An interesting comparison today between two communities of beer bloggy types. With a hearty hat tip to Stan, I see, Mark Dredge in England considers the hobby of amateur writing about professional beers and brewing to be incredibly important. Sure, he is yet to come down after a successful conference he just helped organize but he seems honestly sincere so that is good. Yet… “Things are changing,” he says. Changing? What have I been doing for eight years, I wonder in reply.
By contrast, across the North Sea, Knut reports, the eve of the Copenhagen Beer Festival is upon us… as is a massive slagging fest amongst beer hobbyists about ripping people off in the name of a supposedly greater cause. My Danish is limited to teak side tables so I had to use Google translator to learn this:
But now comes the full story. For Tuesday there was a communication from the Danish Beer Enthusiasts land board, where you actually like 100% with Beerticker.dk. I had already made it clear that the consequence would be that publication. Because treatment of Beerticker.dk now is completely ludicrous compared to what is Danish Beer Enthusiasts primary purpose – to promote the beer case.
I am not sure of what all that means but Knut advises Peter Myrup Olesen accuses the organisation the Danish Beer Enthusiasts of not following up on promises of sponsorship and of stealing content from his site to use both online and in their printed magazine. Having had a taste of infringement myself (not to mention the difference in views between myself and a sponsor as to what $100 earns them) I have every sympathy.
The good and the bad laid bare before us. Like most things, especially things involving money, good beer and good beer writing attracts its fair share of each.
Important Conference Sources Fact Update: apparently at the UK conference “…Pete Brown said posts should be no more than 300…” words. I like Pete plenty but, seriously, that’s a load of crap. Pete writes far longer posts quite often. My rule of thumb? Don’t forget the letter “e” in any post.
… and a note from the Dutch contingent: a certain level of incredulity from the Netherlands if Google translates for tone. I like this bit:
And your mouth is exactly what not to do as a blogger. You find something, you have an opinion, you let us hear. Tell everyone what you think about everything around you. Is anything good? Shout it from the rooftops! Is something not good? Yell as loud. If you are afraid to lose all your free beer then you do something else. Only if you’re critical, your opinion is relevant.
Interesting point. Am I afraid of losing all my free beer? Fortunately for my ethics, few brewers get samples to Easlakia. I wonder what it would be like and I would be like if I lived the easy life of an urban center beer blogger wallowing in cheques and love letters?
[Original comments…]
Craig – May 25, 2011 9:18 PM
http://www.drinkdrank1.blogspot.com/
This post could have not come at a better time. How did you know was going to start a beer blog today?
Alan – May 25, 2011 9:42 PM
Everybody wants to work in show biz.
Mark Dredge – May 26, 2011 2:10 AM
http://www.pencilandspoon.com/
Things are changing because of the number of people doing it now. One person is a solo hobbyist trying something new, 1000 people around the world gives weight and momentum. I also think it’s different in the US as you have print titles dedicated to beer; we have the CAMRA magazine (four a year) but very few other opportunities for beer writing. Plus, if you want information about beer you don’t flick through magazines anymore, you look online. That’s important.
And Pete suggested 500 words, not 300. It’s a fair amount and I often try to stay under but some posts are naturally longer and blogs should have freedom to be 1 word or 10,000 words. There’s no rules.
Alan – May 26, 2011 8:24 AM
No need to be defensive. But I would have thought we passed 1,000 beer bloggers about 2007. We’ve certainly seen waves of momentum here and there over the last decade but in other areas it is waning – both quantitatively and qualitatively. The loss of RSBS a while back was a real hit.