New Stat: User's Average Score?

Talk Discussion in 'BeerAdvocate Talk' started by Gutes_Bier, Jul 2, 2013.

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  1. drocpsu

    drocpsu Zealot (613) Dec 25, 2006 New Hampshire

    I agree that I'm not sure what it would really show. I seldom review beers on here, (use it more for reference), but when I do it's usually only beers that I really enjoyed. As such, my avg rating would be reasonably high.
     
  2. drtth

    drtth Initiate (0) Nov 25, 2007 Pennsylvania
    In Memoriam

    There are two kinds of mistakes to make with a beer I have not tried. I can pass over one I'd enjoy or I can buy one I wind up not liking. Living in a state where I buy most of my beer by the case, the most expensive mistake I can make is to buy a case of a beer I don't enjoy.

    Consequently I choose to use the information provdied by others (e.g., the reviews and ratings) as *one* source of information in making my decisions. (Just as we all do in many other circumstances in life.) Since I am completely free to use or not use the ratings/reviews as I choose it has nothing to do with letting others tell me what I should think and one hell of a lot to do with making an informed choice. With over 90,000 beers in the database I have to learn from the mistakes of others. I don't have the time or money to make them all myself.
     
  3. drtth

    drtth Initiate (0) Nov 25, 2007 Pennsylvania
    In Memoriam

    Id have to agree. Seems quite useless to me. Everyone who's for this idea seems to be missing the fact the people use the system differently, making the stat effectively just as mysterious as guessing people's techniques now.[/quote]

    But you see they don't all use it differently. Thare are actually, compared to the over 3,000,000 reviews and ratings in the database, relatively few different ways in which people use the system. People are much less varaible that you give them credit for.
     
  4. drtth

    drtth Initiate (0) Nov 25, 2007 Pennsylvania
    In Memoriam

    Move to PA where most beer is sold/purchased by the case and you'll not be puzzled or baffled by that. As I said in another post in this thread, with over 90,000 beers in the database I have to learn from the mistakes of others because I don't have the time or money to make them all myself.
     
  5. GreenCoffee

    GreenCoffee Initiate (0) Jul 2, 2012 Illinois

    *Visits site known for its vast library of beer ratings*
    *Derides beer ratings as pointless witchcraft*
    :grinning: Awesome mode activated! :grinning:

    I say provide every stat under the sun (given that it's easy enough to implement from the database). Stats for geeks who love them. Easily ignored numbers for people who would rather not poison their brains with the devil's handiwork.

    I'd give a list of stats I'd love to know about but it would take an eternity to list them. Suffice to say if I could see scores split across several dimensions I'd love it.
     
    BKBassist and LambicPentameter like this.
  6. clutchmeister

    clutchmeister Initiate (0) Dec 17, 2010 North Carolina

    redunk, what a poor poor excuse to try something new...I feel for you...and I've drank plenty O' beers while in PA. It is a hassle to get beers, but still no excuse to look up everything before you try it for yourself. God forbid you actually reach for a beer off the shelf and buy it before looking it up online. Enjoy your smartphone and beers apps mate...cheers!
     
  7. flayedandskinned

    flayedandskinned Initiate (0) Jan 1, 2011 California


    THIS.
    I cannot possibly tell you how FRUSTRATING it is trying to decide whether or not to buy a beer based on a nearly endless list of "reviews" like this. I want to know what the hops taste like, whether the dry is Columbus heavy or Simcoe heavy, whether or not the aroma carries over in taste. This is the very reason why I held off for 2 years from writing reviews on this site. My palate just wasn't educated enough.
     
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  8. drtth

    drtth Initiate (0) Nov 25, 2007 Pennsylvania
    In Memoriam

    Given all the incorrect assumptions you've made in writing your post, I'll just say enjoy how you spend your beer money, mate.
     
  9. themind

    themind Initiate (0) Mar 14, 2011 New Jersey

    The number of beers reviewed by one does not mean there opinion outweighs anothers. There are people on here that have reviewed 500+ even 1500+ beers and never given a 5/5 overall. To me that is sad since those people have looked for there perfect beer for so long that they will not recognize it when it shows itself. New user, old user it is all the same. Cheers!
     
