What are the basic funtions of the wants and gots system? If I mark the Gots checkbox on a beer's review page - does that tell the community that I have some for trade? Is it more for my own records of beers I have tasted? For example, if I mark that I 'got' a beer and then drink it, should I find it on my profile and remove from the 'gots'? If I want a beer and receive it, I should likewise remove it from my 'wants'? Add it to 'gots'?
There are no real set rules for wants and gots. In general if you want a beer put it in your wants, if you get it and don't want another one take it out. If you have a beer then put it in your gots, typically once you've consumed it you change it from got to had. I don't know how other people use them but in general when I am sending extras or BIF boxes I start by looking in wants and sending what I have access too, from there I look at what distribution I have that the other person doesn't. If I have a good beer from a brewery they don't get then I check their Got's and Hads and definitely send it if they didn't list it there, and consider sending it if it is in there hads and rated highly. I typically don't send it if it is in their gots and not in their wants.
That makes sense. It took me a while to realize that it's a trading tool as opposed to 'just for fun' record keeping.
There are plenty of people that use it as a record keeping tool, but a lot of people use it for trading and use other sites/apps for tracking their beers.
