New Rating System +/-

It looks like the review portion of this site is trying to be more like other review sites. I thought that's what the quick rating was for?

 

Agreed, the fact that the Announcement started off with a statement to that effect, was confusing.

 

Less specific = bad. I understand the masses have to be catered to (from a business perspective), but dumbing the system down isn't an improvement. We were fine being diligent and thoughtful. Why change the system when the lazy and thoughtless aren't the ones who have to change anything to begin with? Sure, keeping up with the times might mean creating a lesser quality product, but I'm not one who feels lowering quality to make things easier for some is the way to go.

EDIT: I went to look at old reviews and was initially pleased to see that at least the specific point score hadn't changed. I was less pleased to see that, as per the new system, no categories were scored individually. What's the point? The only merit I can see is that people can know from the review itself what the reviewer thinks of the individual aspects of the beer, but this doesn't help when I read so many reviews that don't seem to match what they say anyway.

 

Well said, sir.

 

So my individual Appearance/Smell/Taste/Mouthfeel/Overall ratings for all 741 beers that I've reviewed are perminantly gone!? Please tell me this is a joke.


Can someone tell me what the old calculation percentages were for each breakout category (40% for taste, etc.) so that I can still manually calculate what the overall score should be when reviewing?

 

A couple of disadvantages of the new system:

SERVING: In Britain there can be a world of difference between the same beer on cask and in bottle.
Remove this field and the ratings for UK beers are much less useful.

CATEGORIES: There are lots of beers that smell great but don't live up to the nose or are good overall except they're a bit too thin.
Without Aroma and Body (for example) these distinctions are much harder to see at a glance.


The detail of the old rating system was one of the things that attracted me to BA in the first place.

 

All of my comments/concerns have been stated already in this thread. But I will reiterate that many of the ratings have been pretty much rendered worthless. I had beers with a @#$tty appearance and mediocre nose that killed it in all the other categories resulting in an overall score that was not commensurate with my enjoyment of the beer. Under this new system I would have adjusted the score to be reflective of this. Not a good move in my opinion but not my decision.

 

Allow me to disseminate the major points of the new overhaul as explained to us. Why the change? 4 reasons, specifically.
1. our rating system is dated
2. [it] lacks cohesion
3. [it] is unnecessarily complicated
4. While it worked back in the day, it's not as user-friendly as it should be

Allow me to counteract these points:
1. "Dated" is a catchword. Hispter bait, if you will.
2. Did it?
3. True, for a dog or, like, a rock
4. Tech-speak for "we're changing things because we're bored." User-friendly doesn't change, though people do.

I will give props for the following:
All place types are now ratable. Visited a brewery? Took the tour? Rate and review it.
Beer and Place ratings have not changed.

I loved (needed?) category ratings. If someone adjusts categories to get a different final rating than they would otherwise, they are the ones doing it wrong. I will never change from doing something right to doing it wrong because that's what people are doing. What the hell?
Categories only applied to individual reviews. So what? Ratings are generally useful, but about 10% as useful as a thoughtful review categorized by a beer's major aspects. Is everyone's review thoughtful or useful? No. Do we change to make useless reviews more relevant and useful reviews less so? That seems backward to me.

The new "usefulness" and is applications I could see as an improvement provided they're properly utilized. Flagging as well, particularly given that its abuse can (supposedly) be discovered and dealt with.

It's not all bad, but change for the sake of change is a worthless hipster mentality intended to entertain boring people who can't figure it out for themselves.

Let me say this, though: I love BA. I love you people. I do have conscientious objections that I hope can be met with a degree of understanding in an environment conducive to healthy debate. Also, sorry for the long post.

 

It seems to me that it further waters down the incentive for people to actually put any thought into their reviews.

As somebody who has thousands of reviews, I find it sad and even maddening. I find it a little insulting to the folks who have put time and thought into this site.... The hardcore reviewers are NEVER going to be tickers.

We are getting closer and closer to Untappd.

 

Another stellar point.

 

Well then you would have two different ratings for the same beer. The "Category Calculated" rating and the "Tweaked" rating that the user inputs themself. Or am I missing something?

 

You captured my thoughts perfectly with this reply. It is occuring more and more frequently - search to read about a beer and what its like only to find a bunch of ticker rates and zero content.

What do numbers even mean without context? How frustrating is it for a brewer looking for feedback to see scoring of a beer with no explanation whatsoever of why it is good or bad?

 

I posted it on the previous page. It is as follows: 10% appearance, 20% nose, 40% taste, 10% mouth, and 20% overall

Let me know if you come up with a quick on the fly way to do that manually.

 

The lack of justification is maddening for the every day reviewer, for a brewer it must be unfathomably worse. I've seen it on countless reviews where the rAvg may be for instance a 4.33, then all of a sudden a person gives it a 1 for a had (or now a 1 with the text "awful"). Why? How? That should be justified and explained why the score was given. Was it an infected bottle, stored improperly, style itself not up to ones standards, or did they simply not like the beer in general?

As I said and other people have chimed in with the categories were undeniably helpful when looking at a beer review. "Oh, this beer has a a mediocre appearance and nose, but it has a nice high number for the taste so I'll get it". Now...it's just a number. Combine that now with the fact that people can arbitrarily type in numbers. Before, you knew with categories where that 1-5 ranking was and what it stood for. You stated how the 1-5 grading was more geared towards beer judging systems and that BA is a consumer website. The reviewers are consumers too and a large portion of the beer community, and when you go through the hassle to write out and grade a beer you ARE, at that moment, a beer judge sitting wherever you may be; judging that beer on Appearance/Aroma/Taste/Mouthfeel/and overall drinkability even regardless as to if you are doing is subconsciously or not.

 

It has a feel of mediocrity instead of intense thought. BA seemed to me to be a sit in class bachelors of science degree compared to the community college online degree equaling an associates in underwater basket weaving. I am sorry, but this seems poorly executed on behalf of those who put time into the thought process. I will easily admit I have read through others reviews of a beer before and after to see the differences in tastes, some I whole heartedly agree with and others seem contrived to squeeze tastes that are not there, the numbers are what I like in an evaluation. The reason I joined here and NOT ratebeer (which is as vanilla as it gets) was more depth.....not a shallow wade in to a pool of drunken drool.

 

Thanks, the only way I know how to do it certainly isn't easy. But this is how you would keep the same scoring criteria. Say a beer is graded as follows: Appearance- 3.75, Smell- 4, Taste- 4.25, Mouthfeel- 4, Overall-4

A- 3.75 x 0.1= .375
S- 4 x 0.2= 0.8
T- 4.25 x 0.4= 1.7
M- 4 x 0.1= 0.4
O- 4 x 0.2= 0.8

.375+0.8+1.7+0.4+0.8=4.075 (your weighted score). Now reviews will take twice as long, awesome.

 

I just did a review using this procedure. Now that you have to bring a calculator with you whenever you review a beer it will be easier to spot the true beer geeks!

 

Hey, I know some awesome beer drinkers who post on Untappd! ;^) Do I want BA to be like it, laws no. Reviewing used to be fun, fast, and easy. Even a caveman could do it...