Disabling Beer Karma

Thanks for the info. I'll continue to request updates when I see what I truly believe are duplicates, then (and hopefully I am right more often than not ).

 

Here's another vote for karma. That little notification for milestones just added another touch of fun to the site's experience

 

I never put any meaning toward beer karma. It didn't reflect my knowledge nor did I think it reflected another members knowledge on craft beer. I've been slightly obsessed with craft beer going on 15 years before I joined this sight drinking new styles, reading countless books, and researching the internet for information on every aspect of beer including homebrewing. What got me to this site was finding info on beers that I can't get in my state and I found this sight and have loved it ever since. While I found some stuff here that is repetitive and catty like the threads. I can't help but think that people trying to accumulate beer karma is the reason I switch websites. That and encouraging drinking by rewarding points is down right dangerous to some people especially early on, "I have to drink just one more beer tonight to review it."

 

I feel like I'm just echoing what others are saying but I particularly enjoyed the fact that you could earn points for more than just posting and accumulating Likes. For example, I decided that I wanted to try all 100 Beer Styles. Not only did I try beers I otherwise wouldn't have, and found some I never thought I'd like, but locating obscure styles proved interesting and led me to bottle shops I never knew existed but now frequent. It was like a beer scavenger hunt and it was a lot of fun! Similarly, I enjoy adding and rating new Places. It's been a fun diversion. My one observation/suggestion is that while a diligent BA can accumulate 1,000 points within 2-3 years, it's really hard for the veterans to accumulate points after, say, 1,100. The "low hanging fruit" has been harvested and the thresholds for additional points can prove daunting and offer little incentive. Perhaps a more easily achievable "Grand Poobah" status would help. As for me, I was close to 1,000 points and am disappointed I won't have the chance to achieve it.

 

BK was some of the geekiness that beer geeks like. I must say that I found my excel spread sheet with all possible rewards much easier to sort and use though. Did I mention geekiness?

If the system changes will there be an asterisking system to delineate points earned under the old and new point systems?

 

BRING.
IT.
BACK.
Only a user for a little over a year, but already have nostalgia. It gives us goals, man!

 

Another vote for bring it back! I enjoyed seeing the various levels everyone has achieved and it added a fun element to the site.

 

Bring it back

 

I was bummed to see it go. I think it was a good was to "reward" those that contribute to the site, even if it was only "street cred" in your user profile.

When reading the forums - it gave you a good idea of those that are most involved in the community that is Beer Advocate.

I would add that the new system should give some more karma to those that add pictures of beers and places - it adds greatly to the site and takes the most effort. Yet the old system only rewarded for the first one added I believe.

 

I would like to see it back.

Cheers!

 

+1 for bring it back please

 

Eh keep it disabled. It led to poor reviews and endless ticks. Having the system in place lowered the quality of your content.

 

I vote to keep it, if you need money just ask! hows 10 bucks?

 

I liked the Karma points personally... I will continue to use and enjoy the site either way but I vote for bringing some some sort of points system back... Been here since 2007 or so and hoped to eventually see a Poobah status under my name...

 

I was a lurker for many years before joining, this is my go-to site for when I am out of town looking for a nights worth of local beer, thanks so much. I wonder, is there a way to be a subscriber without getting paper magazines in the mail? If there is, I could not find a way....

 

The contributors above me have said most everything I could think of and more besides. The advantage of the beer karma was that allowed contributors to advance by doing different, albeit all positive, things. I'd bring it back as it was, then begin to introduce variations in the rating system over time.

 

I have mixed feeling about Beer Karma now. When I first joined this site many years ago, it was nice to see my BK add up slowly every few days as I participated and it was a fun part of the experience. The overhaul left Karma pretty much useless for me. Despite spending hours reviewing, uploading photos and adding beers, my BK has increased insignificantly in years, to the point that I stopped even looking. Then the statistician in me wanted to know how people were getting mega BK points. One way was lots of posts, which can generate likes. I post occasionally, so I don't expect this to be a big contributor. Then I looked at "What beer are you drinking now" and the staggering imbalance of the system was obvious: if you live on the East coast and take a quick snap of your glass of beer, you can generate 50-80 likes. To add product photos, it would take months to generate that many points.*Each day*. West coasters are not so lucky, simply because of time zone. A west coaster taking a snap will not even get eye tracks on their post until the next GMT day is over, so far fewer likes. When I realized that location and a quick phone snap of beer generates orders of magnitude more points than time consuming bottle pictures for beers without pictures on the main page and/or actual reviews, I pretty much just stopped paying attention at all. I'm here to track what I've tried as well as enjoy adding permanent content like reviews and product pictures, and I will continue to do so with or without Beer Karma. I do miss the slow accumulation of points for useful contribution, but I understand that some of this may be in the offing as the system develops points for more activities. Until then, don't rush.

 

As much as the word and number were meaningless I rather enjoyed pushing towards milestones! Got champion in less than a year and was looking forward to working my way up to poobah. I really hope you guys find a way to reincorporate it as it was good fun and I feel like one aspect of the site is lost without it! important or not!

You also mentioned that aknowledging contributions was important and it is! On top of that it gives new members a slight Idea of how experienced the person their talking to is in beer (I.E. How many hes/shes tried and how much time he/she spent chatting with everyone!)

I will live without it, but it was definitely a fun mechanic to have on the site! and in a sense served as a guide to some people new to forums! (Forums can be intimidating when your starting out and don't know what to do)

 

I always thought it could be a useful tool in the overall ratings of beers. kind of like a score multiplier, but I do think points for likes is a bit much.