Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Banned from BeerInTheEvening.com!

*** B.I.T.E. LOGO REMOVED UNDER THREAT OF LEGAL ACTION ***

Haha, yes it's true, my account has been suspended until 2024 on the Pub review site www.beerintheevening.com. Why? I don't know, although it could be to do with the latest thread I started on their forums, which was openly critical of the site admin, Chris. Why be critical? BeerInTheEvening is a pub review site I have been loyal to for many years - I have contributed several reviews to the site, and rated many more pubs.

Last year I spent the time to add several pubs in the Norfolk area to the database. This is done manually, by submitting the pubs to a "Pub Additions" thread on the forums, which are then transferred to the site by the admin. Five months later these pubs have still not been added to the database. Why? Well no one knows, but what is clear is that there is a single admin, a chap called Chris, and he has given very little time to the site since last year. There are many "old hand" types on the site who have offered to help Chris, but he has always refused help (according to the forums).

So now, with BITE approaching half a year's backlog, I started an "Open Revolt" thread where I said that despite my wishes, it was time to move on to another site, and I invited suggestions as to which site to move over to. Another poster said that I shouldn't mention other websites, to which I said it really wouldn't matter as Chris was clearly so inactive that this post wouldn't get me into trouble. On this point I was wrong.

Trying to sign in today, I find out that my account is suspended till 2024! At least there's hope.. Only 15 years to wait :)

Seriously though, on this basis I would suggest:

1. Anyone with any web development competence - set up a UK pub review website - there is no authoritative one. Get Google to buy it off you once you've written the clever code!

2. If you're a pub - don't pay BeerintheEvening.com for coverage - there are better ways to advertise your venue, and above all, just being a good pub will get you good reviews on all the sites.

3. If you fancy reviewing a pub, don't bother contributing to BeerintheEvening - it's a waste of time, your efforts will go to nothing. Pass your efforts to one of the other sites who will make the effort to publish your work.

4. Review this situation in six months or a year, perhaps things will change - traditionally BITE has been the best site, and I hope it turns around and the admin Chris pulls the monkey out of his a*se (and stops being so Stalinesque regarding criticism on the boards, what a loser)!

13 comments:

Sam Crawley said...

Haha, not only has my revolt thread been removed, but the discussion about it being removed has been removed! Silence, dissenters!

On a brighter note, I may have found my new home: http://pubsandbeer.co.uk/ - it's all about the beer :)

Anonymous said...

Sam.

A BITE contributor here,its all offline today!!! Gone,kaput,f*&ked. That Chris is a grade 1 tit who deserves all he gets if it all goes down the pan. Fancy chipping in and buying it? I'm sure we could a few others. Contacting them thoogh now with the site down might be a problem.

Lots of love......

Sam Crawley said...

Looks like it's back up, but for how long?!

Anonymous said...

Interesting, I'm Biker from BITE and I also got kicked off with simwilliams and beersupper for criticising BITE mismanagement of foul language being left up for all to see. Never mind, it was for the better anyway as the site has gone to pot in the last 18 months. Now an active member of Trusted Places, youll spot my new username in the Worthing area.

Sam Crawley said...

Hello Biker, they miss you there you know.. I pop in occasionally to see if anything's changed - the boards are like a ghost town these days, and still no sign of Chris or any progress on pub updates. Anyway, thanks for the tip, will have a look at TrustedPlaces when I have time. Best wishes, and cheers!

Anonymous said...

You've got a good blog going here sam, suspect it will grow. BITE is history now.

May all your wallets, glasses and larders remain full

Biker (aka Wheely on Trusted Places) (XX to the famales only)

Anonymous said...

Interesting, 3 more of the BITE regulars have contacted me in the last 5 days and said they're going over to a site called Trusted Places ! The plot thickens, who knows ?

Biker

Graham Jones said...

Hi,

My name is Graham Jones and I have been running Pubsulike.co.uk for over 8 years now. Although it does not work like beerintheevening in as much as you do not neeed to be registered to add reviews we are now getting over 100,000 visitors every week. The reviews section is becoming increasingly popular. I employ two researchers whose job is to verify all the information on our increasingly large database, but as you will no doubt appreciate this is like painting the forth road bridge a never ending task. in the last week alone over 60 pubs were marked as closed and 340 had their details amended. It would seem that since Neransk Ltd took over BITE it has lost it's direction somewhat. A quick check a Companies House reveals that there is an action to strike off Neransk Ltd so perhaps they have more pressing problems.

Anonymous said...

"A quick check a Companies House reveals that there is an action to strike off Neransk Ltd so perhaps they have more pressing problems."

Looks like a reasonable form of justice to me !

Biker

Sam Crawley said...

Just received the following from the anonymous "BITE Admin" - not unreasonable request regarding the logo I suppose, though it is a little strong to threaten legal action immediately, a simple request would suffice.

Dear Sam. With regards to your blog post about being banned from BITE, although we're happy for any criticism made about us; please can you remove our logo from your blog as this is being used without our permission. If this logo is not removed in the next 72hrs we will take further action. Thank you. BITE Admin / Neransk Ltd

Anonymous said...

"we will take further action."

It reads more like some other form of threat to me ? Are they actually talking about taking legal action ?

Biker

Anonymous said...

Hi Sam,

Although not a member and replying to a very old Blog I am very annoyed with beerintheevening, someone has used it to post an abusive comment Nothing relating to the pub and I have been trying to get them to remove but I cant get in touch with anyone there.... Any Idea's?

Anonymous said...

Interesting... Chris the owner of Neransk is selling BITE I hear. Anyone want to guess the asking price? .... £2.5m. No joke.