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We have a trivia question in order to register to prevent bots. If you have any issues with answering, contact us at cass@bartowel.com for help.

Introducing Light Mode! If you would like a Bar Towel social experience that isn't the traditional blue, you can now select Light Mode. Go to the User Control Panel and then Board Preferences, and select "Day Drinking" (Light Mode) from the My Board Style drop-down menu. You can always switch back to "Night Drinking" (Dark Mode). Enjoy!

What to do with the Bar Towel Forums?

Discuss beer or anything else that comes to mind in here.

Moderators: Craig, Cass

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Tapsucker
Seasoned Drinker
Posts: 1910
Joined: Fri Apr 28, 2006 6:21 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by Tapsucker »

Cass, I'd like to start with a big heartfelt thank you for your creation and what it has provided myself and the beer loving community. So Thanks!

Personal random thoughts, sorry but you guys probably know me by now :wink: :

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. :D

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.
Brands are for cattle.
Fans are cash cows.
The herd will consume until consumed.

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S. St. Jeb
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Posts: 1044
Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2011 11:44 pm
Location: Burlington, ON

Post by S. St. Jeb »

Tapsucker wrote: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.
Very interesting comments, but I particularly like this suggestion.

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Cass
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Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Toronto
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Post by Cass »

Tapsucker wrote: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.
Thank you for the kind words and the thoughts, great ideas that I'd like to implement.

In the meantime, I did some research and inline pictures is in fact a functionality of the software, but for some reason I had not turned it on! You'll see now "Attachments" under the composition box where you can upload pics and add them in. I haven't done much testing on it, but we're a small group so let's try it out and see how it works!

For example, here's me drinking a Stille Nacht :)
IMG_1630 copy.jpeg
IMG_1630 copy.jpeg (1.09 MiB) Viewed 2071 times

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S. St. Jeb
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Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2011 11:44 pm
Location: Burlington, ON

Post by S. St. Jeb »

This photo is from several years ago, but timely for the fall.
Attachments
OctoBEERfest and the Great Pumpkin.JPG
OctoBEERfest and the Great Pumpkin.JPG (1.69 MiB) Viewed 2063 times

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Craig
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Posts: 1943
Joined: Wed Apr 10, 2013 10:23 am

Post by Craig »

Cass, doing it that way uploads the files to your hosting. That's fine by me, but you have to pay for the hosting.

You can use this: https://github.com/s9e/phpbb-ext-mediaembed/ to let people easily embed media from other sites. Then they can just upload to imgur or whatever, and the board will embed the picture automatically if you just post a link. It lets you embed twitter posts and some other stuff too, which is nice.

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Cass
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Post by Cass »

Thanks Craig, I’ll check that out. I figured since the activity is still pretty quiet right now my hosting can handle the uploads (for now!)

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Chris
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Joined: Mon Jun 18, 2001 8:00 pm
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Post by Chris »

I don't post much on Bartowel, but am a frequent lurker. Would hate to have the forums go away. Using something like discord is fine, and I use it in other circumstances, but phpbb is fine too, especially for a lower volume forum. I wonder if it might be more accessible to new users to have only a single forum rather that the plethora that currently exist? Obviously they had their place at one time, but with the lower volume of new posts now I wonder if having one or just a very small number might be more accessible and more "lively". Going to the homepage and seeing 11 forums might be overwhelming to a new user. The topics within the forum seem to do a fine job at differentiating the discussions. Just my $0.02.

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Cass
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Post by Cass »

OK, I've done a bit of pruning & reorg to the forums...

- Put random talk at the top
- Adjusted some names for clarity
- Combined private ordering & trading
- Combined all non-Ontario

Any other suggestions welcome!

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Belgian
Bar Towel Legend
Posts: 10033
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2004 7:15 pm
Location: Earth

Post by Belgian »

So many thoughts on this.

And yes Cass thanks to all that you and the others do and have done for BT. Over 17 years it looks to me like you have all helped change the face of the Ontario beer scene to the point where its unrecognizable…

For example now people can develop a pretty high literacy in beer styles just by going to reasonably good bars and trying things, chatting with people there, browsing their phone. Even the formerly bleak LC has young students shopping who seem to know many things are worth buying and trying, mainly because the selection is unheard of by mid-2000’s standards. Positive feedback loops.

