We haven't got any automated checks it is all human readings, and since we now have so many beginning to appear () we are going to have to rely on things being reported soon.
One of our key criteria is review history though, if you have left a lot of reviews you are clearly going to get more leeway - as long as you don't leap right across the fictional line.
"Be the first to write a recommendation on this pub and let everyone else know about this hidden gem" it says on unreviewed pubs, which rarher fazed me at first. I suppose in theory it should limit reviews somewhat as most pubs are neither hidden nor gems. Though I suppose a rough diamond is still a gem.
Anyway the Boadicea is here now....who will be the first to let everyone know about this hidden gem???
As I jumped straight in to these forums, there are probably one or two more threads like this which I haven't come across before. I've read this one straight though, every few posts I came across something I might have commented on, only to find that a few entries later it had been dealt with. So here I am, fully up to date, somewhat intoxicated, from an elegant sufficiency of Youngs Winter Warmer, and with the odd point to state.
Before I stumbled across BitE, I used annual pub guides, often excellent, but, out of date before going to print. I used, in order of preference, Sawdays, GBG, GPG and Michelin. You will not find a single bad review in any of them, but I'm sure that unless it's a JDW, if you don't find a pub within their collective pages, then, put simply, don't go there. Guides that suggest and describe good pubs are a tool, guides to bad pubs, a curiosity, no more.
For a while I took on board the BitE philosophy, echoed by several of my fellow immigrants, that a bad review is as valuable as a good one. I was never sure, and quit as I found that there was only so much going into crap pubs so that I could give an up to date bad review I could cope with.
I'm still not entirely clear as to how negative a review has to be before it is in danger of being deleted or rejected, but, thinking on it, I can live, quite happily, with the aims stated by Conrad on the subject. Indeed I just wonder, was it the bad reviews that kicked it all off in the forum up the road?
Last edited by runningdog; 23-01-2010 at 18:33. Reason: Can't bluidy spell..........
Pubs are a hobby, real ale is a passion. Oh, and like me dogs, fear no evil..........
I suppose it depends partly on if the pub has been reviewed on PuG before, if there's a recent bad review then no need to trouble yourself with a visit, if there's no review, only a one line non-review or the review is very old then I would go in and do a review. I'll even go into pubs with stinkers of reviews just out of curiousity. I like going into unfamiliar pubs, sometimes you are very pleasantly surprised sometimes not. I rarely find a pub so bad that there's nothing positive I can say although I struggled with this one http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/55534/ even after a rewrite or three.Originally Posted by runningdog
Challenge accepted and mission accomplished.I suppose I'd better get a photo at some stage as well!
I don't look on myself as a pub collector as many honoured members are, intrepid adventurers searching out pubs and beers for the enjoyment of others. Me I see a pub and if I have never visited it before a strange magnetism takes over. Sci -Fi fans may call it a Tractor Beam. I call it a thirst for beer.
Pubs with a name for trouble can normally be visited during daylight hours where you will find a different class of customer who decamps at a magic hour. Its probably wise to leave at the same time. Heavily tattooed,stud encrusted and chained barstaff and customers have time to talk and you discover they are different people when the pressure is off.
I have walked into Gay and Lesbian pubs by mistake and have not felt threatened as I have in some street corner locals. Every pub is the local to some group and I try to remember it is their place .It must serve their purpose. A dirty grimey pub it may be but if its full to the rafters can we criticize it other than to say it is not to our preferance
Most of my reviews are fairly positive simply because I weed out the bad pubs before I visit any area where I know I will be looking for new pubs to visit. On the occasions where I do end up in a "bad" pub, I have no problem saying so but I do at least try to point out any positive aspects and make some informative reasoning behind why I don't like a place. If people take offence so be it but I find they are generally the type who are too blinkered to look beyond the pint in front of them and have an outlook on pubs that says "if it sells Stella and my mates drink here it is worth 10/10" (sorry, *****).
Most of my reviews are positive where they can be, where not I stick to facts, like went in, no one interested in serving me so I left, and do not leave any stars
http://www.pubsgalore.co.uk/pubs/13600/
A quick aside...Has anyone ever been mistaken for or accused of being a "Mystery Customer".?
Not that I am aware of, but I had "odd" looks as I wrote things down, but the service & beer was fine anyway so could not say it got better afterwards. This was in the Beer Cellar, Southsea
PS, I did do some Mystery Shopping a few years back, not pubs, but it became a PIA so stopped
Last edited by Farway; 24-01-2010 at 14:42. Reason: PS added
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