Originally posted by bartlebier
Originally posted by northropfrye
Here’s a Polish video about this. Can anyone translate this? https://youtu.be/W1CoNgWK94E
Says it’s shocking and that the shit hit the ventilator.
Detailed polish translations welcome on how he will proceed from that diagnosis.
Tomek Kopyra did not say much beyond obvious notes as he smartly refrained from making statements since he lacked info to make further comments. I am yet to chat with him about this, |
FWIW, fixed and expanded hawthorne’s entry because why not. |
Originally posted by ClarkVV
can’t think of a single one, Wicked Weed included, that hadn’t already gone WAY downhill by the time it was sold.
You’re high. Less hyped than they initially were? Sure. Made a product that went downhill? Nope. Not even one of the High End saw a downturn in quality, IMO.
Originally posted by ClarkVVWe all, or most all, hate Big Beer, myself included. Would it be nice if it was not an AB Inbev-funded company that bought a partial share? Sure.
Could that revenue be then used to benefit ABI interests? I think that’s the real crux of the matter.
I find it humorous that SO many that are completely (and unreasonably, in many cases) against ABI are OK with its investment in RB. Homerism at its finest. |
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So what would have happened if say a year or two ago a new user appeared on Rb and in total honesty announced that they were from ABI, and that they were on here to learn what we wanted or liked in craft beer with the goal of brewing an ABI craft beer that was better than what we could now buy regularly? If they started asking specific questions would they have gotten useful, constructive dialogue? |
Originally posted by SpringsLicker
So what would have happened if say a year or two ago a new user appeared on Rb and in total honesty announced that they were from ABI, and that they were on here to learn what we wanted or liked in craft beer with the goal of brewing an ABI craft beer that was better than what we could now buy regularly? If they started asking specific questions would they have gotten useful, constructive dialogue?
Or before they began buying craft breweries? |
Originally posted by HornyDevil
I find it humorous that SO many that are completely (and unreasonably, in many cases) against ABI are OK with its investment in RB. Homerism at its finest.
I think this is over-simplifying it, at least for me. I’m one of these folks. I don’t care for ABI’s business practices, but I’m not losing my shit over this development, and I’m certainly not leaving RB. And it’s not due to homerism at all. I just categorically reject the "sky is falling" scenario that everyone is so convinced of because I don’t think anyone has one fucking clue about what the future will bring. But more importantly, I also categorically do not revere RB or see it as the beating heart of craft beer as so many do here. It’s a hobby website for me, that’s it. And so long as the rating system continues to function, I will continue to rate beers here. if anyone thinks that makes me a sellout, or a turncoat, or naive, I honestly don’t give two fucks. I refuse to buy into all of the histrionic rhetoric that’s flying around; I will wait until the dust settles to see where this takes us. If I don’t like what the future brings, then I’ll make other plans. |
Originally posted by HornyDevil
Originally posted by ClarkVV
can’t think of a single one, Wicked Weed included, that hadn’t already gone WAY downhill by the time it was sold.
You’re high. Less hyped than they initially were? Sure. Made a product that went downhill? Nope. Not even one of the High End saw a downturn in quality, IMO.
Originally posted by ClarkVVWe all, or most all, hate Big Beer, myself included. Would it be nice if it was not an AB Inbev-funded company that bought a partial share? Sure.
Could that revenue be then used to benefit ABI interests? I think that’s the real crux of the matter.
I find it humorous that SO many that are completely (and unreasonably, in many cases) against ABI are OK with its investment in RB. Homerism at its finest.
Which brewery hadn’t gone way downhill? Wicked weed’s beers became heavily dull, the hop character significantly less interesting and fresh than in the past, the beers becoming sweeter, and the sours had all been becoming messier than they had been (honestly never saw much in WW’s sours to begin with, only liking a few examples). Obviously Wicked Weed was the best of the bunch, so it’s a bit odd to focus your counter-argument on them, but they were well on their way to mediocrity and irrelevancy by the time they sold.
I am OK with its investment in Ratebeer because I am confident it will not disrupt integrity of the ratings, I know it is not part of a sinister, conspiratorial plot to destroy the website and ratebeer doesn’t make beer. The only reason I ever stop supporting ABI-purchased breweries is because their product sucks.
