Other Groups (facebook, etc...)

[HoustonNit]

Water is necessary while bourbon is not.  The folks in Flint faced with drinking poisoned water or shelling out $300/case for potable water are in a situation that isn't comparable to a bourbon enthusiast deciding between paying secondary for his bourbon of lust vs. paying less for something that he might not want quite so much or paying nothing at all and moving on with life.  You're comparing a necessity to a luxury good.    

Wow bourbon has jumped the shark.

[Gorzo]

I thought Facebook was for women over 40 to gossip or post pictures of their food . Looks like a lot  of you need your man card revoked. 

[Bnrhodes3]

I really enjoy the local Facebook 'bourbon society' group here. They get rid of flippers and allow selling at cost. The selling at cost usually comes up when someone goes out of town and finds something interesting - so they mule it back for members that were interested. A lot of local LSs owners and owners/reps for bars/restaurants are in the group as well, and some give periodic discounts to members on bottles in their stores. It is mostly a group of good people who like their whisk(e)y, keep an eye out for each other, get together on occasion, and also do barrel picks (haven't been around long enough to be a part of that, but did get one of the last bottles of their most recent FR OESV pick).

 

The same group did just recently create a second off-shoot group for local trades that I'm not sure how I feel about it. It seems to be trading somewhere between secondary values and retail prices, but there is very little activity so far, and it seems to be consumption not profit motivated. I just hope that doesn't turn in to a greed pit, or I may end up migrating away as well. 

 

5 hours ago, Gorzo said:

I thought Facebook was for women over 40 to gossip or post pictures of their food . Looks like a lot  of you need your man card revoked. 

Interesting perspective. I think some information/statistics might be missing in the formation of that opinion though haha. 

[Gorzo]

2 hours ago, Bnrhodes3 said:

 

 

Interesting perspective. I think some information/statistics might be missing in the formation of that opinion though haha. 

Your absolutely right.   It's probably 35yr + woman and I forgot about pictures of kids, pets, diet results and inspirational takes that let everyone know how "blessed" they are.  Not here to argue the merits of Facebook. Was more or less making a joke. Obviously if 2 billion people on the planet have an account it is what people want...... it's just not for me. 

[smokinjoe]

9 hours ago, Gorzo said:

I thought Facebook was for women over 40 to gossip or post pictures of their food . Looks like a lot  of you need your man card revoked. 

May I suggest a little light reading?  

[Gorzo]

1 hour ago, smokinjoe said:

May I suggest a little light reading?  

Win friends????? Thought you just had to click a button to accept friends these days..... I am off topic. My position is do what makes you happy sell secondary, buy secondary, play Facebook doesn't affect me. I say the secondary market doesn't affect me because I don't buy the thesis that it drives up prices. It's supply and demand. I would argue that liqour store pricing is the artificial market for LE due to its limited availability, but we can have that discussion another day. 

Edited January 10, 2018 by Gorzo

[EarthQuake]

11 hours ago, Gorzo said:

I thought Facebook was for women over 40 to gossip or post pictures of their food . Looks like a lot  of you need your man card revoked. 

What you see on Facebook is the result of your friend network, so in all likelihood, you're simply friends with a lot of over 40 women who gossip and post pictures of their food. Get more interesting friends and FB might be worth visiting. If any of my friends post vapid content I unfollow them, that way I'm still connected to them, I just don't see their nonsense in my feed, which is great for family. 

[Gorzo]

36 minutes ago, EarthQuake said:

What you see on Facebook is the result of your friend network, so in all likelihood, you're simply friends with a lot of over 40 women who gossip and post pictures of their food. Get more interesting friends and FB might be worth visiting. If any of my friends post vapid content I unfollow them, that way I'm still connected to them, I just don't see their nonsense in my feed, which is great for family. 

I don't have a Facebook account. Being active on this site is Facebookish enough for me.

