Is This Site Now The Craftbrewers Sales Site

[Ray_Mills]

G'Day
I have noticed that the site is a free advertising site for Craftbrewer.com.au.
I understand the need for forum sites to have sponsors and its good to go to thier site and see what they have to offer.
What bugs me is topics in this forum for the advantage of the site owner, just tonite there are 2 postings for this supplier,
Will not be long before we have 6 a day from various suppliers, then 20 and after that its all over.
Someone needs to start advising suppliers that this is a forum not free advertising.
my 2 cents
Ray

 

[mika]

Craftbrewer is, as far as I'm aware, posting in the "Retail" section of the forum, and as far as I'm aware, other business are invited to do the same.

The owner of Craftbrewer continues to exist as an active member of the forum, but I for one certainly do not see his posts biased by his business interests.
As long as that remains I don't think anyone has cause for complaint.

 

[Bobby]

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...9604&hl=banner#

it is abit saturated at the moment though.

 

[Tony]

I thought they were valid conversations regarding the new products that have been made available to them by craftbrewer to improve their brewing.

If ross was blasting the site with advertising i would be one of the first to tell him to pull his head in but i dont feel this is intirely the case here.

corect me if im wrong but doesnt craftbrewer contribute financialy to AHB from each purchase?

People are excited about the fresh hops, and wnat advice on the hop socks from those of us who have been using them for a while. And i cant see a problem with that.

Just my opinion

cheers

 

[Jez]

...their hops are damn cheap too

...and delivery is super-quick :lol:

Jez

 

[Bobby]

the most important thing is we are all benifeting from the partnership, through this site and also the stock ross offers.
win win.

 

[Ray_Mills]

Its not the products thats the problem or the price.
What my concerns are this is just the begining and within a short time there will be other suppliers getting in on the ban waggon and doing the same.
The administrators will not be able to say you cant as its already happening with one supplier so why cant we do it.
Then you will have a forum with advertising in the forum.
Think about it
Ray

 

[Ross]

My 2 cents worth.

I've been very concious not to bombard the board with seperate threads & have kept things to the bare minimum. Only people being interested & posting to these threads keeps them active, the Craftbrewer starts trading thread has had nearly 10,000 hits - If the posts stop, the threads dissappear - simple.

Ray, It is not "free" advertising - AHB gets a % of EVERY sale through this site.

Thread's started like this are the ones I dislike, because they serve no real purpose & only compound what the poster was complaining about - Ray, you just increased the active CraftBrewer threads by 50% - well done

Cheers Ross

 

[kook]

The administrators will not be able to say you cant as its already happening with one supplier so why cant we do it.

Dane can say whatever he likes, it's his website!

 

[normell]

Another forum that I used to visit is
http://www.fordforums.com.au/index.php?
Have a look 18 site sponsors, and now if the topic mentions anything about competition to these sponsors, it gets the flick real quick

Hopefully this never happens at AHB, but I can see what Ray Mills is on about

 

[mongo]

My 2c -
Have just read Ross' thread above. It's a good point. If I posted something about me going into business, I am sure the thread would die pretty quickly.
The reason why Ross' threads hang around is because he has been a helpful friend to so many people before starting this business.
He's selflessly contributed to the HB community for years. I am glad to see him get his "pay day". I remember as a very novice brewer (posting as "beginner Steve" on Grumpys) I asked about recipes, and Ross e-mailed me saying to ring him to get some advice. Although I never took him up on this, I was genuinely stunned at his helpfulness. This was over a year ago, and well before his business idea was even a twinkle in the milkman's eye, I'm sure.
Internet forums are fantastic in that they really are controlled by the community. If people have no interest in a commercial post, then they last 0.5 hours max.
I understand the concern, but I think it's worth relaxing about this one.
Cheers!
Steve.

 

[berazafi]

IMHO

I think its not so much the fact that craftbrewer is doing alot of new posts

I think its the fact that he is doing a fantastic job at offering advise, giving good service and doing it all at the right price.

This is causing alot of posts to remain in the latest threads area, and alot of other members posts to mention his products

I say Ross keep up the good work.

If he was a bad supplier his threads would quickly dissapear, (lets hope this never happens)

No affiliation etc etc

Also i think you will find there is also another retailer getting a similar resoncse and that is brissybrew. Again not from spaming the forum, but by people being so happy with his product and service they want to place a post to thank him or recomend him

 

[poppa joe]

I can only add .the same as Monga......As a newbie ...Got emails from ROSS..With help and suggestions..long before Craftbrewer..
cheers
PJ and BERT

 

[AngelTearsOnMyTongue]

I think Rays point is valid as I notice a thread started the other day offering cheap dry Malt Extract and the poster had only joined up on the day they posted the add. Therefore my guess is they only joined to post the add.

