Is This Site Now The Craftbrewers Sales Site

[Guest Lurker]

That would have to be the quickest site modification I have ever seen

[post="128768"][/post]​

Why thank you :super:

[post="128772"][/post]​

Although the spelling needs fixing

 

[dane]

It was a pre coffee fix. All sorted now!

 

[user 384]

I don't quite understand why so many people are getting the hump over commercial advertising on this site. AHB is here to benefit the home brewing community, principally in Australia but also the broader world wide community, by disseminating information. If a retailer has a good product at a comepitive price, then this is information I want to now about. It benefits me and everyone else to have this information freely available. As others have mentioned, it's only when commercial interestes try to impede the flow of information that there is a problem. Ross has never tried to stop another supplier from sharing their information so I see no problem with his posts. I'm also confident that Dane is savy enough not to get into a situation where a supplier demands a restriction of comment, so again I see no problem.

AHB is a mature online community that quickly sorts the chaff from the wheat. Retailers have been posting on here long before Ross. Not surprisingly the crap retailers are no longer around, because the memebers could see through their BS and either let the threads die a natural death or they jumped all over the offending retailer and hound them off the forum. Let retailers post and let the community self moderate.

CraftBrewer, MashMaster, GMK Enterprises etc have all added to our collective knowledge and provided us with good products at competive prices. How this can be anything other than a positive dumbfounds me.

Cheers
MAH

 

[Tseay]

As I recall, this cafuffle, has arisen out of a retailer posting a "Dorothy Dix" promotional post. As Ross says this can be avoided by posting into a specific thread to avoid "advertorial" posts.

There is another aspect to this, what's to prevent someone with an axe to grind, bollocking a usefull product out of commercial greed/envy-whatever. Who would be liable if the products marketer suffered loss as a result ? The poster would be long gone, leaving the web site holding the baby.

Perhaps a better approach would be for products to be submitted to an ahb evaluation committte, who could indepently evaluate the product and report back to the membership. Want to generate some additional income ?- Sell the AHB stamp of approval !


T

 

[spog]

talk about a hot topic! if it is/could be benificial to this site and is passed by the moderators let it be so. i am just p@$$^d off that i did not think of doing what ross/brissybrew/gmk and others are doing before they did. cheers...spog..

 

[peas_and_corn]

Advertising and Sponsers are oing to be a a part of AHB from now on. It's just not viable with the site growth for me to continue to cover the costs. That said I don't think it's a bad thing. Pretty much every site, even the most hardcore community based site will have some form of advertising.

I like the idea of prefixing threads with the company/retailer that is posting, there is probably a facility to have a required text box where you have to type it in prior to submitting the post. I will look into that.

I don't think the retail topics in the latest threads is too much of an issue, at least at this stage. At the current rate if no one replied to the post it would be off the list within 30mins anyway.

Just so everyone knows a % of sales from Craftbrewer go towards AHB so it isn't free advertising as such. Craftbrewer's sales go directly to supporting AHB and keeping it running. The only reason a sponser or advertisment would be brought on would be to help support the site and its growth and it would never be aligned to a particular product or store.

We will be keeping a close eye on the retailers forum but at this stage I don't feel there is a need to review it.

[post="128759"][/post]​

I agree, a nice income for the site I'm sure would be a great relief for you, and that 's an additional reason why I go to craftbrewer. It's also one reason (among others) why I am buying the AHB gear; it's good to support the site. I'd say that your approach is the way to go unless problems arise

 

[Jens-Kristian]

I honestly do not see any reason why anything should be changed from the way it is now.

Yes, If Ross was going into posts here, there and everywhere saying "Oh, by the way! I have this or that hop on special all next week" or shamelessly plugging his goods in topics in a non-suitable way then I would be annoyed.

However, I've seen absolutely none of that. From what I can tell, Ross is a perfect gentleman in the way he goes about his business on the board. His posts written as regular posts from the valued member of the board that he is are that. His commercial posts are marked out pretty clearly and you know that what you find in those is of a . . well, commercial character. I see absolutely nothing wrong in that.

