New RateBeer Investment

[Iznogud]

Yep, that was my line of thinking.

[77ships]

@mansquito

In fairness, the acquisition contract could give him certain consent rights over certain decisions. Obviously, the contract is confidential (as all M&A contracts are), so we cannot know unless there was a specifically negotiated carveout in the contract with respect to publicizing that aspect of the transaction. If I were negotiating the contract, I would have tried to have as many of such rights as possible.

Possible yes but not for an infinite period and since both parties cannot be trusted to tell the truth one cannot know.

[herrklemann]

Finally my ratings are fully owned by one of the big players. So glad for all the unpaid work of the past few years.

[Sarlacc83]

RB officially in the Facebook model of tech. Get your data and sell it. (Bringing full circle the plans I mentioned at the initial acquisition)

[MarcoDL]

Incredibly stupid move if you want a credible beer ratings website.

[fiulijn]

@herrklemann

Finally my ratings are fully owned by one of the big players. So glad for all the unpaid work of the past few years.

IIRC you still own your ratings

@eduardovl

I’m an IT guy and, some time ago, I’ve written a code to migrate my beer reviews from BeerAdvocate to Ratebeer. I guess that, with a small investment, I can create something that does the opposite

You should start this project:
build a table, available online, that maps Ratebeer IDs to Untappd and BA (and vice-versa); that’s the bulk of the work.
There could actually be people willing to move their ratings from UT to RB too; one of my friends wanted too, and he could build the script, but he doesn’t have the time to map the beers.

[Saeglopur]

Great news! (Read: At least it’s not hemorrhoids! )

[puzzl]

While this won’t impact the day-to-day for anyone using on the site

:nods:

[The_Osprey]

Fun fact: it is not in Abinbev’s interests for this website to exist. Its demise has been the plan all along

[minutemat]

Will we be introduced to our new masters at some point, or will they remain faceless & nameless?

[kraddel]

Let me know how I can get that app… Time to leave this place!

[eduardovl]

Let me prepare something. I’ll let you know

[Garrold]

@The_Osprey

Fun fact: it is not in Abinbev’s interests for this website to exist. Its demise has been the plan all along

Anyone who thought / hoped otherwise is seriously naive. I’m surprised it’s lasted this long.

[trapped]

I’m not sure how to feel about it. I don’t see Joe owning the site by himself any safer than it’s being owned by ABInbev, as to the possibility of suddenly closing down. When it’s about the life you have to continue with, any kind of ‘camaraderie’ can only go so far. I don’t personally believe that he should feel any compunction about selling his life’s work, at least not to us regular or paid users. As for admins, it’s a different case for them, since they have also spent so much energy to keep the site running. I don’t like the other two sites at all, so I think I’ll continue to be here and I just hope that everyone else doesn’t leave.

[wheresthepath]

@trapped

. I don’t like the other two sites at all, so I think I’ll continue to be here and I just hope that everyone else doesn’t leave.

Plus one.

[Iznogud]

@trapped

I don’t personally believe that he should feel any compunction about selling his life’s work,

His work for sure, but our work as well.

[jjsint]

I’ve gotta think about my next move. It’s like being in a bad relationship where you want to leave… you’re not quite ready but you think it’s time to make exit plans just incase.

There’s no place rating at all in Untappd and it’s a bit piss poor in Beer Advocate. Guess I could just keep my own stats…

[Saeglopur]

@trapped

selling his life’s work

What ABInbev is after, isn’t his work (which is, with all due respect, a quite common page for user generated content), but our work: millions of data records by thousands of users from accross the globe.

[eduardovl]

BeerAdvocate is too American. That’s why I’ve left them. I think that it’s time to release something really new.

[BVery]

I’m not so sure they give a shit about the data records. Old data isn’t particularly valuable. New data isn’t primarily housed here (anymore).

I think they are defending their flagship brands against the rise of craft beer. A number of tactics to support this strategy: 1) publicly disparage the craft culture (pumpkin peach SB add a couple years ago, ‘for the many, not the few’ in ads now); 2) buy some craft breweries to give customers the illusion of options while continuing to crowd out shelf space from real craft brewers; 3) buy a key online craft beer community website and kill it from within.

Basically, try to take the fun out of craft beer, hurt demand, and help facilitate the demise of rising competition. Then the customers turn back to good old Bud Light, and all is right in ABInbev’s world.