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Идеялар
Publicans need to be able to add beers into the database.
Adding a beer on the website is fine. (The mobile site needs work as the page opens too small.) Both sites need to allow publicans to add a new beer, as we cannot wait for PP staff to do it. Consequently, you will need to manage the database too - I suggest removing beers which are not used by anyone for 18 months.
Answer
The problem I have is adding unlisted breweries; there is no option for "brewer not in list". PP suggest e-mailing them the details. When I have ales with no tasting notes, or the description I am given does not readily fit the categories it becomes a nuisance & trying to resolve it is time-consuming.
I do not agree that ales should be removed from the database, unless there is certainty that they are no longer brewed, & that the brewer has no intention of brewing that ale again.
Hi Gill and Paul,
Thank you for your feedback. I'll try to cover things point by point, highlighting in bold the relevant sections.
Firstly, the issue of adding a beer on the mobile site: indeed, that is something that should be there. For the past few weeks, we have been debating the issue of what to do in terms of mobile pub management: whether to stick to the current mobile site or whether to expand the app to allow pub beer management.
Having discussed all the options and possible problems, we are looking at opening up the app to pubs. As part of that, several things will have to be developed and tweaked app-side. Part of those will be the ability to add beers. I cannot give you a precise time estimate at the moment, as we are still developing the new voucher feature, however, I would expect this to be done very early next year.
The reason why admin approval is required for new beer submissions is a fairly straightforward one: without the admin input, the amount of duplicates we were getting through the system was simply overwhelming. There are multiple ways to spell a beer's name and because of this, pubs were adding beers that were already on the database. These beers then get checked in, favourited, points get awarded and if one has to be deleted, it creates a bit of a nightmare, especially for a team of our size.
I know the delay can get irritating at times, but we are working on getting things done quicker. But, based on the limited experience we had, having beers automatically added without admin approval creates a situation that is worse than the present one. We are thinking of creating a system where, if a user has a history of high quality submissions, their suggestions will get approved automatically, however, this is still a bit far away in terms of the development schedule.
Paul raises an interesting point concerning adding breweries. We were thinking of a button like that, but we thought the amount of times it would get used did not warrant a separate button, hence why we encourage people to contact us via the website form or email. It might be interesting to add it as a separate suggestion on this forum, to see whether there is greater demand for an 'add a brewery' button, in which case we'd definitely add one.
Finally, quite a few people have raised the issue of adding a beer with unknown style/tasting notes. I know the compulsory fields can be frustrating when users don't know the information. Basically, the reasoning behind it is as follows: when we only had brewery and beer name as compulsory fields, that's all people used to submit. From our side, it is important that the information we display is accurate, so when such a submission was made, we had to contact the brewery directly for information. This introduced quite a delay in the beer submission being accepted - at times up to a week. As you can imagine, this didn't make people happy.
We introduced the compulsory fields as a trial and it improved things dramatically, as all of a sudden we got most of the information we needed. In most cases, a beer now gets activated within an hour or two, which to us meant that the change was worthwhile, seeing as it enabled us to be much more responsive.
However, that does not eliminate the problem you have when there is no information available. What I would suggest in these cases is to put any information in (even if incorrect) and mention in the tasting notes section that you have no information available. This will let us know that we need to investigate the beer in the 'old-fashioned' way.
Once again, thank you both for the input and I hope these answers help a bit. And please - any more ideas/suggestions/comments - do let us know!
Thanks for the response.
I have had to add a few breweries. The area I find most lacking is Cider; there are so many small producers...
I'm OK with admin approval for new listings, as long as they really do take a couple of hours. If it is a matter of waiting for the brewer to confirm the listing, then that is where I tend to encounter a problem. There are some who do not respond in a timely fashion, & others who do not respond at all; whether because they are too busy, technophobic, or support the opposition - the problem I occasionally face i that until a beer listing is approved, I can't promote it through your site.
I appreciate the advice on what to do if there is a lack of information tasting notes; that will make things easier. I'd personally like more info from breweries (like which hops), and I wish there was one set of descriptors that everyone would agree to conform to.
Further to ales being removed - I can name a good number of beers that are listed on real ale info sites as being no longer brewed, & breweries have a habit of reviving, or producing occasionally. Only if the brewer confirms that the beer in question is extinct could I agree that there is a case for removing it, & then I would be asking for an archive, or some means of removing the ability to select the beer, rather than striking it from the register.
I must add congratulations - as a result of a beer needing to be listed, you gained a new devotee recently. The brewery in question suggested that they feel your site has more to offer than others, & that they would concentrate their efforts here in future.
Customer support service by UserEcho
Hi Gill and Paul,
Thank you for your feedback. I'll try to cover things point by point, highlighting in bold the relevant sections.
Firstly, the issue of adding a beer on the mobile site: indeed, that is something that should be there. For the past few weeks, we have been debating the issue of what to do in terms of mobile pub management: whether to stick to the current mobile site or whether to expand the app to allow pub beer management.
Having discussed all the options and possible problems, we are looking at opening up the app to pubs. As part of that, several things will have to be developed and tweaked app-side. Part of those will be the ability to add beers. I cannot give you a precise time estimate at the moment, as we are still developing the new voucher feature, however, I would expect this to be done very early next year.
The reason why admin approval is required for new beer submissions is a fairly straightforward one: without the admin input, the amount of duplicates we were getting through the system was simply overwhelming. There are multiple ways to spell a beer's name and because of this, pubs were adding beers that were already on the database. These beers then get checked in, favourited, points get awarded and if one has to be deleted, it creates a bit of a nightmare, especially for a team of our size.
I know the delay can get irritating at times, but we are working on getting things done quicker. But, based on the limited experience we had, having beers automatically added without admin approval creates a situation that is worse than the present one. We are thinking of creating a system where, if a user has a history of high quality submissions, their suggestions will get approved automatically, however, this is still a bit far away in terms of the development schedule.
Paul raises an interesting point concerning adding breweries. We were thinking of a button like that, but we thought the amount of times it would get used did not warrant a separate button, hence why we encourage people to contact us via the website form or email. It might be interesting to add it as a separate suggestion on this forum, to see whether there is greater demand for an 'add a brewery' button, in which case we'd definitely add one.
Finally, quite a few people have raised the issue of adding a beer with unknown style/tasting notes. I know the compulsory fields can be frustrating when users don't know the information. Basically, the reasoning behind it is as follows: when we only had brewery and beer name as compulsory fields, that's all people used to submit. From our side, it is important that the information we display is accurate, so when such a submission was made, we had to contact the brewery directly for information. This introduced quite a delay in the beer submission being accepted - at times up to a week. As you can imagine, this didn't make people happy.
We introduced the compulsory fields as a trial and it improved things dramatically, as all of a sudden we got most of the information we needed. In most cases, a beer now gets activated within an hour or two, which to us meant that the change was worthwhile, seeing as it enabled us to be much more responsive.
However, that does not eliminate the problem you have when there is no information available. What I would suggest in these cases is to put any information in (even if incorrect) and mention in the tasting notes section that you have no information available. This will let us know that we need to investigate the beer in the 'old-fashioned' way.
Once again, thank you both for the input and I hope these answers help a bit. And please - any more ideas/suggestions/comments - do let us know!