Changes in thread participation: 2024 compared to 2023

oh ,you bastard

Websites Quality of Life up 99% since my posting dropped.

 

If posts are down (at least in these particular threads), I wonder how general activity is trending (beers rated, beers added, etc…)

 

For the type of forum threads that I enjoy reading and participating in over the years, I feel like there has been an uptick in 2024 compared to last couple of years. I enjoy this thread for example. I enjoy threads where we discuss opinions, thoughts, analysis of beers and the beer industry and all things in between. I realize that the WBAYDN and NBS threads are very popular, but I never really spent much time on those as they just seemed like a long winded beer review with inclusion of a pic to show a scenic view, a pet or what food a person is prepping with their beer. That’s just not for me but I know most people enjoy that kind of thing.

 

My main concern is not what’s happened to the superfluous “appreciation” threads, but what’s happened to the virtual bar.

My impression is that, while WBAYDN is still far down from its pre-Untapped highs, it is actually quite a bit higher these days than it was at its lows.

Someone can pull the data over time if they’re interested, but I just compared yesterday’s WBAYDN to 2023’s from the Sunday before Veteran’s Day. 21 pages yesterday, 14 pages last year.

 

This past weekend I was starting to dig through my beer tracking spreadsheet to get an idea for where my 2024 stats land. A good portion of that was spent extract reviews per month for 2024 and then again for my entire active time on Beer Advocate (Dec. 2015.) That's a statistic and chart I've never produced, but I wanted to see how my consumption has changed over the years. Trendlines on reviews per month are both down for me all-time and across 2024. Not entirely surprised to see a drop in thread activity, considering I have been less active there as well (though, not to suggest I am the sole difference maker between 2023 vs. 2024, there are a lot of factors.)

Local consumption has seemingly changed a ton too. A local bar has had a Double Barrel barleywine from a very sought after brewery on tap twice, and to my knowledge, hasn't blown that keg (or it took two separate tapings and was available for ~12 days and is now gone.)

 

A bar near me had ONE KEG of Pliny the Younger , which they were serving pints on with no limit, on tap for 3 days this year.


So there's that.

 

I use the site the same way I always have: I look through the mainpage threads, and my NW forum. Anything that gets shuffled to The Bar, Beer News, or wherever is something I won't see.

 

Didn’t the number of posts per page change in the last year or so?

 

Yeah, from 40 per page to 20. So, you need need twice the number of pages, for a given number of posts, to be equal: ie, 15 pages x 40 posts needs to become 30x20.

 

Pretty sure my posts have decreased in 2024. I have greatly increased my volunteer hours ( up to about 700 hrs/ yr) so it leaves less time for less significant activities. I still review my beers for my personal future reference, but in the end, talking about beer is merely entertainment which reduces time left for the family.

 

Yep, what @Beersnake said — the posts-per-page change was applied to archived pages, too.

I fondly remember when WBAYDN would occasionally hit 20+ pages, which is 40+ today. I’m not sure the site will get back to that with competing platforms and what-not, but I’ve been happy that WBAYDN participation seems to have ticked upwards lately — presumably due to its new honored placement on the homepage. Has the switchover helped NBW any?