Some folk absolutely love to do it alone at home or maybe out and about in absolute secrecy, hiding in shadows afraid of being discovered by a jealous partner.
Others prefer to do it groups, either privately gathered together in dimly lit rooms, or for the uninhibited, even in broad daylight the dirty swines!
My Mrs absolutely hates it and is always telling me to put it away. She says “I should stop playing with it all the time and taking pictures to show other people how good or bad it was”, “it makes you look like a geek” etc…..
Love it or loathe it, lots of us are doing it and I’m talking of course about using Untappd.
I started using Untappd late last year basically as a tool to log what I’ve tasted over the year as my memory is awful. I came to write up my Golden Pints and thought “I’ve been to some amazing places and drank copious amounts of superb beer, but I haven’t a clue what they were now”, after all, I’d slept since then.
Anyone who follows me on there knows that I don’t write much if anything, maybe the odd note or a thank you or whatever if the beer was from a friend. My rating system leaves a lot to be desired too, but again, I’m not losing any sleep over that either and would say only that you are and actually give a monkeys what I drink, then if I’ve marked it at 4 to five stars it’s probably worth a punt to being ace in my view.
What I have noticed though since I started to use the app or website, is that despite the published aim of Untappd above, I think at least personally I chat with people less about what I’m drinking now than I ever did before. Yes, if I post the beer I’m drinking via Untappd to Twitter or Facebook I do get the odd comment or sometimes a conversation commences as a result, maybe even a comment on Untappd itself, but nothing like it was in the days I first started using Twitter.
I’m not sure why this happens, maybe it’s because some people really hate Untappd and things like it and just switch off, maybe there is just too much of it now for folks to have time to winnow anything worth discussing from the chaff? Of course it could be that it’s just me that has noticed this phenomenon and you are all bored shitless of me wittering on about beer every day…
Don’t get me wrong here, I like Untappd (despite being labelled a geek) and will continue to use it, as for me it’s proving an invaluable tool to log my beer journey and I’m looking forward to revisiting all the info at the end of the year, but maybe I’ll post a bit less publicly via this and more directly in an old school stylee in an attempt to rekindle some lost friendships and contacts.
What’s your views on this, are you a lover or a hater? I’d love to hear of your experiences using Untappd and others like it?
Cheers
Pic by: http://www.flickr.com/photos/purplemattfish/
Beersay 
I’ve certainly taken to avoiding publishing Untappd posts via twitter except for the odd ones I feel are more noteworthy. Plenty of people find them really annoying clogging up your timeline and I’ve come to feel the same way myself, though it was 4square that annoyed me more to next fair. I still like to use Untappd for my own records though and intend to continue to do so.
I remember the very first time I used it, the first twitter comment I got (in seconds) was “UNFOLLOW”! All said in jest but I’m thinking now maybe there was a ring of truth to it. I also think I’m going to head down the same route..
Like you I use Untappd (and RateBeer) for my own records as much as anything. I only push a few Untappd posts through to Facebook, they do sometimes generate worthwhile conversations, I’ve also had a (very) few conversations on Untappd itself. I think the Twitter problem might be the posts are too formulaic – plus of course Twitter is just too busy sometimes.
Don’t you find that using either (although I don’t post on Ratebeer) makes you a bit more prone to trying to get new beers just so you can list them? If I’m honest I think it started to affect me that way, even though I’ve always been an experimenter so to speak, just to up the new beer count.
I use Untappd as a tool to log every beer I drink and find it incredibly useful when it comes to writing my blog. I can easily check what I was drinking a month ago and this helps me recall where I was and what I was doing so it’s an invaluable resource for my writing. I don’t push my check ins to Twitter any more though, although most of my follows are beer geeks not all of them are and not everyone wants to see everything I’m drinking! What I’ve found though is that all the people who would be interested in seeing what I’m drinking now use untappd themselves and are friends with me on that so I seem to have lots more conversations in Untappd than I used to, I just wish the app wasn’t so bloody buggy!
Buggy? I find it annoying that it doesn’t reload where you left off, but almost always starts from scratch, it’s not buggy though – at least, not on Android.
I think I will have to stop pushing everything to Twitter though – it makes me even lazier about proper tweets…
Me too
Matt exactly as I planned it to be, a perfect reminder of the what and where, although I rarely write notes, I can usually remember once I’m prompted by a link or photograph.
Ditto re Untappd followers
I agree that it’s a great way to keep track of what you’ve drank, although it mainly helps me for beer festivals, or places other than breweries where I may have a beer. I’ll check in my beers when visiting a brewery, but most of that is documented in my physical beer journal.
