★ Site News: Aftermath of the eBay Post

Anonymous, “Hey, I bet you made bank on that post. Way to go on link-baiting every craft beer community on the web.”

…Nope. Not “bank” in any way. I’ve been blogging since 1999 and have had some big successes and small ones. This blog (both my personal and my beer blog) are just ways to archive the things I enjoy in life and maybe inspire others to enjoy those things as well. There are no advertisements here. 

I’m not an expert at beer or going to go through the Cicerone program or telling people how to pour their beers and review them. I’m just some 25 year old who really enjoys beer and, like all of my personal endeavors into growing as a person and learning new things, I document the hobby the only way I know how. A beer blog doesn’t make you cool or lead to press invites to beer festivals or at least that’s not my goal. After the hype died down (clearly indicated by the above chart), I still get comments from people asking why I am still reviewing beer, telling me to just go away and that I’m an idiot. It’s funny.

I was reviewing beer before the eBay scandal came to light and I am still reviewing beers. The day before and after that post went up, I was still posting photos. To stop just because I upset a few people is crazy. The Internet is vast and contains so much knowledge and entertainment. The easiest way for everyone to not see my beer reviews is to simply not visit this blog. 

In a few weeks, I’ll begin blocking commenters via IP address who continually criticize without leaving any meaningful comments. To say my reviews suck is alright. I’m still learning but to not lend any advice is counterproductive. It’s a waste of space in my commenting database and a waste of your time. I hope you can all understand.

I have met some great people following my thoughts posted here. A lot of genuine people reached out privately to give some grand advice that helped. A lot of advice I’ve taken to heart and am working on some solutions to avoid falling into this obsessive situation again..beer or anything else really. I’ll have a better life if I can avoid falling victim to the bug that leads me to jump into things too fast again and again.

An eBayer who is an active trader on BeerAdvocate reached out to me and had a few nice words to say and closed with, “You should have not used your real name online. Use a different avatar on every site and don’t use your own profile photo. This would have been avoided.”

Great advice but that doesn’t solve anything. Those of us who hide behind fake names and fake profile photos are not receiving the life lessons needed and what I mean is Bill, the Accountant in Boston can be a bad beer trader, sell beer on eBay and leave half-assed reviews and, if his standing in the community goes south, can just hide behind his alias, close the account and pick a new one. No one knows HE is the one accountable. Gmail accounts can be setup in seconds and he has a fresh start. I don’t believe in that approach. I believe that, as in real life, our actions should be tied to our name and, I choose to live my life in public. I do so transparently so, in the times I make mistakes, I Adam am held accountable for those and have to make amends. I know a lot of people don’t use their real names online for other reasons but, I believe the world would be better if we all were ourselves online instead of aliases.

This is a future I doubt will ever become a reality. I’ll continue to operate online as Adam Jackson no matter what hobby I choose. When I leave a comment on a video, blog or message board, I do so with my email and blog attached to it. It’s okay that a lot of you don’t but I think that’s the lesson we could all learn..even if my beer community experience was short lived BECAUSE of my transparency.

Anyway. I’m going to keep reviewing beers and look forward to heading to Amsterdam and Belgium in two weeks to see co-workers, friends and try some great beers. Those adventures will be documented here (beer related) and on my main blog (non-beer related). I’m pleased that a few of you have chosen to subscribe and follow along. Although I have stopped trading, there are a core group of about 30 people who I am still in touch with. Some time this summer, I’ll resume trading and look forward to working with all of you on some great trades that are periodic and not weekly as they were in the past. Those regular trading partners have instructions not to let me trade with them more than every few months. 

Thanks for reading and here’s to your next beer!