All of us were lied to. Simple as that. I’ve been an admin for over 15 years. We were told that selling to AB would result in new investment in the site. A lot of people quit, and frankly the site never fully recovered. But we kept going. But all along, day by day, things got worse. Features stopped working. AB never invested. The community we loved was left to rot. Now, we’re told it’s gonna be shut down. If these people had any respect or care about the beer community they’d sell the site. But sadly, so far, they have nothing but contempt for us. RateBeer was never just about beer, it was a community. Other sites never had that.
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Hear hear Marko! I think you’re right when you describe it as culturocide. The writing and views of RB are historically important, having shaped the beer community around the world in the early days. I would say even shaping the current language and communication of beer. It drew in the beer geeks for the first time, connected them across countries, allowed regular beer shares and festival meet-ups where Untappd has never and would never be able to do, and where BeerAdvocate couldn’t do due to the lack of users in Europe. There has never been anything like RateBeer, and I’m truly grateful for all you lot for guiding my beer journey since 2013.
I sincerely hope some kind of celebration could be organised as one last hurrah. Perhaps I’ll finally have a reason to open my 75cl bottle of 25% struise!
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I’m joining in to all of you who somehow hope RB will survive this as well - in one form or another. As many said, it’s been more than just a beer site. I’ve met many people here, got numerous suggestions for places to visit and also ideas for interesting beers. Despite lacking in functionality, I still stuck with rating beer here and just can’t imagine not to that anymore.
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An old thread about compiling place ratings - hopefully Phil (or someone else technically minded) can provide some advice on how to save place ratings
Also, @joet as many people do not check the forums are you able to email all accounts so that others can save their ratings?
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Well shit.
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Oh dear, my lack of internet knowledge is well known on this site so I’d be no help what so ever being an Admin or Code/Software chap. I just hope someone/others can prise the site from InBev and take it forward.
I live in hope (while transferring my rates to Brewver (did so last year and need to get up to date)).
<*))))))><
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Hey Matt, good to see you around! It’s been a while.
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Probably the most tragic of all this is that I’m gonna have to get a life. Plus what to do with all these random terrible beers i have in my cellar from some rare region or style? I guess it’s probably a good thing that i never have to drink another mississippi beer again.
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Same boat. The only stats I was interested in were RB stats. I’m on Untappd, but I don’t care about the ticks or any stats on that site.
I guess if (or more appropriately, when) RB sunsets, I’ll likely be casually drinking without much care for who makes it, or where’s its from. End of an era.
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It’s clear that for right now, the owners of RateBeer find it easier to just shut it down rather than sell it. @mcberko is serious about purchasing it. If we wanna try to save the site, we need to convince them otherwise. To that goal, we need to find a way to message them. Joe has all the contacts, it would be very helpful if he’d share them. @joet can you help?
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Well, damn… just verified 3000+ beers the last few weeks 
Hope it’s not all for naught. Would be gutted to see this site just vanish, even though it has been fading slowly for the past couple of years.
@joet is it possible to add the ABV of the beers to the download file? That part was always missing from the compile ratings feature.
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I am writing a script for place ratings. I am not sure how one would access them yet. I will get them for you.
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For you, yes. 
Code updates have been a little shaky but I will tried to add this to the output file.
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When the sale went down, a lot of people got angry for a lot of reasons. I can’t and didn’t fault the sale of the site; I faulted what it was sold to.
This is predictable, albeit later than expected, but nonetheless tragic. Really, REALLY disappointing. What was a community of people regularly willing to spend their time and other limited resources to share and advance their passion is getting cannibalized by a corporation who saw craft beer as a threat to its (macro) industry.
Capitalism is what it is. I hope somebody got stupid-rich, because thousands of people are losing something that was important to them, at least hundreds of which used the site as a medium to connect with other friends regularly, throughout the world.
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I am not sure there is anything realistic (unless there is a secret millionaire among us willing to spend the cash) we could do to buy (and maintain) RB from the grip of the current owners.
I think we would be best trying to find a way to save the data and rebuild it elsewhere. Though, I am unsure that is even realistically doable.
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I have as a Norwegian admin spent ours “working” for RateBeer over many years. The sad news from joet is relly depressing…
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Right now, the owners are simply shutting it down. You’d think that they’d rather accept some payment to transfer ownership to someone who can keep it going. Especially if A) it’s no cost to them and B) they actually care about the community. There’s no business or other reason not to sell.
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I think they don’t care. In fact, they may see it as a threat, if anything, to their main money brands. The fact that their Goose Island beers still rate pretty high doesn’t probably factor in for them.
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You’re referring to “the owners” as if it’s privately owned. RB is owned by one of the largest multinational corporations on earth and can write off the loss, which makes it a fraction of a drop in the company’s pool (not bucket). Does it suck? Of course. But do they have a reason not to sell? Of course. As much as we both despise the move, I know the political scientist in you understands it.
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Damn. I reckon that I won’t have a 24th anniversary on Ratebeer. The news blows my mind. Thanks to all youse who replied to me or liked my posts. Means more than you all can possibly imagine.
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