I miss the old rating system

[xJABBERWOCKx]

I really, really miss the old A+ to F rating system. I thought it made the site a lot funnier (reading a bad review and then seeing the letter F) and more human, plus it gave a clearer picture of beverage quality. With the stars, each star is worth 20 points, and each half a star is worth 10 points. No quarter stars are given. So 5 stars is like an A+ wheras 4.5 stars is like an A-. I liked it when there were more concrete grades. I also miss the reports on "sweetness" and so forth. I saw some ratings for teas and I couldn't tell how much sweetener was in it. I like tea with a very low level of sweetness and the old rating system gave me the skinny on all of this. Why did it change? Does anyone else miss the old system?

[RunWithDaLilGuy]

i miss the letter grades system.

do you go to oberlin?

where i go to school, there's only the .5 grading scale, which sucks big time.

[xJABBERWOCKx]

yep, i go to oberlin. we have an a+, a, a-, etc. grading system, and everything lower than a c- is no credit. I hope it doesn't change and offer lame stars like bevnet has.

[BevNET]

Maybe it made the site funnier, but it wasn't funny when beverage companies started sending hate mail (including letters from lawyers) when anyone received a grade that included a minus. Apparently the minus sign implied negativity to some folks....they'd rather have a B than an A-, for example. Plus, it seemed as though the letter grade system was meaningless outside the US anyway. Oh well...sorry we're not funny anymore. There's always the Onion if you need some entertainment.

[xJABBERWOCKx]

why would you worry about legal action? there is nothing unlawful about hosting an honest review site. couldn't lawyers still call if you gave a one star rating? why don't you just give everyone 5 stars? I guess this site is all about the money now. also, why did you get rid of "sweetness" and other things?

i can get through the onion in about 15 minutes, after that i get bored. thanks for being sarcastic to your loyal fans. I'm sure making your site interesting or answering an honest comment politely is of no concern anymore now that you're making lots of money from big businesses.

[BevNET]

Originally posted by xJABBERWOCKx:
why would you worry about legal action? there is nothing unlawful about hosting an honest review site. couldn't lawyers still call if you gave a one star rating? why don't you just give everyone 5 stars? I guess this site is all about the money now. also, why did you get rid of "sweetness" and other things?

i can get through the onion in about 15 minutes, after that i get bored. thanks for being sarcastic to your loyal fans. I'm sure making your site interesting or answering an honest comment politely is of no concern anymore now that you're making lots of money from big businesses.

Sorry for the sarcasm, but how else does one respond to "the site isn't funny anymore"? Seriously, we're not trying to offend anyone here, but the letter system simply was not working out for a variety of reasons (including a lot of negative feedback that we received). I'm sorry if it disappoints you that we have advertisers (as we have since 1997) and that it doesn't make you laugh, but it was never intended to be a site that provides comedy relief. Sorry.

[ 06-10-2003, 01:11 PM: Message edited by: BevNET ]

[illusionh20]

The internet is full of beverage reviews, thanks to web 2.0, do not take it personal just google.

[xJABBERWOCKx]

ok, just two more things (not to hassle you guys or anything, I just used to really love the site)

first, didn't this site start out as a funny parody of mountain dew?

second, since you have advertisers (which is fine), does that mean you unconditionally give biased, positive reviews to all or certain companies/brands that sponser you (which isn't fine)?

[BevNET]

Originally posted by xJABBERWOCKx:
ok, just two more things (not to hassle you guys or anything, I just used to really love the site)

first, didn't this site start out as a funny parody of mountain dew?

second, since you have advertisers (which is fine), does that mean you unconditionally give biased, positive reviews to all or certain companies/brands that sponser you (which isn't fine)?

The site was inspired by an email list that went around for about 3 years (starting in 1993, prior to the web) about Mountain Dew & Snapple. To make a long story short, that Mountain Dew page was put together as a fan page & we've kept it buried on this site as a bit of an easter egg and as tribute to what originally inspired the site.

As for your other question...The site has always been integrity first, advertising second. Just like any site/publication that does product reviews, we get the "we want to advertise after you review our product" but it doesn't work that way. We make that very clear. It's not like we've made this format up -- take a look at any movie review site or perhaps Entertainment Weekly and you will see moview reviews and ads spliced in...or any computer magazine or site (cnet.com, zdnet.com for example) which have computer reviews and tons of ads.

Anyway, the point of the product reviews is two-fold: 1) to cover and describe new products in the industry and 2) to provide 3rd party feedback to the manufacturer. Obviously, some people do not get good reviews. Typically we see two types of reactions to this 1) taking the feedback seriously & use it to help evolve the product and 2) bitching and moaning(including those who choose to complain on the board).

The bottom line is that our opinion is not meant in any sort of slanderous way, but rather to help companies fine tune their product. It's very rare that we are truly the only ones giving criticism of a product...If a product needs improvement or is total junk, the company should work on making it better. We've been around long enough to know that NO beverage company is going to build a business out of whining about how someone screwed you or didnt like the product. Elliotts Amazing (vs Nantucket Nectars) is a classic example if you care to see what I mean.

[BevNET]

Originally posted by illusionh20:
If you cannot make a woman laugh, than you have no chance of winning her, unless she is so cheap and has no soul or personality, I guess the new bevnet review system is similar????
I represent a small beverage company I lack the resources to set the dogs ( lawyers ) onto my review! The real funny thing is, the bevnet graders do not see, is how bad they review products. I will wait for a response from the dogs and bite back with there own contradictions and inconsistent reviews [img]tongue.gif[/img]

See above post.