BA members in the Beer Industry

I think there should be an option for industry members to have that stated in the avatar/name "box" - just as you and Todd have the black "Staff Member" on yours. Or maybe some cute little symbol to represent their status as a brewery employee/spokesperson, etc.

I find confusing sometimes when some brewery employees post as "regular" "beer consumer" BAs, yet other times will respond to general questions with replies like "We don't pasteurize any of our bottled beers..." and one is left wondering "We? Who's 'we' ?"

Since many BA's use brand/label logos as their avatar, or screen names with beer brands or "brewer" in them, that seldom is a clue, and many industry member don't do that anyway.

 

how we handle it on our forum is a designation under the user name. In the case of brewery staff, we use their email address, or a supporting email from someone at the brewery, to give them "brewery rep" status.

 

Yes. Short of an acceptable process of verification, perhaps by way of an agent in management or H.R. department at the brewery said member claims to work for, implementing this would be a bit intricate (and somewhat time consuming.)

But I am happy to see that the OP brought this topic up, and would offer a few more pertinent thoughts. However, as they are worded in a classic, "TL; DR" manner, I'll reserve those points of observation.

 

I would hope that for the sake of transparency, if you, or someone works for a beer company, you wouldn't feel the need to hype your products on BA. It would become pretty apparent if someone was doing so, and if one person abused the system, I would think it wouldn't dilute the outcome of ratings and reviews of a beer regardless.

Trying to prove one's employment for the sake of reviewing would be too tedious, and would also leave several in the dark for reviewing other beers, IMO. Not work the legwork, I think.

 

Brewery employees and owners currently post all the time, under their own names (SamCaligione, augiecarton), under their brewery's name (Sixpoint) or variations and combinations of the same (Stone Greg). [Examples picked just from recent threads I've read]. There is no "validation process" for them now, is there? It would be easy for someone to create a "fake" account using someone's name/brewery logo now, if that is the concern.

My suggestion was for it to be only an option - I think some of the confusion in the forums is probably from people who honestly don't want to be seen as or accused of "pimping" their companies and/or boasting of their industry positions in posts ("Well, I work for XYZ brewery, and my first craft beer was in college..." reaction: ), yet in other threads will answer specific questions about the industry or their own brewery when they comes up.

But, yeah, I could see it becoming a PITA - given the abuse of the "Location" statement by some current site members.