I guess, as the person who probably invested the most working hours in helping the site live for the last at least 15 years or so, and with more insight than most into what RB is and was and could be, I should also give my take on what’s going on and what should/could be done.
So… yeah, this news of this came as a surprise to many of us, as the site was finally being worked-on again, after a couple of years of total technical neglect. There was always a risk though, and it came true. One thing that everyone should know, however, is that there are people who would be ready and prepared to take over, if possible, and that all is not done, this doesn’t need to be the end. Unless someone, maybe some individual, decides it should end no matter what.
On paper, and to many who have entered the beer scene in, say, the last 5-10 years, Ratebeer might seem like “just an old rating site”, with technical issues and, compared to some (a major “one” to be fair), a relatively small number of active users, terribly disused in some areas. It is, of course, still the bloody best in the world in others (Places in many areas and their concept to begin with, stats, RATING QUALITY, its flexibility, to a point - community etc.), but its problems and “problems” are evident. Only a bloody fool or a hypocrite would deny any of that. It’s been proclaimed dead plenty of times, even when it was thriving, by people wanting to make themselves seem I guess somehow more in the know than others I guess, and the bad press due to its ownership has only helped attempts to play it down, but it lived on and on and on, providing a valuable service to many. The technical issues are largely, as it stands, ABI’s or, rather ZX’s faults. They have squandered valuable months and years of funded development by choosing to ignore its user base entirely, pushing ridiculous hot take ideas (anyone remember the fantastic “1-5 star rating” concept to make it even more dumbed down than UT was then?), trying to remake the site for the worse UI- and concept-wise before community intervention, and pushing live updates without testing, breaking the site, scaring many who chose to remain away (despite actually providing a more stable base in other ways). And then, when they finally realized their error (and development was transferred elsewhere) and started going in a very promising direction, they cut the funding soon “mid-sentence”, leaving the site dead in the water, the chance being squandered. It’s theirs so they have the right to do it. From a perspective of someone internal, especially someone looking only at numbers, with just a simplistic comprehension of what the site is, I can see why they’d want to fully shut it down at this stage.
All that said, this is, however, in reality, a blatant act of culturocide by people who are, hopefully, just unintentionally ignorant and could be reasoned with to pass it on for preservation if they learned otherwise. Set to destroy an important piece of the history of the world of beer in the first couple of decades of the 21st century - a “living museum” of sorts, that chronicled the worldwide growth of craft beer scene at its key moments, at the same time mapping of the unexplored / little explored beer areas, that previously had no online presence and little to no global awareness, and are now much, much better known, even world famous. From exploring the Franconian countryside to writing about obscure beeroid drinks like umqombothi, back where this was pretty much the only place where that was done… Its places system, and even beer ratings, including input from people who were, are and would become famous beer authors, is irreplaceable. Sure, even if all of us managed to transfer all our ratings elsewhere somehow, what will happen to the opus of Michael James? Of the work of Walt Powell? Of the Czechophile writings of the unique Dr. Günther “Pivnizub” Heinzel? Their own fault for dying too early I suppose, right, so it’s okay to wipe everything… This is, within the context of the wider beer world, no better than blowing up the Buddhas of Bamiyan, and being okay with it reasoning on the level of “there are very few Buddhists there anyway, so there was no need for them”. Dramatic much? Yeah, and realistic. I truly hope this can be avoided.
Ratebeer, whether some people like it or not, and despite its current lack of major direct relevance in the 2020s beer scene, has had a big influence on the development of the global craft beer scene. Many highly successful breweries and beer places, even individuals through personal development helped along by the site, owe at least a small part of their success to Ratebeer being what it is and gathering the people that it did and does at the right moment, for example, with Ratebeer Best creating sales, exports, global recognition… I do hope that the wider community, even that which abandoned the site (for which they are blameless to be fair), will have it in them to support, at least loudly, the preservation of the site. It can still have a future, with very little effort, and with very much plenty of will by many people, and anyone who cares one bit about the history of (craft) beer should fight to preserve its past.
I do hope we can all help raise our voices to preserve it. Ratebeer deserves being preserved. The 24-year effort of tens of thousands deserves to be preserved. Let’s preserve it, and then, together, pick up where it got cut off and finally implement all the ideas we have for it, and make it relevant again.
This is very sad and disheartening.