It's not that I don't see that there could potentially be an issue if other and less honest characters came in to sponsor the board, but that is an issue for the Admins and moderators. I've been admin for a number of pretty large message boards and remain one for two at the moment, and while there are ofcourse things that need consideration I do not think it is so difficult to keep a board's integrity safe. It is merely a question of choice. This choice I am absolutely certain that Dane, Doc etc. can administer perfectly well.

Does anyone here really get the feeling that these guys are going to agree to censor posts that directly or indirectly promote products from non-sponsors? I've only been here for about two months and I feel quite confident they won't.

I don't really see that the retail posts should be taken out of the "most recently posted" list. I very much enjoy the fact that I can come here and not necessarily go through all the forums in order to get a good view of what's going on. Since Homebrewing is a hobby/passion/religion that carries with it a fairly high number of 'needed ingredients' for it to be productively successful, it would be a bit silly to remove the emphasis given by the list.

Integrity is not so hard to observe if you have integrity. It's a bummer if you don't have it, but I sense this board is pretty damned high on that scale.

If you were too lazy to read the above, I'll sum it up here:

Keep it as it is - it's working very well. (now you wish I'd started with that, don't you? )

Keep up the good work, Ross! I'm looking forward to moving to Australia and doing business with you.

Cheers,

Jens-Kristian

 

[AngelTearsOnMyTongue]

I have no problem with the way things are now but I seem to recall voting on something some time ago.

Is voting not an option?

"Do you want commercial threads left in the most recent threads list?"

"Yes / No / Not concerned"

Cant see there is a lot more to discuss here.

ATOMT

 

[colinw]

I see this as a complete non-issue.

If Ross ever crossed the line (and I doubt he would), the administrators and sundry self appointed morality police would jump on him in short order.

Unfortunately, no matter what you do these days, somebody, somewhere is going to get upset & all twisted out of shape about it..

I think it is reasonable to assume that the users of this site have a brain and are capable of thinking for themselves.

 

[PostModern]

I think it is reasonable to assume that the users of this site have a brain and are capable of thinking for themselves.

[post="128841"][/post]​

Oh, I'd never go ~that~ far

 

[Boots]

I have no problem at all with what Ross has done to date. Yes he's very busy on the board, but then, so are other people. Up till now he's made the effort to keep the line between Craftbrewer, and Ross the Homebrewer seperated, and from the posts i have read, he has only posted commercial information when prompted.

I can think of at least 1 other enterprise that (historically) did more inappropriate commercially oriented posting in general threads than Craftbrewer does, and up till now there's been no problems with that one.

And i think the retail posts should stay in the recent threads. What's the point of a retail section if we don't support the retail threads?

Cheers
Boots

 

[Steve]

agree with Colinw - this is a complete non-issue IMO.
Cheers
Steve

 

[Uncle Fester]

My 2c. (If only all of these 2c went to Dane!)

If you don't want the prospect of commercially orientated posts, then get rid of the retail shop category.

If anyone is over-zealous about the promotion of their products (or over zealous in their assessment of others) then the forum will jump all over them, with no push from the mods. Anyone seen any adverts for kegs from the States lately ???? Onya Matt!

Ross neither over promotes his products, nor hijacks threads. He simply makes all users aware of what he has available. To his credit, he offers some renumeration back to the forum.

Ross's willingness to assist anyone in the pursuit of better beer is in my eyes commendable.

More than happy to have any retailer advertise on the site. If it allows me to make a better informed choice of what I purchase, then more power to it.


M

 

[OLD DOG]

here here Mandrakar....

Ross, GMK and others have been very helpful not only to myself to most memebrs on this site.

We all appreciate his dedication to helping make brewing easier and more enjoyable.

In short Ross is on a winner with his obsessed hobby, the products and service speak for themselves.

old dog

 

[Hopsta]

Craftbrewers sponsorship is a great thing, and with it who knows one day we might even have the GALLERY back up! :blink:

 

[bigfridge]

Craftbrewers sponsorship is a great thing ...

