Is reviewing pubs a chore at times?

[Strongers]

I hope that Andy Ven doesn't mind me pinching one of his posts:

"Are you still enjoying it or have you felt like it's a chore at times?"

I'm going to slighty change the context Mr V's post and refer it to visiting pubs that you would never have ventured into and regretted or writing a review on a pub/bar that is objective even though writing a comment on the place was more effort than the manager of said pub/bar had probably put in for months.

I sometimes feel that I'm wasting my time and then I find a local area that I've heard of, but never visted, and I have a wonderful evening and I'm left looking forward to my next night out. Other times I get home and my drunken brain swears never again.

[Conrad]

As the site see its life flash before its eyes

[gillhalfpint]

It's not a chore provided I keep it reasonably up to date. Hate doing back reviews and have to try to remember what the pub was like.

One of the reasons I tend to visit just Good Beer Guide pubs as I have a reasonable expectation of a decent ale and the guide reminds me what the pub was like. The hard bit for me is remembering to take a photo.

[oldboots]

Never a chore visiting pubs, I wish I could do it for a living (but I suppose then it might become a chore).

I have found some wierd and wonderful pubs while trawling the unreviewed backwaters of PuG, I have also found a lot of pubs best described as "interesting" .

The only "chore" I've found is poor beer which really dampens my spirits, I don't mind pubs with no real ale I know what to do there but sub standard ale is another matter. I've also met some odd people and some nice ones, the good, the bad and the ugly, I'll let you decide which category my fellow Puggers fall into.

[RogerB]

Definately not a chore for me and I would say that without the writing up side of things, I wouldn't have visited half the pubs I have or discovered so many fantastic (and some not so) pubs.

Like Gill I hate the backlogs and if there is a chore, it is this but when I find myself doing dozens of pubs a month it is an occupational hazard. I have nearly 500 in my current backlog of notes but most of them are local or London so I can easily revisit before posting them. I am currently concentrating on those from further afield that I am unlikely to return to in the forseeable future. This week I have posted a few Shrewsbury reviews that are already 10 months out of date and there are a few from various Yorkshire trips in the last year which may see the light of day over the next few weeks. The problem is for every half dozen I post, another dozen join the queue.

[gillhalfpint]

Crikey Roger, you make my worry over about a dozen to write up at a time like chicken feed. You must have a good book of notes. While on the road I try to get them written up every couple of days or so, but start to worry if I am a month behind with reviews.

[RogerB]

Crikey Roger, you make my worry over about a dozen to write up at a time like chicken feed. You must have a good book of notes. While on the road I try to get them written up every couple of days or so, but start to worry if I am a month behind with reviews.

I dont have a book - my notes are all scribbled (often in a sort of indecipherable drunken code) on odds and sods of beer stained bits of paper. The bullet points that can be worked out are all transferred to a word document as soon as I sober up (usually 3 months later) and I then just need to fill in the missing gaps from what I can remember and add a few bits of stolen trivia and useless info, then bingo, up it goes on the site. All very professional .

I actually left all my Farnborough notes from Saturday on a train along with my match programme so I am desperately trying to fathom out where I went and what I drank. Whatever I had in the final pub (the Thatched Cottage) has totally escaped me so I will have to work around it somehow. Luckily I have a blurred photo on my phone as a sort of reminder of the pub's interior. A chore? I wouldn't change a thing!

Whilst talking of Farnborough but a little bit of off topic, I left a quick message of thanks on the Farnborough FC website to the supporters I met in the Prince of Wales who ended up giving me a lift to and from the ground and kept me entertained through numerous pints. One of them turned out to be a regular BITE reviewer who recognised my username from days of old and sent me a PM. I have of course attempted to subtly steer him in our direction.

[arwkrite]

Sadly I am not able to do any reviews at the moment but Boy Do I Miss It ! I have good friends and acquaintances at my locals and never have a boring visit.
But I miss having the means to get around the country and my late mrs who was always game to visit fresh pubs whatever they looked like. In fact I think it helped having a disabled lady along. We were better treated in rougher pubs than in the 5* gin palaces. I remember two blokes stopped their fight to let me and the mrs pass. On the other hand I can recall the offspring of caravan dwellers with Irish accents throwing stones at our car as we drove off the pub car park.
I have not reviewed any where near as many pubs as the dedicated reviewers but always enjoyed giving my small input. That was another thing my mrs used to comment on....my small input..leastways I think it was what she meant.

[RogerB]

always enjoyed giving my small input.

Trust me, I have never considered your input to PG as small!

[Conrad]

Trust me, I have never considered your input to PG as small!

Second that, always posts that are worthy of a read.