BeerBorg

I try to rein it in but sometimes I just LOVE being "THAT GUY."

:shoot:

Got my warning today for guiding folks here We should all start post the link for the BORG on their forum and on facebook ans let the world know what a joke they have become, how petty. They want the new brewers kept in the dark. Do not want them venturing outside of the tiny little box they have the noobs trapped in. It won't they will find the BORG!!!!

Sad, very sad......

I let a bunch of email lose at MR B asking why they did what they did. I came to one conclusion GREED!!! How sad that MR B thinks that the BORG is their completion. Can it be the BORG DIRECTIVES which show that the way to improve beer is not to follow MR B directions buy your hops, grains and extracts elsewhere at a better price. Naw that could not be it..........could it??

gwcr wrote:I do think it would be good practice to let sleeping dogs lie at this point. Most everyone has made their feelings known both over there and here. No need to beat a dead borg. If any of us do choose to go over there and post, please be courteous and respectful. As the old saying goes, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all. Another saying also applies...silence can be deafening.

Well said...

Someone has their head up their arse over there for sure. I wonder if Coopers is aware of the shyte going on in the forum, they cann't be. I don't see any business doing what they are doing and expecting to make money. I'm wondering is someone in the MrB command is trying to destroy them by alienating the customers and supporters. Just how many noobs without our help their, would just say screw this, this stuff is horrible. Their kits they sell are pretty weak and turn most everyone off from their products, I've seen it happen way too often. We the BORG have saved many a batch, increased noobs knowledge thus increasing their sales which is something they should care about, $$$. But do they, just look at how they are now treating us, all of us! Stupidity is all it is, plan and simple.

I posted over there a few minutes ago just to see if things had improved. Well, sorry to say that after hitting the submit, it spun for several minutes until I killed the page. When I went back, the post I posted was in fact there. I guess it hasn't stabilized yet...

Realistically the threatening email was probably an act of jealousy and retaliation for what has transpired in the last few weeks. Be it loss of support, loss of members and ultimately loss in revenue. They messed up a great site and now they have to live with it. I have left and I have not looked back, I am sure they will not miss me any as I am still a noob but I have found a new home and I am planning on growing right here. I will let sleeping dogs lie.

Aww, come on ya'll. Have u never stood back and poked a sleeping cat with a stick? lol

I still feel the need to go back from time to time to help noobs avoid the basic mistake of following the basic instructions. Maybe when we get more new brewer here I will quit doing that.
Even the New Brewers/Faq page is nearly dead!!

Yea, I admit to doing the same, but last time I did doc is what led to this thread, it was the last time I helped someone they threatened me. Was only trying to help the guy get brewing help.

I'll take an unpopular POV here and say that I understand what they are doing via the emails. I moderate a different forum and we don't allow posts to competing sites on those boards, which I find is pretty standard practice. Now, we might say that this board isn't direct competition to them and that a lot of people used to post links to More Beer, Northern Brewer, etc. but the reality is that we all know that the BrewDemon/MrB relationship is a legal battle and it's always been that way.

Like it or not, right now these boards do "seem" to almost be sponsored by BrewDemon. My own impression when I first joined was the Louie was/is in tight with BrewDemon and I can understand (whether I agree or not) with them not allowing links to this site as a result.

Mind you I'm not saying what they did to their forums was right, nor was the way they handled it - or didn't handle it in this case. What I'm saying is that I can understand not wanting your competition (or what is SEEN as your competition) coming into your forums and trying to direct people to their forums.

Kealia wrote:I'll take an unpopular POV here and say that I understand what they are doing via the emails. I moderate a different forum and we don't allow posts to competing sites on those boards, which I find is pretty standard practice. Now, we might say that this board isn't direct competition to them and that a lot of people used to post links to More Beer, Northern Brewer, etc. but the reality is that we all know that the BrewDemon/MrB relationship is a legal battle and it's always been that way.

Like it or not, right now these boards do "seem" to almost be sponsored by BrewDemon. My own impression when I first joined was the Louie was/is in tight with BrewDemon and I can understand (whether I agree or not) with them not allowing links to this site as a result.

