Should Wineberserkers Try to Attract Younger Members?

[PeterB]

Come to my next one!

And when you are ready, host one of your own!

[Robert_Dentice]

@PeterB

Come to my next one!

And when you are ready, host one of your own!

I will definitely make a point to in 2025. And you need to come to one of my events

[Mike_Grammer]

Thanks for the call-out, Mads. Yes, Kevin, it’s here So Who Likes to Offline? City-by-city “database” PLEASE PM IF YOUR CITY HAS CHANGED - Event Planner - Online or Offline - WineBerserkers

And although it’s very US-centric, it’s intended to be global. There are e.g. listings for Tokyo, Toronto, Hong Kong, London…

If I can, a call-out on this thread, if you’re willing to stand as a participant or organizer for an OL in your city, by all means post on the above thread or PM me and I’ll add you into the “database”.

Sante,

Mike

[MChang]

@Robert_Dentice

@PeterB

Come to my next one!

And when you are ready, host one of your own!

I will definitely make a point to in 2025. And you need to come to one of my events

I would def be interested in a German Chardonnay/pinot event at some point. Riesling is wasted on me though haha

[PeterB]

I’ll keep an eye out for them and will come!

[RyanC]

One tangentially related comment:

There are a number of comments about how younger folks may prefer Instagram or Tik Tok or whatever. I find that highly ironic, since so many of the IG “somms” and “influencers” are so haughty and cringeworthy. A million Sucklings out there.

By contrast, by and large the folks here are so genuine and welcoming and, while sometimes ballers, not particularly snobbish.

Honestly I think the biggest barrier to getting more participants is just that most wine lovers just aren’t the types who are going to debate endless minutiae with online strangers. I know a lot of wine people–young and old–who’d never think of doing what we do.

Side note: the suggestion for a free month ad-free or whatever is a very excellent one. The ads suck and any price is a significant barrier to entry.

[MChang]

@RyanC

One tangentially related comment:

There are a number of comments about how younger folks may prefer Instagram or Tik Tok or whatever. I find that highly ironic, since so many of the IG “somms” and “influencers” are so haughty and cringeworthy. A million Sucklings out there.

By contrast, by and large the folks here are so genuine and welcoming and, while sometimes ballers, not particularly snobbish.

Honestly I think the biggest barrier to getting more participants is just that most wine lovers just aren’t the types who are going to debate endless minutiae with online strangers. I know a lot of wine people–young and old–who’d never think of doing what we do.

Side note: the suggestion for a free month ad-free or whatever is a very excellent one. The ads suck and any price is a significant barrier to entry.

The thing is you don’t have to interact with people on the other formats to the same degree. At most you can comment and ask very brief questions.

[brigcampbell]

I feel, maybe incorrectly, technology like IG isn’t effective at building “community”

Thoughts?

[RyanC]

I agree though I suspect others will disagree. I feel like X/Threads does a better job of community building, though still with nowhere near the depth of something like WB.

[Robert_Dentice]

I have met so many people from around the world as a result of instagram. Especially people in the wine and music world. Particularly when you see friends tagging other people whom you do not know. IG and bulletin boards like this are both social media.

[CJ_Beazley]

@larry_schaffer

For as long as I’ve been in here, I’ve been stating that the number of lurkers I meet far outnumbers the number of posters, and the two main reasons folks point to are:

1. They feel ‘intimated’ by active posters here
   2). They feel that what they want to say may not be interesting’ to others

There have been numerous first time posts that have been welcomed and well received - and an equal number that have made the OP not want to post again (and no, I can’t point to specific posts but they’ve been numerous)

To me, the way to get more folks posting is to create an environment in which they are comfortable - more encouragement, less judging.

And PLEASE stop assuming that many in this board don’t enjoy ‘mass market’ wines - folks may not post much about them and active posters tend to ‘slam’ them but my guess is that many members of this community who lurk may in fact enjoy those wines - but are led to believe that they ‘shouldn’t’ . . .

