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lcboapi.com and drinkvine.com

This forum is for discussing everything beer retail: LCBO, Beer Store, Grocery Stores and Indie Stores.

Moderators: Craig, Cass

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Ralphus
Posts: 386
Joined: Thu Oct 09, 2008 1:43 pm
Location: Almonte, ON
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lcboapi.com and drinkvine.com

Post by Ralphus »

Carsten Nielsen, the author of the LCBO API, has open sourced his project:

https://github.com/heycarsten/lcbo-api

Also, as he reports on the site, the existing LCBO API will be shutdown on January 15th.
https://lcboapi.com/news/lcbo-api-shutting-down

This has an impact on drinkvine, as after the last series of site changes from the LCBO, I re-tooled the site to use the LCBO API.
I now have a decision to make. Whether to retool the site, close it down, or something else. While the site still receives
about 1000 unique visitors each month, this is about 1/4 of what it received before the craft beer market really heated up.
I also now have a family, and a much more demanding job than when I first envisioned and built the site.

If anyone has any thoughts, feel free to let me know. I'm going to have to come to a decision in the next week or so.
drinkvine.com - a better way to find your beer and wine.

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Bobsy
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Post by Bobsy »

Let me start by saying I use Drinkvine all the time and would be disappointed to see it go. You've built a phenomenal tool which has helped me source the beers I really want extremely easily.

That said, family changes everything. When we started Toronto Beer Week in 2010, I had no kids. When the decision to sell came last year, I had three. I found that at certain points of the year, huge chunks of my time would be eaten up just to make things happen, and for no return for myself other than satisfaction of bringing something to the scene. The decision to walk away was a tough one, but I don't regret it. If the site makes you money, or consumes very little time, its one thing, but if you have to do a major retooling and get very little ad dollars...

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JerCraigs
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Joined: Sun May 25, 2003 8:00 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by JerCraigs »

Well thanks for doing it this long either way! What are your options? Would some volunteers help at all? I can't code but would be happy to help with updates once it's set up. How much would you have to charge for the site to make it worthwhile? Have you looked into sponsors at all?

Cheers!

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spinrsx
Beer Superstar
Posts: 2267
Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2010 12:27 pm
Location: Ottawa

Post by spinrsx »

I still use drinkvine and would hate to see it go

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Napalm Frog
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Joined: Mon May 04, 2015 10:01 am
Location: Toronto

Post by Napalm Frog »

spinrsx wrote:I still use drinkvine and would hate to see it go
Likewise, really handy tool.

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MatttthewGeorge
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Location: Woolwich, ON
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Post by MatttthewGeorge »

I visit the site almost daily. I honestly don’t know what I would do without it... living in a small town but close to big cities means this website helps me know which store(s) to visit when I make a trip in.

I have some coding experience via running and building a few websites back in the day (plus one still) and would gladly volunteer to help maintain it, if my abilities are capable of doing so.

Ultimately though, you must do what’s best for you. I’d be sad to see it go, but my wallet and waistline would benefit I guess, lol. Either way, I thank you for drinkvine!
Last edited by MatttthewGeorge on Thu Jan 03, 2019 4:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.
untappd/instacrap/facebitch/snapitychat/etc: @matttthewgeorge

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JaseWescott
Posts: 266
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2017 5:08 pm
Location: Hamilton

Post by JaseWescott »

I think this author created boozewatch.ca which has been acting up the last 2 months. sad :(

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Ralphus
Posts: 386
Joined: Thu Oct 09, 2008 1:43 pm
Location: Almonte, ON
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Post by Ralphus »

I'm not sure who created boozewatch.ca.. but it's not mine.

On January 15th drinkvine.com will stop working and I plan to close the site down shortly after that.
Creating and launching drinkvine was a really rewarding experience, and I hope in some small way
it had an impact on making craft beer more available to the people of Ontario. Thank you to the
many users which used the site, provided feedback and were always great to interact with.

Cheers!
drinkvine.com - a better way to find your beer and wine.

tyke66a
Posts: 26
Joined: Thu Jan 21, 2016 3:01 pm

Post by tyke66a »

Tyke66a saying thank you Ralph. I will certainly miss Drinkvine since I used it daily to check the location of various bottled beers and found it very reliable to determine local and province wide availability Could get stuff in Markham ie Hitachino Nest that never made it anywhere near Ottawa. All the best Bill

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cratez
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Location: Brantford, Ontario
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Post by cratez »

tyke66a wrote: ...thank you Ralph. I will certainly miss Drinkvine since I used it daily to check the location of various bottled beers and found it very reliable to determine local and province wide availability.
What tyke66a said. Drinkvine will be sorely missed by many. Thanks for making it such a great resource over the years. Cheers!
"Bar people do not live as long as vegan joggers. However, they have more fun." - Bruce Elliott

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JaseWescott
Posts: 266
Joined: Sat Jul 29, 2017 5:08 pm
Location: Hamilton

Post by JaseWescott »

Ralphus wrote:I'm not sure who created boozewatch.ca.. but it's not mine.

On January 15th drinkvine.com will stop working and I plan to close the site down shortly after that.
Creating and launching drinkvine was a really rewarding experience, and I hope in some small way
it had an impact on making craft beer more available to the people of Ontario. Thank you to the
many users which used the site, provided feedback and were always great to interact with.

Cheers!
my apologies. I was confusing you with someone else.

https://github.com/CDyWeb/boozewatch.ca

I usually send the owner a message on FB when his site (boozewatch.ca) is broken and he usually fixes it but he hasn't responded in months.

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Urotsukidoji
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Location: South Of Heaven

Post by Urotsukidoji »

Ralphus wrote:
On January 15th drinkvine.com will stop working and I plan to close the site down shortly after that.

Cheers!
This is the worst, this is how I do all my beer shopping, crap :(

GtownRandy
Posts: 320
Joined: Fri Apr 15, 2016 8:17 am

Post by GtownRandy »

Sorry to hear that! This is a site I use to see what’s in stock at a specific store:

https://beersearch.on.somerandominterne ... ventory/10

Cadbury102
Posts: 76
Joined: Mon Sep 30, 2013 8:34 am

Post by Cadbury102 »

Ralphus wrote:I'm not sure who created boozewatch.ca.. but it's not mine.

On January 15th drinkvine.com will stop working and I plan to close the site down shortly after that.
Creating and launching drinkvine was a really rewarding experience, and I hope in some small way
it had an impact on making craft beer more available to the people of Ontario. Thank you to the
many users which used the site, provided feedback and were always great to interact with.

Cheers!
Drinkvine was such an awesome resource in the early days - thank you very much for your hard work Ralphus.

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spinrsx
Beer Superstar
Posts: 2267
Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2010 12:27 pm
Location: Ottawa

Post by spinrsx »

agreed.. RIP drinkvine :(
Urotsukidoji wrote:
Ralphus wrote:
On January 15th drinkvine.com will stop working and I plan to close the site down shortly after that.

Cheers!
This is the worst, this is how I do all my beer shopping, crap :(

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