Whippersnappers (Old Man Rant)

Personally, I don't mind the push back or additional work to start...or hadn't you noticed that about me?

There are more and more of these "What can I get for" threads...many of which eventually devolve into the old region X vs. region y and pointless bickering. I'd rather pull the weed out by the root now before it covers the entire field.

 

So much this. Sooooo much this.

 

Not to mention the number of people that comment for their own best interest. There are plenty of people that are genuinely trying to be helpful but there are also some that chime in just to inflate the trade value of the beer because they want to get more out of it.

 

The recent "What can I get for...?" posts are useless, but trade value threads can come in really handy when you're trying to figure out what to offer for an older or more obscure beer. Maybe include an exception for beers not being actively traded?

 

The trade forum and the trade help forums are cesspools anymore.

Personally, I would be down for getting rid of all comments in the ISO/FT forums. And the value threads are generally full of worthless self-serving pseudo-information.

 

It's hard to keep up with releases. I like seeing other BAs give their take on a beer. I understand where you guys are coming from, but they are necessary IMO.

For example, the "Thicket Value" thread. I've been curious about that beer and the thread literally answered all of my questions. I don't see any problem. Don't let the bickering and self-serving people ruin a great source of information!!!

 

I can see some benefit to them but I don't know if the positives outweigh the negatives. For example, I just scanned the first page and found that thicket went 1:1 with Atrial+, 1:1 with Prop, 1:1 with a handful of RR sours, 2 thickets for 2 West Ashley, etc.

All that tells me is it trades all over the place and it just matters who sees it and how they value the beers they're trading. I doubt Atrial would go 1:1 with Prop or West Ashley but yet all of those beers went 1:1 with Thicket. In other words, why not just throw an offer out that you think is fair and see what happens? If you need a reference check the trading forum, though I do realize its hard to tell what got done and what didn't, it can give you an idea.

 

I think value threads are ridiculous. Beer is worth what you paid for it IMO. I won't trade with people who think I need to compensate them for some intrinsic value they feel they need to add to their beer due to hype, bottle count, distribution or whatever.

That being said, banning a particular type of thread you don't like is silly. Don't click on it if a particular topic is of no interest to you. It's not that hard. I do it all the time.

 

Exactly. "Trade Value" threads spread more misinformation than anything. Of course the homers want to chime in about some trade that is an obvious outlier, and then that turns into gospel.

I'm all for banning trade value threads and disabling comments in the ISO:FT section. I think that would really eliminate a lot of this "beer stock market" BS.

 

FTFY.

Without something to go by, when you throw out an offer what can happen is crickets, and you have no idea why. (Could be you're not offering enough, or it could be you're offering the wrong style, or it could be a venn diagram issue, or it could be there are very few bottles out there of your ISO, or...)

Comments and trade forum threads can provide invaluable clues to help post ISO:FT's that actually result in beer being exchanged.

 

The search function is and always will be the best source for figuring out trade values. I do see your point with the wide range of 1:1 trades that allegedly went down. I guess I just like open discussion about beers I know nothing about.

 

I understand that you can just ignore a thread if you don't want to read it, but the fact that the threads exist and are starting to become more prevalent make beer trading seem more and more like commodity trading.

That is a culture I think we can agree should not become the standard around here, so for that reason I think doing away with those type of threads is a good thing.

 

More aggressive modding of the "completed trades" threads that tend toward the "Kiwi Herman completed trades" fiasco I think is a better solution than banning them all together. They are legitimately helpful (The Aaron completed trades thread from last fall was particularly useful), and having all that info in one place instead of scouring the forums to figure out which got completed and which didn't is very useful.

 

Okay. I'm sold. Now that we're at it, what other types of threads can we ban?

 

Exactly, it is perpetuating the beer as a commodity. The trading forum was never setup to be a commodity exchange, it was a place that people can trade beers they have for beers they can't get.

 

There seems to be a general disdain among some groups for whale traders, the people who trade for things like Millennium or DQ are definitely doing something closer to commodity trading than locals for locals people are. Trade beer however you want to, let's not look down on people who trade beer differently than you do.

 

Technically, many of the threads are in the trade forum are against the rules. This is one of the rules:

• No open-ended offers / auctions; example: "Make me an offer."

So when someone goes in and list beers they have and beers they are looking for without specified amounts, this is an open-ended offer. Not only that, for sought after beers they become auctions as offers come in and people take the best offer. That is not what the trade forum is intended to be.

Let people trade whales, but the trade offer should be very specific about exactly what they have and exactly what they want.