery is closing, move on or post if it directly affects you. Shrugs.

 

If the goal is "visibility" then a dedicated thread for every closing is going to fall off the first page fairly quickly while a thread for all the openings and closings will stay higher up and thus be more visible.

Also, more people are likely to make a post in a thread about more minor openings/ closings then are going to make a whole new thread. So a single thread is likely to end up being a little more comprehensive.

Either way seems fine and I'm not clear what the point of having a hard and fast policy either way is