It’s always heart-warming to be reminded from time to time that there are so many of us out there that belong to the, ‘mistreated by beeradvocate.com‘, club. My own story is well-documented, and unsurprisingly there are many, many others that are similar and equally disappointing – and it’s STILL going on, even years AFTER this. I think there’s a pattern emerging here, guys!
So, this morning was a good one. I woke up to read Chad’s Beer Nut column at timesunion.com where he details, and reflects upon, his own expulsion from the site, two years prior. Nothing new there, but as I say, still good to be reminded that there are plenty ‘like me’ still out there. The piece rang especially true with me, as my own ban was instituted in the Spring of 2011 just a few months before Chad’s. Of course, on reflection the ban was a great thing for me, since this blog was born as a direct result of beeradvocate’s action.
I probably check the site a few times a month these days, often after I get a message from somebody telling me that my name has been mentioned on the forum somewhere.
Living on
When I do check-in, it’s obvious that the forums are an absolute riot of useless nonsense. Again, nothing to report there, all of that’s old news as well, but as I looked around the site this evening (having been provoked by Chad’s piece), I noticed something that I had not done before.
Having had all my reviews deleted from beeradvocate (after I managed to save them all), I knew that the Bros. hypocrisy in terms of respecting beer knew no bounds, but my visit this evening revealed yet another layer of disrespect. Not only have they kept all of my photographs of places & beer, AND have kept places and beers that I added to the database (all of which I already knew about), now they have now taken to crediting THEMSELVES as the sources of those entries – CLASSY!
Who added?
Thanks for the mention and kind words, Ding. Those are extremely rare coming from you, ha ha.
Yes, it’s very sad that the same shenanigans that have been going on for years now are still happening on a daily basis. Much like you, not having to deal with that site has been a relief for me as well.
I agree that it’s rather hypocritical of them to use pictures that were submitted by now-banned users. I’m sure the user agreement probably says something to the effect of “all submitted pictures become our property.” You’d think they’d be honest and say “photo submitted by a former user.”
Not sure if BA will ever vanish completely, but I’m sure it’ll reach the point of irrelevancy. Can’t help but wonder what the Alstroms will do for a living then.
Oh, I have ZERO doubt that the user agreement *allows* them to use the data that I provided, and that wasn’t my point, rather it’s question of;
1. The hypocrisy of wanting to continue to use my contributions, and
2. The total dishonesty surrounding the claim regarding who contributed.
BA will go on, AND be ‘successful’ (however one defines success) in my opinion, and I say good luck to them. I guess if I could get away with drinking beer for a living I’d be doing it too, but I’d like to think that I would manage to maintain the moral high-ground as I was doing so! Luckily for me, I believe in Karma.