[post="128876"][/post]​

But it is also a tricky and emotive thing.

I know at least two (established and profitable) businesses that were considering making a donation but lost interest after preferential treatment was given to one 'potential' sponsor.

Unless every sponsor is allowed to advertise in the page banner the impression is that one sponsor is receiveing an unfair advantage.

Just voicing what I have been told ....

David

 

[Beerpig]

I know at least two (established and profitable) businesses that were considering making a donation but lost interest after preferential treatment was given to one 'potential' sponsor.

Unless every sponsor is allowed to advertise in the page banner the impression is that one sponsor is receiveing an unfair advantage.



Good points Bigfridge

More sponsorship would be great for the site, give everyone the same treatment & rules

I suppose it's up to the other retailers now to take up the challenge

That is, if the same opportunities are available to them

Cheers

 

[Ray_Mills]

Disclaimer: Please don't anyone take this post personally or see it as slagging off other brewing related resources in Australia. These are my observations only, and are not intended to offend.

I think I know where you are coming from Ray.
OzCraftBrewer went through growing pains a few years back, and also went out to the market for sponsorship. Some great suppliers stepped up to the mark as well as some individuals (ala what we have done here with CraftBrewer.com.au and the Paypal link).
However now a few years on, the advertising is currently Cryer Malt (distributed by a founder ??), BeerSmith Australia (distributed by the founder), and Barley Crusher (also distributed by a founder ???).
I notice you don't communicate as often on OzCraftBrewer anymore and OCB post totals on the site appear to be well down. I don't mean to be rude or even try to make comparisons, but are you invisaging a similar track associated with site popularity, and trying to make it self supporting ?

Beers,
Doc

[post="128746"][/post]​

Doc
Dont have much time to post here or the OzCraftbrewer site let alone time to make beer as much as i used to.
I started the thread being concerned last nite of commercial posts in the forum. As i said if its not controlled they will take control.
Its no personal attack on Ross, its just his business is number one of many more to come. I just hope the new advertisers have some sort of guidlines on using the forum.
The American HBD has had a great success in making sure sponsors or suppliers in the Homebrew industry is kept well out of the forum. I think this is why it has succeeded over many years.
As for the OzCraftbrewing site I think it is dying slowly from lack of being upto date and it really needs someone to get in and make a big change, but i doubt if that will happen.
Cheers

 

[warrenlw63]

Ray

Hate to sound negative here... Ever seen the HBD lately? You'd double the crowd.

Their reason is the reason why most of the major HBS in America have their own (quite successful) forums now.

Hey Ross... Maybe you should start your own like morebeer.com and northernbrewer.com.

Would solve a few issues. h34r:

Warren -

 

[bigfridge]

OzCraftBrewer went through growing pains a few years back, and also went out to the market for sponsorship. Some great suppliers stepped up to the mark as well as some individuals (ala what we have done here with CraftBrewer.com.au and the Paypal link).
However now a few years on, the advertising is currently Cryer Malt (distributed by a founder ??), BeerSmith Australia (distributed by the founder), and Barley Crusher (also distributed by a founder ???).

Beers,
Doc

[post="128746"][/post]​

Doc,

No offense taken but your assumptions are totally incorrect. This issue is emotive enough without incorrect information colouring the discussion.

The main sponsors (ie the ones that supply the hard $$ to pay for the hosting) are BarleyCrusher and David Cryer. I (ie David Lamotte who did sell a few copies of Beersmith a few years ago) also fund any shortfall when sponsors are slow to pay etc. We need a minimum of two sponsors to meet the costs.

There is no connection whatsoever between the "founder ??" and these advertisers. Click on their adverts and you will see that you are taken straight to their websites.

For the last year or two, the only person 'running' the Craftbrewer Website has been GLS - I simply pay all the bills. There is no other "founder ??" involved.


David