    TMoney2591 likes this.
  10. TMoney2591

    TMoney2591 Grand High Pooh-Bah (6,139) Apr 21, 2009 Illinois
    Pooh-Bah

    Your palate was and is just fine. It always was/has been. Anyone who thinks otherwise comes across to me as simply insecure. No palate is perfect/experienced enough to know everything, so all you can/should do with your review is tell me/us how you feel about the beer at that moment in terms of your senses at that particular time/place/whatever-else-is-left.
     
  11. MssrTussaud

    MssrTussaud Initiate (0) Apr 17, 2013 California

    So.... based on the millions of consumers, Budweiser really is the King of Beers. Cool.
     
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  12. Stugotzo

    Stugotzo Initiate (0) Jun 13, 2012 Florida

    Budweiser doesn't have millions of consumers. They have about 17, that drink a shit-ton of horrible tasting beer.
     
    themind likes this.
  13. Danny1217

    Danny1217 Initiate (0) Jul 15, 2011 Florida

    Thank you. The fact that a review i wrote OVER a year ago has been brought into this thread is infuriating. I re-reviewed jai Alai and my rating is almost the same. I enjoyed the beer the same way i did then. Sure, i can describe it better now, but i don't see how that gives me any more of a right to review beers now. It's not like I'm writing for a fucking magazine or something
     
  14. LambicPentameter

    LambicPentameter Initiate (0) Aug 29, 2012 Nebraska

    Seriously. Well said. The idea that one should only be reviewing if they can describe characteristics with a PhD level of sophistication regarding specific hop varieties is absurd. I can understand one's frustration with reviews that don't offer much in the way of descriptive characteristics, but as long as one can name flavor profiles and use descriptors that anyone can understand for comparison, that is all they should need to do.

    There are more than enough reviews on this site to skip those that might not satisfy one's minimum level of descriptiveness.

    I personally have plenty of comfort describing the way a beer looks, smells, tastes and feels, but most of the time I'm not going to be able to identify specific hop varieties, unless they are highly accentuated. I guess I should have waited a few years before I started reviewing beers :rolling_eyes:
     
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  15. LambicPentameter

    LambicPentameter Initiate (0) Aug 29, 2012 Nebraska

    Even if it had been written yesterday, it seems a little petty to bring it into a thread for someone to call out what was correct/incorrect about the way you wrote it. It would be one thing if your review only consisted of highly generic terms like "it smells like hops" or whatever was written, but yours had plenty of notes about specific flavor profiles interspersed with the other commentary. I personally like the reviews that mix specific descriptions in with the personality of their writing style. It's what makes reviews more interesting.

    I realize the point of this site is advocacy, but sometimes I think that not everyone understands that people can advocate for something in different, unique ways. That's part of the beauty of it, and a big part of why I would love to see stats on user's individual rDev average as well as overall score average. They are just additional details to enrich the experience of enjoying, sharing in others' enjoyment of, and advocating for beer.
     
    Gutes_Bier likes this.
  16. Gutes_Bier

    Gutes_Bier Maven (1,363) Jul 31, 2011 Germany

    Agreed (I only have 24 Hads myself). A high number does give more statistical weight to an average rating, though. Someone who's rated 1,000 beers to a 3.25 average reflects their personal scoring style more accurately than someone who's reviewed 5 beers to a 3.25 average on a statistical significance level. But I didn't mean to say that any opinion is more or less valid than another.
     
  17. themind

    themind Initiate (0) Mar 14, 2011 New Jersey

    Dude you are asking way too much from your average BA member lol!
     
    pjs234 likes this.
  18. clutchmeister

    clutchmeister Initiate (0) Dec 17, 2010 North Carolina


    Yea...no, but thanks for playing
     
  19. RobertColianni

    RobertColianni Pooh-Bah (1,789) Nov 4, 2008 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah Trader

    Please, clue me in on where you see non-generic terms followed by notes of specific flavor profiles in this quote:
     
  20. Gutes_Bier

    Gutes_Bier Maven (1,363) Jul 31, 2011 Germany

    Speaking as someone who has only done Hads, I would never criticize someone who actually took the time to write out a full review. It can be pretty daunting to write something up as an amateur beer reviewer, knowing that people from all over the internet can/will look at it. What's more, it's counterproductive to the entire point of this website really to hold public reviews out for ridicule. What he wrote is better than anything I could come up with.

    Anyway, none of that is really even germane to the point of this thread so hopefully we can all move on...
     
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