Cheers

Just check out how many are here on Berserker Day-the regular posters here are actually the minority

[MChang]

@brigcampbell

I feel, maybe incorrectly, technology like IG isn’t effective at building “community”

Thoughts?

As Robert said, I think you’re not correct.

[RyanC]

Totally fair and true. But you’re an IG Jedi compared to most of us mortals!

[brigcampbell]

@MChang

@brigcampbell

I feel, maybe incorrectly, technology like IG isn’t effective at building “community”

Thoughts?

As Robert said, I think you’re not correct.

I’m okay with that.

It’s why I asked.

[larry_schaffer]

@CJ_Beazley

Just check out how many are here on Berserker Day-the regular posters here are actually the minority

Oh believe me - I know that that is a fact. In fact, I think @ToddFrench has shared data in the past about active vs non-active folks here - and the numbers who pop in on BD but are not around much the rest of the year . . .

Cheers

[Ben_M_a_n_d_l_e_r]

I apologize in advance for not reading the 250 posts that this thread has accumulated since it started yesterday. I’m writing this on my lunch and should probably get back to work at some point.

I’m 36, so I’m what young folk call an “old”, but I’m on the young end for this forum. I got seriously into wine at 19 on a personal wine budget of £10/week, convincing my housemates to chip in a few quid for each bottle, befriending the staff of a local wine merchant, and nagging them persistently to let me taste with them. I was on the Wine Library TV forum back then and found it a great community at the time, as WB is to me now. When I was in my 20s it was almost impossible to find fellow wine enthusiasts, in part because, as I’m sure others have said up-thread, many people do not get into wine until later. But I just threw my enthusiasm for wine onto all my friends, hosted crowded tastings in my apartment with everyone chipping in $10, and tried to infect other people with the wine bug, with some success. By the time I left grad school at 27, I had 60 people and a waitlist at each of my tastings. I think that in-person tasting - and specifically drinking - in a casual social setting - is huge for getting young people into wine. I really like the offlines organized through WB - I recently joined the East Bay Riesling group for the first time, a group that skews young for this forum, and had an absolute blast.

One of the things I found particularly alienating when I was young, and still find irritating now, is the prevalence of what I’d describe as “wealthy attitudes”. Most wine enthusiasts are neither gazillionaires nor fans of unmanageable credit card debt. When I started a thread looking for advice on Champagne and specifically asked for all recommendations to stay below $100, the very first response on the thread told me to go out and buy a bottle of 2006 or 2008 CdC. Don’t get me wrong, many of the subsequent posts were great, but that’s the kind of shit that turns people away, especially young people, who are likely to have less disposable income. Most of the people here are not like that, which I (and I’m sure others) appreciate.

So I think it’s pretty easy to get young people into wine: make it accessible, scrap the stuffiness, bring people together and showcase the social element of it all.

[Robert_Dentice]

@Ben_M_a_n_d_l_e_r

So I think it’s pretty easy to get young people into wine: make it accessible, scrap the stuffiness, bring people together and showcase the social element of it all.

Thanks for this post.

[tguerra]

Hi all, 30M here. I had been lurking on /r/wine for years before finding a reference to WB on there a few months ago. What I had been looking for was an offline meetup and upon joining WB I immediately found a group.

The one thing I wanted to mention that has been indirectly addressed but not specifically discussed is the forum format. The ads frankly don’t bother me much but the sheer size of posts can be excrutiating to look at… I’ve thought about hopping in on some of the social hall threads about reading or football, but there are just way too many posts to get through to be up to understand context…the ‘what are you reading?’ thread has four thousand posts since 2012, and the (third) NFL thread has a whopping fifteen thousand posts since 2023. Even this one has ~250 comments since a couple days ago, and it took me 20 minutes to scan through before posting. With all this said, I do understand the value of leaving posts up for historical purposes.

In regards to a generation gap on the website and in wine in general, its personally never really bothered me. I’ve found that most people older than me are very excited to share their knowledge and bottles!