[JTaylor]

1 hour ago, Gorzo said:

I don't have a Facebook account. Being active on this site is Facebookish enough for me.

With all those 40-ish men posting pictures of their whiskey... 

[jp_stargazer]

I belong to a private, non-regional bourbon Facebook group with thousands of members, tied to a popular bourbon blog.  The site rules specifically state that buying/selling/trading is not allowed to be conducted using the group.  Of course, PM's seem to fly back and forth when someone hints they are in search of something.  I treat most of the content posted in the group like I do with everything else on my Facebook feed:  quickly consumable reading/viewing to pass the time.  I am annoyed by a lot of stuff on there but not so much that I have quit.

In my experience, the Facebook group consists of the following types of posts, with the % of content being that type of post:

• <1% - The "here is a useful, interesting, widely unknown piece of whiskey knowledge to share" post (Rarely is there solid, accurate information such as distillery histories or regulatory tidbits.  These are the things Straight Bourbon and Bourbon Enthusiast are so good for, along with the written works of the actual experts in the field.)
• 5%- The "bottles of this are available at XYZ store for $$" posts (Helpful if you happen to be in that specific region to purchase or as a general data point for the cost of that particular bottle in that area.)
• 5% - The "ha, I'm going to troll you using a picture of a whiskey and cola with a bottle of Pappy next to the glass" post (This joke was played out the first time it was posted.  See also LE bottle "chug" pictures.)
• 5% - The "what's the best bourbon/rye" post (I understand we were all new and hungry for recommendations at one point but so many people now don't want to do the work of exploration themselves, they just want to know what "the best" is and drink that.  Usually followed by snobbery when someone suggests a bottle that costs less than $30 has any merit whatsoever.)
• 15% - The "check out what I just bought and congratulate me for my bourbon buying acumen" posts (I understand people, myself included, are excited with many purchases they make but most of these posts just seem like bragging.  If you bought multiples of something desirable, you better batten down the hatches.)
• 30% - The "is this any good?" post (A picture of a bottle is provided and the poster is looking for some sort of consensus from the group whether they should buy the bottle or not, and the responses vary from "the best thing I've ever tasted" to "drain pour swill."  Really helpful.  Also, there are usually 10 posts a week like this about the SAME bottle since no one uses the Search function.  A variant of this is the liquor store shelf picture, which can be a fun game of “spot the unicorn” or “criticize the price of every bottle on the shelf.”)
• 40% - The “picture of what I’m currently drinking” post (You’re enjoying bourbon and you want to share that enjoyment with others.  I get it.  But the comments descend into battles like whether you should add ice to whiskey or not, whether or not the poster overpaid, and whether or not the poster is a “tater.”  On rare occasion, the author of the post will include actual tasting notes.)

Jason

Edited January 10, 2018 by jp_stargazer
The font was huge...

[Bnrhodes3]

7 hours ago, Gorzo said:

Your absolutely right.   It's probably 35yr + woman and I forgot about pictures of kids, pets, diet results and inspirational takes that let everyone know how "blessed" they are.  Not here to argue the merits of Facebook. Was more or less making a joke. Obviously if 2 billion people on the planet have an account it is what people want...... it's just not for me. 

It's all in how you use it, but exactly - to each their own! I stopped using my 'personal' facebook account in 2016 for the very reasons you mentioned (didn't really care to see useless info). I did create a new one for more 'professional' reasons though (need an account to have a business page and to join groups), so I use it for the messaging capabilities, industry connections, professional groups, targeted advertising, and more recently to join bourbon groups haha. Posting daily life updates is for the birds though. 

[flahute]

1 hour ago, jp_stargazer said:

I belong to a private, non-regional bourbon Facebook group with thousands of members, tied to a popular bourbon blog.  The site rules specifically state that buying/selling/trading is not allowed to be conducted using the group.  Of course, PM's seem to fly back and forth when someone hints they are in search of something.  I treat most of the content posted in the group like I do with everything else on my Facebook feed:  quickly consumable reading/viewing to pass the time.  I am annoyed by a lot of stuff on there but not so much that I have quit.