I think the social interaction is mainly up to moods, both oneself and your virtual friends/audience; sometimes even what you’re drinking can determine the interaction. I’ll go weeks without commenting on a check in, or having them do the same on mine, and then the next week is so full of banter back and forth that you wonder why you even have the damn app, it takes up so much of your time.
I also agree with othertonaleman that it can be annoying having people post every check in through Twitter or Facebook. Usually I only share the check in when I’m drinking something I find interesting and want to let my Twitter followers know because many of them don’t use Untappd. I’ll also tweet check ins when I’m at GABF, letting those who couldn’t make it live vicariously through the feed of beers.
Good article! I liked the lead-up and insinuation, cheers!
Will, I wish I was as conscientious as to carry and write a journal, I keep meaning to but it never seems to happen. I rely on pictures and maybe a brief note on my phone as memory jogging tools.
Haha I also totally agree with the comment about making non attendees live vicariously through an amazing beer day wherever that may be, I hope to cool it a little on the standard tweets etc, but on those occasions it stays for my own personal sadistic pleasure…
Cheers for the kind words too.
I dont think Ive noticed less social interaction through using untappd lately, I think thats just through the people who follow you or you follow back, I hardly ever discuss beer on twitter full stop.
but Ive certainly met people locally and nationally through using untappd and to me thats where the “drink socially” aspect comes from, through a shared enjoyment and sharing of you drinking beer, you meet like people with common interest in beer who you wouldnt otherwise have done, I mean I dont know anyone who announces to a whole pub what beer they are drinking, but through untappd you meet people by announcing to the whole world what your drinking
So I dont see the lack of social media aspect side of it at all, I used to post more checkins via twitter, now I only do it for special noteworthy checkins, as I figured the majority of people who follow me via social media arent too fussed about what beer Im enjoying anyway, and people should follow me via untappd instead.
Slightly different view but more or less saying the same thing (I think) which mirrors the comments above. In that I (we) seem to agree that posting lots on Untappd is fine, but maybe limit the sharing on Facebook and Twitter to the beers you think folks will be most interested in.
Hope I’ve summarised that right?
Don’t get me wrong, Im not slagging Untappd, Ratebeer etc off in any way, I think they are great and have a place/are a great source of useful information. Just personally I think the twitter aspect for me at least has suffered. The proof will be of course in what happens if I change.
Cheers for the comment.
I use untappd, (in fact due to a bug i complained about Ive recently been involved in beta testing with it.) , again mostly as a record of what i drink and yes its handy for writing blog posts.
I dont use twitter or facebook so that reposting aspect is not relevant to me, but my recent interest in getting a new phone has been partially driven by an annoyance that my ipod is only good in free wifi pubs and if I had a decent phone I could use untappd when i want to.
I think you’ll always get people who chase badges and log in beers for that purpose, but most people enjoy the ‘friends and social’ aspects i believe.
‘oubykh’ on untappd, arn
One big thing that’s missing from Untappd – and I have suggested it to them – is any sort of messageboard or whatever. It makes it well nigh impossible to get any sort of new community out of it, unlike say Ratebeer which has its regional gatherings and get-togethers, arranged via the forums.
if you use the web based version rather than the app then there are forums under the ‘support’ button, although it’s a place for bugs, problems, suggestions and questions rather than a community for online socialising
Thanks, yes I use those for reporting and stuff, but as you say there’s nowhere there to organise things or just discuss stuff.
Good post and I have to agree with all you say. I definitely won’t go down the posting on Twitter as I was told, in no uncertain terms, that lots of people don’t like it and have become self-conscious about it. One problem-if it is a problem-I do have is its addictive nature. I often forget to check in when I’m out and then berate myself for it later.
I’ve definitely toned it down a lot Tyson, but you are bang on about the addictiveness
Personally, I like to know what everyone’s drinking, whether it be on Twitter, Untappd or whatever and what they think of it but possibly that’s because I’m a nosey bugger. It’s handy to know what beers are on which venues or where they’ve bought what they’re drinking at home, as an inquiring question is always answered. I understand that it could be annoying but the excuse that it’s ‘clogging up my feed’ doesn’t wash with me. It’s easy to skip to the next post, just not read it, or go and do something else instead. My wife used to say that it was geeky too, then she started using it herself and now realises that it’s good way of recording what she’s drinking and drunk before, and also on checking up on what I’ve had !!
If only I could get my Mrs to start using it Justin, it would make my life so much easier… 😉
My opinions are much the same as yours and I use it almost exclusively to log beers as I sample them. Once every couple weeks or so I update my RateBeer tick list based on the untappd log. Really more of a tool than anything else.
Cheers!
I definitely find it useful on the reminder front, inn fact I used it for just that purpose last night, don’t get me going on RateBeer though, the wife would murder me and probably you, hehe
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