Revenue gained by ZX Ventures via Ratebeer could be used to benefit ABI interests, so that’s no longer a question in my mind, and that’s a shame, for sure. |
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Originally posted by SarkyNorthener
Maybe if everyone who used the site regularly, had a premium account, as would be morally correct. Ratebeer would have had the funds to progress alone.
Ratebeer is a FOR-PROFIT site where almost 100% of its traffic is from user-generated content. There is no moral accountability when money is being made. |
Originally posted by DuffMan
I think this is over-simplifying it, at least for me. I’m one of these folks. I don’t care for ABI’s business practices, but I’m not losing my shit over this development, and I’m certainly not leaving RB. And it’s not due to homerism at all. I just categorically reject the "sky is falling" scenario that everyone is so convinced of because I don’t think anyone has one fucking clue about what the future will bring. But more importantly, I also categorically do not revere RB or see it as the beating heart of craft beer as so many do here. It’s a hobby website for me, that’s it. And so long as the rating system continues to function, I will continue to rate beers here. if anyone thinks that makes me a sellout, or a turncoat, or naive, I honestly don’t give two fucks. I refuse to buy into all of the histrionic rhetoric that’s flying around; I will wait until the dust settles to see where this takes us. If I don’t like what the future brings, then I’ll make other plans.
Understood. The sky is certainly not falling. That said, if anyone believes that ABI is not using this to its advantage, is naïve. VERY naïve. |
Thought I’d share some thoughts.
Why should I continue to contribute to RB if AB InBev profits from that?
- The amount of profit they could ever make from RB, in comparison to their wider business, is negligible. AB InBev would profit a lot more from apathy among beer raters than from a few adverts and a few dollars a year in membership fees. I would prefer it if no big organisation profited from my use of RB, but in this day and age that might be unrealistic. RB is too good a website not to have gained attention. But it is (presumably) not profitable enough to attract attention outside of the beer sector. So who else was going to invest than a big beer company, really?
- The use of RB and other rating sites encourages people to try beers from new and upcoming breweries and puts small craft beers on the map. By adding your local breweries and their beers to the site, you help to market them and help them to develop. If you stop doing this, AB InBev potentially profits in market share.
- There is no other site like RB. It’s fun to use and the other beer rating platforms are less fun, for me at least
Will AB InBev’s involvement in RB hurt craft beer?
- I don’t see how the information on RB puts AB InBev in a stronger position to buy out or out-compete craft breweries. Nor does their minority ownership. I imagine the ’big data’ at the back end of Ratebeer, perhaps including cookies, may allow them to better market their products at RB users…which would only assist them in marketing craft beer products. They are not going to sell more Bud by buying a share of RB, and they will not have more money to take over a developing brewery.
Will AB InBev use ZX’s position to favour their own beers?
- AB InBev’s minority stake in RB will give it some say in corporate decisions, which Joet will presumably be able to overrule. In a worst case scenario, they could try to put some pressure on to change the scoring system to favour themselves. The only way I could see them doing this would be to ’depolarise’ the rating system, as they currently produce most of the world’s worst beers. They would have to find a way to bring all beers into the ’middle’. But, even if they did this, their beers would always come out bottom.
- It is highly unlikely that AB InBev would do something this cynical, as there would be an inevitable backlash from raters (I mean, just look at the last 40 odd pages) and the site would die.
Will breweries dissociate from RB?
- I don’t think they can "leave". But if any good brewery did pull away from RateBeer, only the brewery would suffer. The hype machine helps good breweries. It is a feather in the cap for them to be at RB Best or to get good scores. For raters, it would be annoying for completeness not to be able to rate beers from particular breweries, but that would be the extent of the harm done. Any talk of this is just posturing – certain breweries want the street cred of being anti-Ab InBev.
- Breweries could decide not to assist admins out of some sort of perceived rebellion against AB InBev. That would hurt the database standards a bit. This would be very annoying for beer geeks, and frustrating for admins, but I can tell you that AB InBev wouldn’t give two shits about this. Not a single AB InBev employee would be even slightly put out. Whereas the RB admins, working essentially as volunteers, would be needlessly inconvenienced and this website’s accuracy as a brewing heritage resource will be affected. If breweries acted this way, it would make me feel a bit shitty towards the brewery. But ultimately they’d probably be harming themselves more by restricting the exposure they get on the site.
So, in short, I’ve decided to relax about it |
