PDA

View Full Version : Tandleman's Beer Blog - Two Different Kinds of Shitstorm



Blog Tracker
08-01-2014, 13:52
Visit the Tandleman's Beer Blog site (http://tandlemanbeerblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/two-different-kinds-of-shitstorm.html)


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rZtIq_lPmus/Us0jt-A3-SI/AAAAAAAAFcM/DfLTbVYCwbc/s1600/social_blogosphere.jpg (http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rZtIq_lPmus/Us0jt-A3-SI/AAAAAAAAFcM/DfLTbVYCwbc/s1600/social_blogosphere.jpg)It has been a relatively feisty start to 2014 within the world of beer blogging - well at least a small segment of it. That's noticeable for its unusualness and even then it is relatively minor compared to the flame wars I used to be involved in pre blogging days. Oh yes, I wrote about beer, at least in some form, from way back in the 1990's. When I started blogging back in 2007 I kind of carried on from these old days. What old days I hear some ask? The old days of Usenet where, from the 1990's, we discussed the beery agendas of the day, in rather less cordial terms (at times at least) than the moderate and well mannered thing that most beer blogging has evolved into. When I started blogging I kind of thought that it was a platform for the opinionated, for the the frustrated writer, for those that felt they had something to offer from their point of view. I think blogging did start out that way and no doubt some still is, but now would I be that far off the mark to say that the beer blogging scene for one has become for the most part, a bit cosy?

Anyway, enough of that for now and back to the point of the less than cosy - and therefore all the more remarkable - situation of two of our best known British beer bloggers getting a bit of flak. I am not sure of the sequence, but one is far easier to discuss than the other. Boak and Bailey (http://boakandbailey.com/2014/01/principles-for-reviewing-beer-and-bars/) got some (undeserved) stick from a pub owner about being less than fulsome in their praise of the quality of his product. This evolved into a long rule ridden debate about what you should do about either a bad beer - one that is off - and one that you simply didn't like. So far, so good, but what strikes me about this is that almost no-one that I can recall said that most simple of things "Tell it how it is." One thing is pretty certain. When you make an offer to the public, the public is free to comment honestly on how that offer was at the time. The customer is under no obligation to give the vendor a chance to redeem themselves after the transaction has been made, unless they choose to do so. Personal confrontation is not what you go out for in most cases. That doesn't mean you spend time later slagging people off willy nilly and of course there are ways of saying it nicely and contextualising it, but if you think the whole experience was poor, or that a particular brewery doesn't do it for you or is poor, you should feel free to say so. It would surely always be a situation that you really feel strongly about, otherwise why would you do so? For the vendor it is also useful feedback, even if at the time, you don't care to hear it or disagree with it.

Now to another Bailey. Dave Bailey (http://hardknott.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/discussing-gender-issues-surrounding.html) got into a lot of trouble by discussing the subject of women in pubs and in beer. If that's not where angels fear to tread, I don't know what is. I won't be following in his footsteps, but what was noticeable is that his honesty (if that is the word) was not appreciated and that is perhaps the common thread, though the two cases are really only linked by my observation in my opening sentence. Nonetheless it was remarkable to see this somewhat snug world rocked slightly. It reminds us that opinions of any situation vary greatly. Nonetheless, stating yours, while difficult and uncomfortable at times and even with the undoubted potential for backfire, egg on face or humbling, is still a valid blogging approach.

Opinions are good. Let's not be too afraid of them.

It may not be noticed by many, but I offer a right of reply against my opinions of people or places. No-one has ever taken it up.

More... (http://tandlemanbeerblog.blogspot.com/2014/01/two-different-kinds-of-shitstorm.html)