In my experience, the Facebook group consists of the following types of posts, with the % of content being that type of post:

• <1% - The "here is a useful, interesting, widely unknown piece of whiskey knowledge to share" post (Rarely is there solid, accurate information such as distillery histories or regulatory tidbits.  These are the things Straight Bourbon and Bourbon Enthusiast are so good for, along with the written works of the actual experts in the field.)
• 5%- The "bottles of this are available at XYZ store for $$" posts (Helpful if you happen to be in that specific region to purchase or as a general data point for the cost of that particular bottle in that area.)
• 5% - The "ha, I'm going to troll you using a picture of a whiskey and cola with a bottle of Pappy next to the glass" post (This joke was played out the first time it was posted.  See also LE bottle "chug" pictures.)
• 5% - The "what's the best bourbon/rye" post (I understand we were all new and hungry for recommendations at one point but so many people now don't want to do the work of exploration themselves, they just want to know what "the best" is and drink that.  Usually followed by snobbery when someone suggests a bottle that costs less than $30 has any merit whatsoever.)
• 15% - The "check out what I just bought and congratulate me for my bourbon buying acumen" posts (I understand people, myself included, are excited with many purchases they make but most of these posts just seem like bragging.  If you bought multiples of something desirable, you better batten down the hatches.)
• 30% - The "is this any good?" post (A picture of a bottle is provided and the poster is looking for some sort of consensus from the group whether they should buy the bottle or not, and the responses vary from "the best thing I've ever tasted" to "drain pour swill."  Really helpful.  Also, there are usually 10 posts a week like this about the SAME bottle since no one uses the Search function.  A variant of this is the liquor store shelf picture, which can be a fun game of “spot the unicorn” or “criticize the price of every bottle on the shelf.”)
• 40% - The “picture of what I’m currently drinking” post (You’re enjoying bourbon and you want to share that enjoyment with others.  I get it.  But the comments descend into battles like whether you should add ice to whiskey or not, whether or not the poster overpaid, and whether or not the poster is a “tater.”  On rare occasion, the author of the post will include actual tasting notes.)

Jason

This right here is so true. I was in a group like this (not tied to a blog) but removed myself for the same reason as your list above. Too many idiots who were not interested in learning actual knowledge.

[PaulO]

I'm not on Facebook at all.  SB.com is it for me.  I used to read and post on a couple other bourbon sites.  The other sites have ceased getting any interesting activity.  SB.com has continued to grow more and more.

  I have no interest in the flipping scene.  It took a while in this thread, but eventually Steve mentioned the risk of counterfeits.  Most likely some greedy and dishonest person would refill a genuine empty with whatever, then put a new lid and seal.  People have been caught doing this.  Another aspect of doing business in the black market; when things go wrong, you can't call the authorities.

  I have many ideas about things people are allowed to do, but shouldn't.  Also, I believe there are things we should be allowed but are not.  In the end, if the people with badges want to talk to you; they won't care much about your personal philosophies. 

  All in all, I guess I'm lucky that I don't have much difficulty finding stuff I like locally and reasonably priced.  Even if a legitimate retailer would ship to Indiana - the shipping and handling jacks the price up beyond my comfort zone. 

[dcbt]

I'm on several of the FB groups and although many of the same discussions happen over there as here, I immediately discredit them over there for some reason and just gloss over them.  Similarly, anyone on the FB groups but not a member here (which is the vast majority of the FB group members) automatically loses bourbon credibility in my eyes.  Long story short, I end up just rolling my eyes at most FB posts.  Guess I'm a bourbon snob like that.   

[Jav]

A local community that could help pass information about recent LS stock could be very useful.  Especially for those of us that don't have that much time to get away from work or home and want to ensure a trip is warranted!