What before seemed almost like a little Society of Beer People sharing rarities and organizing micro events has bloomed into a healthy mainstream culture that now keeps pushing the movement upward on its own. The challenge to the brewers is no longer expanding the public’s palate but in keeping up with it.

I’m just ruminating. But i’d like to see the Bar Towel (perhaps renaming it "Beer Brothel?") stick around. And tied in with something…. Entertaining? What do people like to check out and watch online, eg. is anybody on here good at generating interesting, explorative video content eg. For YouTube? What about gorgeous footage of amazing breweries as yet virtually unseen? ? How would one tie in (these reams of written words) BarTowel II with the device-browsing experience of an engaged, curious reader and viewer out and about doing stuff?

Yes it’s a strange change from the former landscape - eg. forums with surprisingly serious discussions were so much the thing... Craft beer is not an arcane pursuit anymore, and people don’t argue over a forum thread topic till mods get annoyed and actually demand respectful conduct. That’s gone and left.

And what’s new in communication these days will likely one day change also… but I’d like to hear what everyone thinks.
TBC…
Last edited by Belgian on Tue Dec 28, 2021 9:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
In Beerum Veritas

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Dennis
Posts: 71
Joined: Sun May 03, 2015 10:14 am
Location: Huntsville

Post by Dennis »

I've only been here for about 5 years and post very infrequently - but I actually still visit the forums often to read up on anything new that is posted.

No feedback from me, but definitely still appreciate this place. Hopefully if you do make changes, whatever they are, they still accommodate lurking.

-d

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S. St. Jeb
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Joined: Tue Mar 22, 2011 11:44 pm
Location: Burlington, ON

Post by S. St. Jeb »

I think there have been more posts across all forums in the last week since this topic was posted than there was for the last 3 months before that. :lol:

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Cass
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Joined: Sun Jun 17, 2001 8:00 pm
Location: Toronto
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Post by Cass »

S. St. Jeb wrote:I think there have been more posts across all forums in the last week since this topic was posted than there was for the last 3 months before that. :lol:
Yeah there has! Let's keep it up. I'm convinced (although maybe I'm wrong) that the current set of 'major' social platforms don't do well for conversation - too performative or one-way. And I still enjoy talking about the beer scene, beer travel, etc., and I hope others do too.

The biggest issue right now is awareness. I was in Shawn & Ed a couple of days ago (updated in other thread) and saw Rob Creighton who funnily asked me about the forums so I told him my goal was to re-spark interest and encouraged him to come back. He introduced me to one of his colleagues as "Cass from Bar Towel" and she nodded but I knew had no idea what it was. Sample size of one but I'm sure there isn't a whole lot of relevance of a beer forum amongst current brewery folk like there once was. Maybe some advertising as Craig suggested could help get it in front of new people.

Belgian - thanks for the thoughts and value them from you. In the short term I will update the phpBB to the latest version and I can install that embed media plugin that Craig mentioned which would allow folks to bring more stuff into the threads. I think it would be great to be able to house richer media on beer. Not sure if you saw the 'A Quick Beer' mini series I did at the beginning of the year with a couple of breweries. Once we can embed media then it would be easier to share that kind of thing directly into threads (I think).

I have a couple of name ideas kicking around as I'd like to move the forum to the top of a domain. Stay tuned for more on that.

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Cass
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Post by Cass »

I have some name ideas and happy to canvas the current forum folks to see if any resonate. I'd rather not just post them up in a thread, so PM me and I'll send you the list.

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Urotsukidoji
Posts: 126
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2011 2:47 pm
Location: South Of Heaven

Post by Urotsukidoji »

I need this form. I don't do any social media.

No twitter
No Facebook
No nothing

So if this form dies, or is moved to some SM, I wont see it.

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Cass
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Post by Cass »

Urotsukidoji wrote:I need this form. I don't do any social media.

No twitter
No Facebook
No nothing

So if this form dies, or is moved to some SM, I wont see it.
The forum isn't dying or moving. I just want it to get active again!

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