I’m posting in this forum because my business is currently beer and I have struggled with this dilemma for a little while- posting about or using a site where ratings are used for the product you are affiliated with or own. I see other people in my industry, and ones I know personally, go on Untappd, for example, and rate their beers with the highest rating every time they drink them. I find this problematic for a number of reasons- mainly because it skews the actual ratings of the beers, inflating them in an artificial way. I wonder if this occurs on Cellartracker or on Delectable? What are peoples’ thoughts about this practice?
Why it’s hard to put faith aggregated ratings. As with wine critics, it’s about finding a palate that calibrates with your own, and doing the best with that.
I always figured it would balance out given competitors going out and giving intentionally low ratings.
without disclosure of affiliation, it’s super slimy — both the note and the score.
with disclosure of affiliation, I find a tasting note to be fine.
with disclosure of affiliation, I find a score that goes into an aggregate group-sourced score to be unsavory.
that said, I couldn’t care less about crowd-sourced scores, so this isn’t something that affects me.
I have caught this on occasion on CT and booted people, cleaned up etc. Generally it sticks out like a sore thumb, and there are a lot of eyeballs who are more than happy to complain to me about what they view as excessively low and high scores.
The best was one importer who had opened 10 accounts. It was still pretty easy to figure out. (The dipshit didn’t know I could look at IP address patterns.)
^ This.
I’ve wondered why I have never seen you post one of the beers on Untappd, but figured this was the reason. I don’t see a problem with it as long as you disclose your affiliation or just don’t score it. There is a local brewer here who posts his beers everyday on Untappd with comments like… Amazing, life changing, etc… Total dick move and it’s a commercial brewery with pretty good distro.
The only time I have unfriended someone on Untappd was Augie Carton who is co-owner of Carton Brewing in NJ. I have enjoyed some of his beers over the past few years and as a matter of fact had a few beers with their head brewer, who is a friend of a friend just last week. Carton has a rather large presence on Untappd, as he friends people who check-in Carton beers, which is how I was connected to him. After a year of using Untappd I realized not surprisingly he drinks and logs in a ton of beer and not just his own. What I did find interesting is the majority of beers he rates are his own. Guess what he rates them? All are 5 stars across the board. Every. Single. Beer.
Thanks guys. I kind of figured most people would feel this way.
I do want to represent the product correctly. On platforms that are crowdsourced I think it is sometimes hard to do this right. Places like Berserkers are a bit easier because most people have familiarity with the members, and if they don’t, the masses will make sure correct behavior wins out.
I would definitely log them in, especially if you are drinking the beers at restaurants or bars, as Untappd has that feature to find beers if someone is looking where to drink them in Atlanta.
I’m curious, John: what exactly is your affiliation with the beer biz?
Brian, I am a partner in a new brewery here in Atlanta called Second Self ( www.secondselfbeer.com ). I have been working on this project for a year and we have been selling for four months. My prior “ITB” creed was all wine, basically for the last 12 years. I’m calling this my beer break.
I have kept things low profile on here, and, for the most part, on social media, in terms of my involvement. Its mostly because we are small, and, for the moment, draft only. We will go to package in March and I will be able to share beer with curious folks then. 
Cool stuff, John.
I noticed your signature a while back, and it got me wondering, but I never bothered you about it b/c I figured you simply had good reason(s) to not be any more specific in your signature. That said, when you brought it up in this thread, I couldn’t resist asking.
I took a look at the website — most of the beers sound very interesting to me, especially the wheat and also the porter.
I like or at least have know issue with a fully disclosed person commenting on their product. Where scores are involved, that would be a no no. Or making claims about the products greatness. But something like, “I made this beer and love it.” Seems cool.
Let’s drink some beer next time I’m out there. Been too long!
J
Sounds great Jason!
I have not gotten involved in Beer Advocate, Untapped, or RateBeer for this very reason - both from the standpoint of pimping my own beer, or criticizing someone else’s beer.
Glad you chimed in Rick. I have never used Beer Advocate, or more specifically the forums, but I am aware of them. It was definitely part of what I was asking about. Same for Rate Beer. I do use Untapped. Since I began doing this project I’ve felt less comfortable discussing other local beers.
So, I was reading this article on Five Thirty Eight and I thought of this thread . . .
I wonder about data sets that are skewed because of crowd-sourced info or because of what we discussed above. Also, the movement since last night’s Super Bowl commercial to rate the Elysian Pumpkin/Peach beer poorly on Untappd even though folks haven’t tasted it.
Give me some of your beer and I’ll give you an honest rating
So I was chatting with someone about this again. And we brought up this site: http://www.beergraphs.com
If you are not familiar with it, its pretty cool, however I think some of their model is flawed. Relying on Untappd, for example can lead to score inflations. If you look at things in a vacuum, especially without knowing a lot about the products, you may be doing yourself a disservice. Try messing around with it in your area and see what you think.