New Rating System +/-

While I agree on some merit, most posts are number only ticks. As for myself I like the nuances of a rating and description. Only time I "ticked" a beer was after palate fatigue which means I would not have a beer that was astounding....say a Balantine as compared to an Abbaye De Rocs Grand Cru....review and write to reinforce what is said.

If there is one change I would of liked to see, it would be a better way of importing pictures in threads besides the present way it is done, other than that I have no quips other than the present change that even mildly makes me wonder.....why vanilla?????

 

I guess I'm confused because I no longer see a review button.

 

Yeah, that stumped me too. I gotta new review in but I don't remember the steps I took. I think I started by giving it a rating...

 

Tricky tricky

 

Now Beeradvocate is as lame as all the other beer rating sites.

After writing 917 (somewhat) thoughtful reviews over 9 years, I don't know where to go to finish my first 1000. Maybe I'll do it on my old blog. Sometimes old-fashioned is OK.

 

Would the above poll not receive more insight in beer talk as a mirror to get more peoples opinion of the changes that have occurred? Never would of looked under site.

I put a lot of thought into my reviews for personal use since I have done this for so long and am getting to the point I forget characteristics and thoughts, thus why everything is reviewed....the numbers give me more insight to what I was thinking. While I generally compare to the sites owners it is interesting to see differences in thoughts and tastes and numbers. Just more to go on other than a single number that means nothing.

 

I don't mind this change at all. The categories seemed a bit repetitive, having a section for notes along with the number is sufficient.

One additional feature I would like to see is a rating by style in addition to overall rating.

 

That's a great point. For those of us who travel a lot it is really helpful to know whether beers are draft-only or are available in packaged format. Not having access to that information significantly reduces the utility of this site.

 

Don't like this new rating system, yes I know can still rate how I was, putting the numbers behind each of the five categories and do the math myself, but I completely agree with @UCLABrewN84 point about it diminishing the rating system.

 

The benefit of the new rating system is that it allows for greater nuance, which is, I think, the true purpose of any rating system. Sure, I may not be able to effectively calculate on the fly the mathematical weight to assign to any one component to produce the difference between rating BeerA a 4.0 and BeerB a 4.01… but I know that if I felt BeerB was even a slight bit better overall than BeerA, then this new system allows me to express that in a way that the average rating based on the categories didn't really allow. Nor did it really do justice in the event where I might think to myself, all other components of the beers being equally rated (say 4s across the board in 4 of the 5 categories A/S/T/M/D) BeerB is slightly better on the nose than BeerA, but not enough to justify bumping BeerB's smell rating up from a 4 to a 4.5 because that would overstate how exactly how much better its smell was compared to BeerA. But at the same time, it would be incongruous to leave BeerB's smell rating at 4 because then that would suggest to me no real discernible difference between the two beers when it's evident by my written review that I thought that there was. Manual adjustment avoids this issue altogether so that if BeerA averages to a 4.0, then BeerB can be bumped up to a 4.01+ because I felt it was just that slight bit better, and I want the numerical rating to reflect that slight bit.

Edit: I guess what I'm trying to say is I like the new manual/precise rating ability. However, I do agree that it would still be nice to list serving types as was the case before. I always put it at the top of my review, but that information does not alway carry over into others' reviews for the sake of context and comparison

 

The new rating system seems poorly thought out and extremely dumbed down. The prompts for appearance, smell, taste, and mouthfeel that were previously included encouraged a higher quality of reviews. I will be continuing this format in my own reviews.

 

I also liked the serving type as that can alter the beers final product. Beer fresh on tap should have a different profile than say, a bottle that may or may not be very old. Trying to do the mental math on the fly when doing a day long session, yeah, that'll be fun. The old formula was what; 10% appearance, 20% nose, 40% taste, 10% mouth, and 20% overall right?

I'm sure I won't be the only one including numbers in their review to further justify why the score is was it is ("ok, so you gave a beer a 3.65"...why? Easier to see a number next to a category to help justify the text than just plan text)

 

I can live with the new beer stuff, I guess, though it makes reviews a lot less interesting, but I gotta say I really miss having the divisions in reviews of bars and stores. Selection and expensiveness are extremely important factors in deciding to visit a place when you're visiting from out of town (and quality of food, where applicable), and only have the choice of one or two free nights. A flat number rating for a business is almost useless.

 

I think you got the percents right, at least that's how I am going to review beers.

 

One of my favorite things to do at night is to grab a beer and rate/review it according to the category and point scale. I have a system of cracking the cap and smelling it, looking at it, and tasting it for each category. I'm totally bummed they went to the single point system. As for my reviews, I will still be using categories in the written portion.

 

Todd, stop with the excuses. The poll is currently 31 to 1. It's not "leading the reader", people just really hate the new interface because it sucks. Please change it back for the good of the site and all your members.

 

Well said. I liked that BA was not like the competition that has people one click a beer to show up on Facebook or Twitter. The review system was a refuge from ADD millennial culture and seemed a bit more intellectual which I enjoyed. Maybe this makes me sound like a bitter old man but that's my feeling.