I realize that sometimes reviews are lost (merging) and generally every precaution is taken to make sure data is not lost. Today I wanted to revisit a review I did back in february/march (i think.) The beer in question was Stone Vertical Epic 03. My review was done I believe around the time that this new forum format was being worked on or switched over. Is it possible other reviews were also lost in that time period that i might not be aware of? I spend a significant amount of time on reviews (some much more descriptive and long-winded than others.) But this review in question I know was of ample length. However, my review score was not favorable. I am left wondering a couple things. 1. Perhaps I need to take a backup of my reviews or pay closer attention to really how many I have in order to notice there is a descrepency sooner than 8 months later. 2. Is it possible my review was flagged and deleted without a message going out to me? 3. Surely google cache cant retrieve this for me, I take it im shit outta luck? I guess I am an idiot for not taking personal backups more seriously the last time I lost reviews (merging of all iron hill locations.)
I've noticed similar issues with mine. Didn't ever have reviews missing in prior years, but I've seen reviews go missing this year.
I back up all of my reviews. Like you, I put a lot of time and effort into my reviews and like to know what I've tried and what I have not tried and the thought of the site going down or getting zapped from the site for a few stupid late night drunken comments and losing all that work and effort in a flash would be devastating. I backed them up in excel so I can also run whatever stats I want on them. It was a LOT of work initially, but once you get into a groove and pin down your method of backing them up it goes rather quick and then all new reviews get posted to the site and the spreadsheet at the same time. If you post in the forums at all and review, I'd recommend backing up your reviews if you care about them.
Reviews just don't go "missing" without cause. Unfortunately we currently don't have a system in place to alert users when a review is removed, but here are some possible reasons: Your review broke the rules You reviewed multiple listings for the same beer and they were merged The listing was removed Even though the removal of reviews is quite infrequent, it's best to keep a copy of your reviews locally. We don't have a solution for this at the moment (a simple spreadsheet will do the trick), but we'll be exploring ways to backup/export your reviews during the site redesign.