Having said this, I dont think the same applies with Craftbrewer because;

1 - Ross doesnt exactly advertise as much as make mention a product in a thread and the thread self-pepetuates out of interest in the product. I certainly dont feel he pushes anything down my throat, although I am sure I could handle few of his brews making thier way there.

2 - Craftbrewer have a link as they are a sponsor. That is fair. but the link is separate from the threads. Threads live or die out of interest or lack of. I myself have participated in them and certainly welcome the discussions.

3 - Ross has a lot of support because he is helpful and does not "Push" the products.

I would also like to make the point that I am concerned about gratuitous spam threads like the one I mentioned (I am not going to link to it as I dont agree with it) are a threat and I dont think anyone should get thier nose out of joint just because someone raises an issue.

I will start to get concerned when Ross starts emailing me un requested price lists or PM'ing me with new products.

Personally i dont really have anything to critisise about this site. I love it as I have never loved a site before and spend far too much time on it.

I find far too much of interest and not all of it regarding HB.

OK I"M A FAN!!!!!

(I do feel K+K, Extract and partial brewers get looked down on a bit, but this only makes me want to get onto Ag'ing and Kegging all the more. Sometimes I feel like the little brother, but I know that even my K+K's and partials are superior to most commercial beers in my eyes.)

Cheers and keep on brewing

ATOMT

 

[sah]

Ross' hops have improved my brewing life. I'm very thankful to this forum that I learnt about them here. I'll buy a sock to try with my next hop order too.

There is another proprietor that has been posting lately. Now his posts are only very thinly disguised ads. They disappeared from the latest threads very quickly, except for one where other members were having some fun at his expense.

I don't think there is yet a need to have the retail posts not appear on the latest threads. If this is thought necessary it would be nice if each member could select this in their profile.

Happy brewing.

Scott

 

[browndog]

Seems to me that some people might not remember the reason Ross started this venture in the first place. For him to become a sponsor of the site can only be good for all the members here, and remember, that retail section was here long ago so why shouldn't he use it. As others have said, if there is no interest from the members then the threads will die a speedy death. If there are other suppliers out there of Ross and Brizzie Brews calibre then I say bring em on! I prefer to keep as much of my own cash in my pockets as I can. For those fearing that the forum will become clogged with advertising I am sure the Moderators can remove the retail section from the latest threads, hence, no problemo.


cheers

Browndog

 

[Stuster]

Seems to me that some people might not remember the reason Ross started this venture in the first place.

[post="128694"][/post]​

Too right. Ross has contributed a lot to this forum, well before the arrival of Craftbrewer. Good on ya, Ross.

 

[warrenlw63]

By very virtue of the fact you're paying lip service to this thread is proof-positive of the power of subliminal advertising.

BTW Ray like any other poster to this site has a right to his opinion and generally contributes nothing but top notch brewing advice. If somebody of that ilk finally pipes up and speaks his mind you have to feel there's some trouble in Utopia.

Maybe the mods have a method at their disposal to mark non-brewing threads a red colour on the latest threads bar or perhaps with an asterisk to be denoted by the acronym "BS" (no explanation required) on the bottom?

I have nothing further to add. h34r:

Warren -

 

[Gough]

I don't have a problem with Ross, MHB, Country Brewer, Gerard M, or any other retailer posting in the 'Retail' section of the forum. That said, I think that Alien Boy's suggestion that the Retail section be taken out of the 'Latest Threads' as the 'off Topic' and 'Humour' sections have been is a really good one.

Ray's question is worth taking seriously. Retailers have an important contribution to make to the forum and deserve to be treated equally and with respect. That said, one of the major strengths of this forum when I joined it in 2003 was its independence - it is risking losing that a little at the moment. Ross is a significant contributor to the forum and has earned his stripes so to speak. I enjoyed a beer with him when he visited Newcastle last year and this is not any criticism of him personally. Ray's point is worth considering however. Do we want this to remain an independent forum or is it to be a commercial forum with one major player?? Perhaps a compromise would be to remove the Retail section from the 'latest threads' box, allowing those interested in commercial offers to read that section without it constantly being so up front??

Just a thought...

Shawn.

 

[lucas]

That said, I think that Alien Boy's suggestion that the Retail section be taken out of the 'Latest Threads' as the 'off Topic' and 'Humour' sections have been is a really good one.

[post="128706"][/post]​

If administrators do change this could they perhaps have it as an option in users profiles? id be happy to have off topic and humour removed from the box but personally i like seeing activity in the retail section. I'm sure other brewers have other preferences