Personal random thoughts, sorry but you guys probably know me by now
:Nothing lasts forever, but many things can last a long time and grow and evolve. I hope Bartowel has a long life ahead of it. I too have noticed participation drop off, but I wonder if that has something to do with many of the regulars here not having the opportunity to get out and enjoy beers in social settings. You have the metrics, so I'll leave it to you to confirm if this is a long term trend or just a plague induced bump.
I am not a user of Fleecebook or Twatter, and there are many reasons. The one that is most pertinent to this discussion is that of public domain and public forum. A possible analogy is the difference between physical public space and a private space like shopping mall. Both appear to have similar utility, until you look at the rights, and commoditization of the citizen. It would be massively disappointing for this community to be moderated and it's thought be monetized by a private social media corporation. Yes, I understand, Bartowel is also private property, but there is a difference (in my mind) between a local community pub and a multinational chain operation. Imagine feeling free to express your thoughts on Inbev at your local, v.s. at a Goose Island pub.
Similar, perhaps is the concern of Inbev acquiring Ratebeer; who benefits, the users or Inbev scraping data and shaping conversations?
It's simply a social loss to be routed from a public forum to a privatized one. I am a happy member of GTA Brews, but I do not participate in any of community discussion due to their switch to Fleecebook. To me that is a great loss, though I might have to admit they did it to avoid me.
So, what do to about what is here now? There are probably two reflexes, how to recruit more or how to engage existing participants more.
Given the explosion of the beer scene and the number of beer loving online communities (a good thing), recruitment might be a futile effort, at least initially. I would suggest exploring how to make it more meaningful to those already here, and by extension, this would probably also attract more users.
Ideas? Well that's the hard part. Here is some poorly considered stuff to start with.
Someday, someday soon, we will be enjoying our hobby in the physical company of others again. Maybe arranging some meetups, tastings, bar crawls? I'm not suggesting the massive organizational undertaking of a Cask Days, just using the forum to bring people back together for the basic joy of some good pints and discussion.
As bars reopen, The value of a good region by region bar guide like Good Pub Reviews, especially listing who are the last ones standing, should be a big thing. Also, as travel returns, the "foreign correspondence" of this will be appreciated. The actual data, should be user collected. A good opportunity for all of us that care about this site to contribute. The plague response Beer Delivery Index might be a good template. How about a Bar Recovery Index?
A very simple technical upgrade. I can't believe I am saying this because I don't take pictures of every last second in my life, but it would be nice to post images as a simple inline attachment to a post as opposed to linking. Snap a pic of that label and share might make activity more lively.