Mind you I'm not saying what they did to their forums was right, nor was the way they handled it - or didn't handle it in this case. What I'm saying is that I can understand not wanting your competition (or what is SEEN as your competition) coming into your forums and trying to direct people to their forums.

i could understand and respect "hey you gotta stop doing that." i cannot understand and hold "or else" in contempt. that last part is fightin' words! they effed with me last feb. result, i stopped buying their product, and to date, have stopped 5 people from buying MrB kits. advising instead they buy a no boil kits and buckets from the lhbs instead. now i'll push brew demon. some of you people can talk good about their customer service in my experience it sucked from day 1.

Kealia wrote:I'll take an unpopular POV here and say that I understand what they are doing via the emails. I moderate a different forum and we don't allow posts to competing sites on those boards, which I find is pretty standard practice. Now, we might say that this board isn't direct competition to them and that a lot of people used to post links to More Beer, Northern Brewer, etc. but the reality is that we all know that the BrewDemon/MrB relationship is a legal battle and it's always been that way.

Like it or not, right now these boards do "seem" to almost be sponsored by BrewDemon. My own impression when I first joined was the Louie was/is in tight with BrewDemon and I can understand (whether I agree or not) with them not allowing links to this site as a result.

Mind you I'm not saying what they did to their forums was right, nor was the way they handled it - or didn't handle it in this case. What I'm saying is that I can understand not wanting your competition (or what is SEEN as your competition) coming into your forums and trying to direct people to their forums.

I agree 100% with this. If I was running their forum, I wouldn't have sent that email. Because all of us knows of the competitive issues, and are supposed to know how to handle ourselves in a mature way online, I would have simply removed access without any warning. Some of what's been posted is simply childish. While helping new brewers is a noble effort, saying on anyone's site - "hey, come over to this other site for support" isn't acceptable.

I'm also unclear as to any financial support that is being provided to the site by a company. While there is a post from Louie saying that is no affiliation with Brewdemon or any other company, there is also a post that says " Also just so everyone is clear BrewDemon is only the first business to help support this site but they are not exclusive and do not in anyway influence what can or cannot be posted here."

It's not a matter of influence on the site - but financial support of any type needs to be disclosed clearly. Even if Brewdemon gave $25 to support the site, that should be disclosed. There is a Brewdemon prize for guessing the 200th person - is that Louie providing it free from his pocket, Brewdemon providing it free to the winner, or what? Doesn't matter if there is no influence, what matters is being 100% clear on financial or product support or any other type of support.

I applaud Louie for rallying when Mr. Beer fell on its face on their new forum. He's been responsive to requests for modifications to the site, and is building a great community. I do have a new feature request - "Ignore Thread". Some of the stuff that's being posted takes up valuable screen space...

I hope people can get past the "Hey, I posted on the Mr. Beer forum that they suck and am shocked they warned me to stop doing that" and move on with providing fellow brewers with support in their brewing endeavors. Or not. One nice feature on Louie's site is the ability to ignore the posts of a user for any reason.

Rick, you make a very good point. I do want to be clear and transparent about BrewDemon and the "support" that is being provided. Sam/BrewDemon has been generous to provide free product, including extracts, brewing kits and fermenters both for me to review and to be given away on the BeerBorg site as well as the 20% discount that is being offered in the members only section. I have reached out to other companies including Mr. Beer to provide product and discounts that I could be reviewed and given away to the BeerBorg forum members and hopefully those companies will be as generous as Sam has been, but they are not as easy to work with as Sam has been. I do not get paid by any person or company to run this this site or to provide any services such as the forum or the reviews or other content. I am one person that saw a need and an opportunity for a good place for people to get and share information. Some individual members have donated money as a thank you for the work that has been done here and I do appreciate that tremendously. None of those money donations have been from any companies at all!

This site does not cost me that much to run at this time. My hosting is pretty inexpensive and outside of my time there has been very little cost other then the electric bill! With that being said if the BeerBorg continues to grow as many of us hope it will I will need to look at dedicated hosting servers and a better way to back up all the content that is being generated which means more cost. So creating relationships with BrewDemon and other companies that will help support this community while allowing people to talk openly, honestly and respectfully is something that I will continue to do so. Hopefully people won't have issue with that.

I only have good intentions and I am not out to deceive anyone or misrepresent what I am doing or what this site is! I am not getting rich from this site! If this site helps to support me when I retire in 20 years I will be a happy camper ahh brewer, but right now I'm just trying to make this the place a good place for everyone that wants to share their home brew fun.

Thanks,

Leigh