[MChang]

@tguerra

Hi all, 30M here. I had been lurking on /r/wine for years before finding a reference to WB on there a few months ago. What I had been looking for was an offline meetup and upon joining WB I immediately found a group.

The one thing I wanted to mention that has been indirectly addressed but not specifically discussed is the forum format. The ads frankly don’t bother me much but the sheer size of posts can be excrutiating to look at… I’ve thought about hopping in on some of the social hall threads about reading or football, but there are just way too many posts to get through to be up to understand context…the ‘what are you reading?’ thread has four thousand posts since 2012, and the (third) NFL thread has a whopping fifteen thousand posts since 2023. Even this one has ~250 comments since a couple days ago, and it took me 20 minutes to scan through before posting. With all this said, I do understand the value of leaving posts up for historical purposes.

In regards to a generation gap on the website and in wine in general, its personally never really bothered me. I’ve found that most people older than me are very excited to share their knowledge and bottles!

Yeah if you’re just jumping into a thread, it can definitely be an issue if it’s really long. I’m not sure you need to read all the posts in some of the threads, though, like “what are you drinking” or whatever.

For better or worse, this is also a VERY active place compared to some other wine forums, so the volume can be overwhelming.

[ToddFrench]

Been too busy to give suitable time to this thread but it’s awesome, and I’m committing to reading it whenever I have time.

@jgreco

I’d start by not using forum software from the 20th century and getting rid of ad formats that a porn website would be embarrassed to use.

The current software is the most modern of the forum softwares, and ‘trying to attract younger members’ was the primary reason for the rather painful change to this new software. I looked at every possible software option that was STILL a forum, and this is, by far, the most progressive and tech advanced (clearly you didn’t see the prior version!). And, right on queue, the ‘older generation’ complained excessively about the change, as ‘change is bad’ and ‘it works just fine the way it is’ are common rallying cries among the 55+ generation with regards to technology, since they were adapted INTO technology, didn’t grow up in it/with it.

As for ads, that’s valuable feedback and I might address that ASAP, as obviously I don’t see them but should get the ‘full experience’ - given the ridiculously miniscule revenue generated, it’s probably not worth posting at all, but I’ll figure it out

As for the mentions of lurkers, WE WANT LURKERS, trust me! By FAR most of those on the site, at any given time, are lurkers, and that’s totally ok, it’s preferred. There are so many incredible threads here, amassed over the 16 years, many/most want to read, not post - for those who DO want to post, they can, but never think less about lurkers - it’s like a professional musician not wanting audience members.

@LasseK

I would also love to see a younger and more diverse crowd here. There’s so much knowledge on this site.
But i think it is a hard sell.

Agree, and hoping to change that in any way possible, so I value all these ‘younger’ leaning posts, to learn how to make this multi-generational for more years (decades?) to come.

@LasseK

First of all, a forum like this is just a bit old and outdated

True, but forums can do what other social media cannot. Innumerable references to the incredible threads here from any year of the last 16 years - that’s very difficult to access, if at all, on social media. If forum software continues to improve, I’ll migrate to that, most likely, as well.

@Max_S1

I think one of the best things WB could do is change the Wine 101 forum to “New to Wine” and focus on entry level bottles, resources like Wine Folly and the New Wine Review, and lock out people who cant keep their shit together / be welcoming.

Brilliant - I will likely make this happen as soon as I catch up with BerserkerDay stuff post-travel

@Elliot_S

Separately, enthusiast message boards like this one have always been my favored way to learn about any hobby. The depth of discussion/subsequent repository of info collected and searchable on a message board is simply different to the way most social media functions.

Samesies! That’s why WB exists!!!

@David_Glasser

I do see the ads as a possibly significant barrier to new members. Perhaps a 1-week or 1-month free trial period for new subscribers would be a way around that?

I’m going to see if I can get this going, thanks - one month would be great, plus reduce the clutter

One thing I don’t recall reading (yet, or I missed it) is that the younger generation (let’s say around 30) prefer mobile, sometimes almost exclusively, and thus forums have a bit of a disadvantage there.