While id rather he hadn’t ive no objection to him making what he csn from the site. Over the years I’ve had more than my values worth. And made friends that are priceless. Met so many wonderful people and Even met a Turkish diplomat through ratebeer. I can’t complain there at all.
All my complaints recently have been about how me and most ratebeerian i know. Find the site moving backwards to our needs.
It’s a travesty that i and several others would rather use an unsupported app thats now broken in places over the official app. As no one will listen to us over the number 1 need.
I don’t disagree with you, but they don’t need to knock beer back into 1965 to make all of this worth it - a couple of basis points of EPS is worth chasing for huge companies. A couple mil for RB? They spent like $5M for 30 seconds of ad time during the Super Bowl. This is chump change for them.
Interesting, but I’ma keep rating and hanging out with RateBeer friends I’ve met along the way! Let me know if any of you pass through/by southwest Wisconsin/northeast Iowa!
Quite frankly, I really don’t care who owns it but I still want accountability and verifiable positive upgrades. Still waiting for those new style categories, tjdibble (who I’m not sure even exists anymore) promised all sorts of fixes coming soon…still waiting almost a year now for the want list/my cellar to be fixed and useable…among numerous other things. I just want a functional world class site. We have enough promises for one just not tangible results. I’ll stay around and even still provide local admin functions but my desire to continue rating has definitely waned. This site seems to have gotten me into beer and is slowly pulling me away from it. Perhaps that’s positive change #1. I’m starting to see my savings account grow rather than deplete.
I do also need to compliment Joe on the first understandable announcement post in some time. Whether you agree with him or not. At least the message is clear! Us simpletons don’t always understand that technical jargon.
For the record, data has not at all been the key ingredient fueling the continued investment in RateBeer since 2016. Instead the focus has been on using RateBeer to raise awareness of and passion for “the category” (beer) among those of drinking ages. Any and all new and happy beer drinkers are a benefit to the company, as it competes for your attention with wine, spirits, and other things.
Thanks. Having grown RateBeer largely outside of big business and for almost two decades, it took me months to understand all the language at meetings.
I think we were definitely a part of the cause, and some historians agree, but yeah beer has been with us for millennia and will outlast even humanity.
I think this stuff is even less likely now with the acquisition. The focus is now going to be 100% on rating volume and testing monetization paths (see: Ratebeer Australia). If you thought it was bad for power users before, it’s going to be even worse now, because power users in no way are going to align with ABInBev’s strategy for this site. Everything but the core rating experience is going to be put on life support: which, admittedly, you can already see with the app, but it’s just going to get worse, as core features here continue to break but are ever slower to be fixed.
I understand that you have to represent this in a positive way, but come one, please don’t tell us of ‘happy beer drinkers’, rainbows and unicorns… We aren’t that naive.
If that’s all they wanted to do, why would they bother with the purchase? What’s in it for them? I’m afraid this viewpoint is terribly naive. They have no legal obligation to tell you why they want(ed) to acquire you, merely to ensure that the financial contract is in order. Don’t be surprised when some nasty twists come down the pipe; you are dealing a humongous and horrible multinational organization here with a history of backstabbing, undercutting, trickery and lies. All they care about is their bottom line, and an acquisition of a functioning (barely) business with only the intent of “raising awareness of and passion for beer” would never be approved in a million years. It’s either for data, or it’s for manipulating thought to promote their interests in a way that Ratebeer or Untappd would never do without vested interest.
