Is Joet Going To Destroy Ratebeer?

Originally posted by SinH4
Some of the Top10 brewers on Untappd are not even on RB (which might have to do with homebrewing rules and stuff, though).

About numbers: RB currently has 7305 users with >= 100 ratings (to be fair, this number has increased a lot recently, it was 6000 not long ago!). Our overall number of registered accounts is approx. 0.5 million.

Untappd has 7 million users, of which apparently (not sure if this is true) most are active.

So we have a much higher rate of "Founders beers ticked" than Untappd, although our userbase is less US-centric (which is a purely anectodal claim, but seems to be backed up among the people I know from both websites).

Something that hasn't been mentioned, while we're back at the "why do people use UT or RB", is that 'group / social pressure' is a big thing. Not entirely sure this is the correct translation of what I wanted to say, but I what I mean is that most people tend to follow others. If everybody is doing X they'll do X as well, even though they might like Y better.

In regard to the database: the sheer number of users are of course a big advantage. Still, there's a huge load of crap in the UT database. So looking at it from an UT point of view I'd say "look, we've got em all, even the really really new ones". From a RB pov I'd say "we might not have the new ones (yet), but they'll be added checked and verified so we make sure our database doesn't get polluted". I guess it's just what you prefer. Don't mind the bullshit that's in the database, just happy you don't have to add a beer yourself? You'll love UT. Prefer a clean database and don't mind adding a beer yourself? Stay (or come) here.

I don't think Ratebeerians underestimate UT users (btw, I agree with most of what you said Iznogud). I for one still believe most of em are thoughtless ticks just to get ahead of a friend or earn some kind of useless badge level. (Yes, I'm a senseless prick) While I certainly believe, and know first hand, that there are also people who don't just thoughtlessly tick, I don't understand why they're doing it. Especially those so called expert-users. So you know your shit about beer, you know your styles, you know to some degree what color belongs to certain styles and you can name the flaws in a beers aroma and flavor, etc. etc. Why then give a sole tick / star? It's like a formula 1 world champion preferring a car with a 30 mile an hour limit. I don't get it. You'd want to do something with that knowledge I'd say. So either you don't rate at all, or you do it properly, with a somewhat though through review of the different aspects of the beer. But maybe that's just me wondering.

Hm, I wouldn't pin labels so easily. One could label RB users as guys writing novels based on sip of beer. I have a funny story - I was in LIC beer project, NY recently and met this couple, both of them were into beers. They were equally amazed by my 5k UT profile and by the fact I'm a RB user. Their comment? "We thought RB is used only by people who don't know shit about beer, how come you don't use BA?"

I'd say 30% of my 90 Untappd friends are serious about beer. I'm talking about medal winning homebrewers, beer judges, brewery and beer bar owners, RB users, and expert beer drinkers. I don't consider knowing the difference between hefeweizen and stout expert knowledge. Talking more about taking a trip to Greece just to kill whalez with Rouhlas and fonefan or having 15 Dark Lord variants in one evening.

Some of my UT friends take notes, some of them don't. We've discussed this and some are perfectly OK with just a score or a short note on the beer quality. Different people have different ways, some just want to log if beer is worth having again and they don't need to know colour or size of head on stout they had 5 years ago.

So this bring us to my next point. How do we get some people from mentioned user groups to RB? Database is important, I agree. Probably the main reason I've decided to use RB over BA. But I don't think it's crucial here. My believe it's the ease of use what bothers people and by that I'm mostly referring to typing. Beer drinking is social activity for most people. I also prefer tastings where beer is discussed, not a big fan of those tastings where everybody has their heads in mobile phone or notebook. Typing or writing takes time and effort, it also means you are going to ignore your companion for certain time.
As I mentioned before this can be solved by fully implementing scoresheet in to the app so you would just have to click attributes instead of typing them. This would also help newbies who can be intimidated by RB system or simply lack vocabulary needed do describe the beer.


Also I wouldn't underestimate badges on UT. I don't really care for them to the extent I would chase certain beer to get a badge. But getting one is nice, milestones are good and I think it's in the human nature to look for some kind of reward for their work/hobby/activity. App developers understand that and that's why gamification element is part of many apps (foursquare removed that, and failed). We do have that here as well in form of stats which should be more developed IMHO.

@Iznogud: I agree with nearly everything you wrote. It's what it is nowadays. I don't like it (gamification for instance) but I guess we'll have to deal with it.

My experience with BA is that people really believe (themselves) that they're experts. I don't see that on RB. But then again I'm only a premium member here so don't know much about BA.

Fully agree with you that ease of use is one the main factors, but still believe that also heavily matters what friends are doing.

I have no problem with discussing a beer and rating it at the same time, but I get that some people might find it annoying when I type my rating on my phone. I just don't care, it's what I do as a hobby so hopefully they understand that.

One thing though I have different thoughts about, knowing a weizen from a stout is of course no expert level, but I don't consider someone an expert just based on the fact that he drinks whalez. Even if it is in Greece ;)

You guys hit on a great point. Taking your attention away from your social companions to type in words on your phone is infuriating - for you and your friends. Beer is a social beverage. A lot of folks demand a quicker interaction with their phone for that very reason. Those people aren't welcome here, based on our current functionality and rules.

Maybe expert is too strong word which can fall under different definitions. More appropriate term would be people which who'll think about beer they're having. And someone taking effort to obtain whalez or do beercations will usually pay enough attention to beer in front of him.

As for BA, I'm really not sure what to think. Their ratings seem to go more into detail than those here. But they seem very US-centric and database is much smaller than here. On the other hand their forums are very informative when it comes to US, lots of information on breweries, releases, aging etc. Something I'd like to see here instead of blank posts and inside jokes.

I like the options on Ciderexpert, you can score out of 5 and/or rate in either reduced 5 or full 12 categories (by sliding across a scale for each category) and/or add a written review.

Originally posted by Iznogud
I don't consider knowing the difference between hefeweizen and stout expert knowledge.

RB wanting more cookies to see what else I am doing, I cant even bring it up on my chrome browser anymore

What's the first thing you see, as a non member? Ads.
Any chance of getting rid of them so the site looks cleaner?