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Sure, but the AB-InBev purchase happened over a year ago at this point. I don’t think it’s unreasonable for the folks that decided to stick around to expect to see some kind of improvement in a year.
What tangible changes have we seen in the past year? New forum software that was already developed by a third party? A new app that still has very limited functionality for most users? … if there’s anything else please chime in…
I don’t fault Joe for pulling the trigger on the sale at all… I’d have done the same thing 100%, but at the same time I think that regular users are well within their rights to complain about how things are progressing.
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This is what we get with a minority stake in RB. I’m sure they are not pumping in fund to the level that everyone believes. I’m still here with RateBeer until the end.
I don’t plan on leaving but there is absolutely no way I could feel any positivity whatsoever. Progress is simply far too slow and many of the changes being made are ones nobody has asked for.
This website is an amalgamation of bad code, good code, bad design, good design, everything is so inconsistent it comes as no surprise when things go wrong.
I think the top priorities should be:
- Consistency - many pages that are fully or partially using the “old design” all need to be transitioned to the new one used on the front page and beer pages
- Add back in the info/features that were taken away (talking about the new beer pages, things like country, city, proper dates and sorting of reviews etc.)
- Fix any remaining bugs
Once that’s done go ahead and add whatever features you think are necessary.
Would love to know how many people are using the new “Favorites” feature. Probably count those users on one hand.
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To address your points:
- Yes - some are old design some are new, you’re correct. However the web team is a single person working on new pages, and Joe is the only person working on the old pages. Things take time
As we progress, we’re gaining more momentum, as it’s becoming easier to move pieces - but we can’t just pull the rug out and replace everything over night. - I believe all of those are being addressed; and the above answer should show why the speed is slow.
- Again - some bugs are on the old site, some are on new (Although hopefully much less). People can only work so fast, and at times just the fact of running two stacks side by side can cause issues.
Many people are asking for various features, many people are asking for bug fixing, etc. We try to balance things out where we can; and of course try to kill 2 birds with one stone as often as possible.
Actually the favorites features is heavily used - and will be expanded out to not just be “favorites” for additional functionality that I believe power users will very much appreciate.
Thanks for the positivity, @bhensonb
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It might be just me, but what is / are the Favourites Feature(s)? Am I missing something or is it an App thing of which I don’t use?
Oh right, I have seen that. Not something I use really.
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Just a luddite, but everything is OK with me. I still use RB for my original intended purpose and I can’t stand whats going on at the juvenile UT. JMHO
Continually complaining about the AB purchase isn’t going to change anything.
One thing that really bugs me tho is the inability to submit corrections to a beer’s page, miss that feature.
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You can still submit corrections. Thankfully that feature hasn’t gone anywhere. Press the pencil icon in the top right hand corner on a beer’s page and then “Send Corrections”.
Well obviously I can’t argue with you on this so I’ll take your word for it, but its reception was mostly one of bemusement here on the forums which is why I brought it up as a specific example. You’ve got admins posting in here who are still unaware of it. I will assume the “heavy” use is from all the new users we supposedly have. I think for most of us you can just sort our ratings by top rated to see our faves which is why many of us saw it as a rather pointless feature. But if what you say is true then fair enough, maybe us forum users are using the site a lot differently to non-forum users.
As for the slow speed of updates, I get that, but I mean it’s not even one page a day being fixed. Even a 1 man “team” should be able to do that much, no?
DUDE! THANX! 
It’s so hard for this ol’man to understand obvious technology corrections to a page!
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What does the favorites button do? I also have never used
It lets you create a list of beers that can’t be sorted or filtered in any way. Sometimes I use it to bookmark what I’m looking for/going to buy next/have in my cellar.
My “want” list is kinda beers I hope to aquire although probably won’t since I’ve nothing to trade. Is that how you use it? My actual favorites are reflected in my ratings I would hope. Seems fairly useless unless I’m missing something
I’m sorry, but every time someone uses the term “power users”, it completely undermines my confidence in what they’re saying. If communication with concerned users was earnest, you wouldn’t need to divide them into groups. There’s a lot of justifications, but I don’t feel listened to. Is this because I am not a power user who is pleased with what’s going on?
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I think I’m two sahtis and a new English County place rate away from being a power user but not sure.
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So there’s only 2 person working on the site design in such a drastic transition? And how many are working to develop the App?
I understand why people are pissed about the situation, the implementation of the new design was pretty rough on everybody because the way it was done at first (with minimal communication), users only lost functionalities, many still missing today, and encountered lots of bugs in the process, many still there today.
I keep faith on the website to get better and hopefully the App too because I don’t like the alternative right now, but we lost so many active users that, as a user, going through a list of empty pages for new stuff (if luckily it’s in the DB) is getting boring and as admin, you ask yourself if the work you do really matter…
I’m thinking like Lazypro about the Favorites feature too…nobody ask for this and I hardly find possible it’s “heavily used” right now in its current state… There’s no way to see quickly if a product is in your favorites unless you click on the product and see the heart tag on the beer page…and on the Favorite page, there’s no sorting options so if you have many products listed, it’s a mess to find a beer in there… and I still don’t understand the concept of Favorites…my favorites are the the beers I rated the highest…
Meanwhile people are still asking to bring back basic things like the real beer score or being able to see which brewer brewed a beer in case of contract brew, as well as the Add/want options (it’s still available right now but it’s really hard to work with efficiently) which is could have been easily been done like the “Favorite” feature.
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I have to say the app looks really nice. I might even find it useful next time I travel.
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