I see the screw up to the forum and their product as two different things. I liked the forum a lot, I enjoy providing guidance to those asking for it, but that has no impact on where I buy things from. The forum gives Mr. Beer free customer support, which we get no compensation for (like with most forums). So, if you don't like the company, it makes little sense to help on their forum.
I don't think the cluster&*#@ they made in the past few weeks has anything to do with their products or strategy. I think they screwed up big time and have no idea how to fix it. Simple incompetence.
My first purchase of Mr. Beer was on
woot.com where I acquired my initial kit 18 months ago, and made my first batch last summer. I placed two orders with Mr. Beer - one in late August for 1/2 price with coupons, the other in October when they cleared out the old inventory for $5. I haven't bought since, and likely won't again since once I use the remaining 9 refills up I plan on doing 100% extract recipes with steeps - it's cheaper and more enjoyable for me.
So, their screwup of the forum didn't stop me buying there, but it will stop me from posting often or perhaps at all. The amount of newbies posting over there lately is near nil, and if none of them find this forum that would be a shame, but Mr. Beer will have to live with the decreased sales.
Speaking of decreased sales, their forum change will cause a precipitous drop in natural search traffic, they didn't setup a 302 redirect, or even any redirect for the main forum much less any page in the forum. Unbelievable!
I have over 9,000 posts on "another forum", which means absolutely nothing. Mr. Beer January 2014 Brewer of the Month with all the pomp and circumstance that comes with it...
Certificate in Brewing and Distillation Technology
Sites to find beer making supplies: Adventures in Homebrewing -
Mr. Beer -
MoreBeer