Eric LeVine/CellarTracker featured in the Financial Times

WINE TALK
21

Thank you so much, again, everyone!!!

BTW, the placeholder page at http://www.grapestories.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; is cleaned up with the proper template now. The FT article hit the web about 12 hours before I expected, so I wasn’t fully ready with my explanation for “What is GrapeStories.” And to avoid confusion I will re-post that here:

After more than a year of planning and work, I am incredibly excited to be on the cusp of launching an entirely redesigned site. The first question that many might have is “what is this GrapeStories thing?” The short answer is that the vision for the site has grown, and in the context of the larger experience CellarTracker is now just one important feature area.

For the longer answer, one needs to rewind nearly 7 years to when I first created CellarTracker as a tool to manage my own burgeoning wine collection. At the time I was thinking purely of a productivity tool to let a wine collector track the contents of their cellar, hence the very literal name. When I launched the site publicly, my goal was to create the pre-eminent cellar management tool for wine collectors.

I had always thought of cellar management as a niche application, but the site has now grown to have a very dedicated core of about 50,000 collectors. That said, for everyone who considers them self to be a wine collector, there are probably 1,000 people who are interested in or passionate about wine. The collectors are like the small but powerful inner wheel of an engine with great ability: to generate 1.2 million reviews (so far) on hundreds of thousands of wines, to recommend great wines, and to influence so many with their collective wisdom. The potential for the future is amazing.

As I have built a new user experience for the site over the past year, I have had a very explicit goal to serve both the wine collector and those people who are interested in wine but may never collect. This has been a two-pronged effort to (1) greatly deepen the power and richness of the cellar management tool, and (2) to make the site more approachable, welcoming, interactive and social. Part of making the site more welcoming was coming up with a new name that addresses the expanded vision. CellarTracker remains as the core of that vision, the inner wheel that keeps it going, but fundamentally that tool is now a feature within a larger experience.

The new brand is GrapeStories. This is a site about Wine Reviews & Cellar Management Tools where each person can tell their own unique story around their passion for wine. We are just getting going, together. I am deeply excited about what lies ahead.

In all of this redesign, one of the things I have been the most nervous of is the re-brand. In usability tests with existing CT users it was a no-op; no one cared what it was called. That said, calling it CellarTracker, CT etc. is just so second nature. Anyway, just 2 more weeks to February 27th. I can’t wait to unleash it on you. The alpha/invite thing is TINY right now, basically just the designer, the web-dev, Andrew Hall, and Marc Lazar. Then some press and bloggers next week once I get a bit more polished. I promise that everyone will have loads of time to get in there and kick the tires. I just need to finish up a few more things before I am ready for you. First impressions matter after all.

And with that, back to work…

22

Congrats Eric!

I promise that everyone will have loads of time to get in there and kick the tires.

I wanna drive!!! [berserker.gif]

23

That really is a terrific article. Congrats, Eric!

My favorite line is “And he really does love the tech work. Suzi told me that they dine with their computers on the table. (Their four-year-old daughter already has a Barbie laptop.)” [welldone.gif]

24

What a con job. First he screws everyone with Vinfolio Marketplace, and now WineStories.

What a joke.

No wonder Parker never aligned himself with such a criminal.



Just kidding!

25

Does that mean you are going to start paying us to contribute Eric?
[rofl.gif]

Let me guess, it will be a Voluntary payment…(which, btw, I don’t think two seconds about submitting to you each renewal). The code is great, but your commitment to collaborate with JR, FLOP, etc is really what kicks adrenaline into the site.
[welldone.gif]

26

Haha, great now I’m a Daniel target. :slight_smile:

On one serious note, as of now, all Marketplace customer have been made whole modulo bank fees for the first round of bounced checks. That said, everyone with any interest should carefully monitor the thread on eRP on this as well as Stephen Bachmann’s blog, as obviously not everything is resolved with Vinfolio as a whole.

27

1.2 million times zero = zero.

Signed,

Mark Squires

I am not a spiteful person (ok, maybe a little), but it will be so ironic when the community of “zeros” (as Mark Squires has so eloquently called us) take ERP to the woodshed.

28

Mo

Where was that quote?

29

I think the thread is gone, as I have looked for it before. I think the quote was something like 1 million times zero is still zero. Manlin right recall, as I think that is the thread where he earned DSP.

Mark is right about one thing which is that 1,000,000 * 0 = 0

I think we just tend to disagree on whether the first formula deserves a 0 in it.

30

I remember reading MS’s post on CT users the usefulness of their reviews
along the lines of…
500 reviews = zero in comparison to a “professional review”

31

ahh yes, one of my favorite battles with Squires… I loved that one…

32

http://dat.erobertparker.com/bboard/showthread.php?t=102322&page=6&pp=40&highlight=cellartracker" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Page 6 or 7, Squires starts in with the 50 x 0 = 0

33

http://dat.erobertparker.com/bboard/showpost.php?p=1245761&postcount=269" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

34

That’s exactly how I took it. My point is (as someone involved with software development) to point out that Eric has not done a good job of marrying user need with UI and software design… rather, he’s done a fantastic job.

That’s why I wrotem Parker years ago asking him to integrate with CT… it’s easy to see just by the design of the eBob site that his guys might be good technicians, but that they don’t have anyone comparable when it comes to understanding and articulating the user need relative to the design of the software.

35

That was a truly a memorable argument to watch. Squires was so clueless. Apparently the same arrogance that Parker suffer from. Notice he states that the notes are meaningless…

Here’s the great quote:

Ah, so 50 imperfect to meaningless notes adds up to something important, as long as there are a lot of them.

Interesting theory. I understand it. I do not agree with it.

Sorry, but your position is fatally flawed. 50 x 0 = 0. The inclusion of notes from people who (a) aren’t paying attention (b) and even may not know what to pay attention to, fatally skews the average you just keep trying to meet. Even an average of those who we know are trying to produce good results might be more meaningful, but it is still subject to all the problems averages have (*see below). That’s not what this averaging represents, however. Its universe is not stable.

36

People do have to approach CT notes aware of their weaknesses. For example, people self-select themselves heavily, by wine style. That’s why a given Mollydooker wine, which so many of us find undrinkable, will have 100+ 95+ notes on CT. And so will a given Rhys wine. If you know you’re already a fan of wine X, and just want to find out how a given vintage of wine X is doing, or how other wines by that producer are doing, CT is invaluable. It’s not so good for scouting out wines that one is not familiar with - that’s what a critic (WHO MATCHES YOUR PALATE) is very useful for.

37

Serge, at this age there no great wines, only great bottles. Especially for your latter two wines. The Tokaji is interesting, as those are usually pretty tough to kill. FWIW, I cleaned up some of the 50 and 60 point scores on the first Barolo to indicate flawed as well.

38

Like the ones that Jeff Leve posted here yesterday…

I enjoyed this quote

Everything “good” is not 95 points.-Mark Squires

Was Squires bashing Miller before Miller was a wine critic? [welldone.gif]

39

And increasingly as you build a circle of people on your favorite list, compare your notes to their, compare cellars, that is where I think CT scores have a great opportunity to be “everything to everybody” by letting people self-select and let their interests shape the data that is most interesting to them…

40

True, I can’t. But that is the beauty of having millions of people freely reading the notes. Just click the REPORT link next to a note. Specifically, if a bottle is clearly flawed then it should be marked as such rather than scored as 50 points etc. It can be a gray area, but the site’s policy here is relatively clear.