Grand Opening of the Homebrew Dad Community!
In the summer of 2014, I found myself annoyed with the online homebrewing scene. A very large homebrewing community that I had spent many hours involved with had become more and more unfriendly, and had managed to drive away a lot of their knowledgeable, helpful posters. I found myself really enjoying the reddit homebrewing sub (and still enjoy it to this day), but reddit is such a temporary medium; after a handful of days (often, hours), even the best material slips into the void, becoming extremely difficult to find again. A brewing friend linked me to a large "invitation only" Facebook group... and I found that I hated it, as Facebook's unknowable algorithm made it so that content disappeared quicker than on reddit, with no rhyme or reason as to what was prominently displayed and what melted away. There had to be a better way!
On an evening drive home, the wheels got to spinning in my head, and I wondered... why not convert this site from a personal blog into a real community? After all, I had already started somewhat down that path, what with the various calculators and such. I had planned to add other major areas to the site. Why not go all the way? Why not try to make the single best homebrewing site on the internet?
That night, I composed a long message and sent it to a select group of brewers that I knew were not only knowledgeable about brewing, but also, legitimately good people. The response was fantastic - they ranged from cautiously optimistic to full bore enthusiastic - but not a single person turned me down.
And so, I started on the project full bore, with the help of around twenty brewers to serve as a sounding board, site testers, quality control, and sanity checkers. These charter members were absolutely critical to the development of the site, and I cannot thank them enough.
Well, today is finally THE DAY. We have had a few people trickle in "off the street", so to speak, but today is the official grand opening of the Homebrew Dad community. Welcome!
So, what makes this site different than any other brewing site? That would, of course, be a fair question.
Homebrew Dad is truly a community of homebrewing, by homebrewers. There is no media company that owns the site with the purpose of monetizing it. There is no advertiser-created content.
Brewers of any skill level are welcomed at Homebrew Dad; the only requirements are that you are here because you want to make better beer, you enjoy making/discussing beer, and you can follow Wheaton's Law (aka "Don't be a dick.").
Our recipe database is designed from the ground up to be user friendly, to allow quality recipes to shine, and to lend itself to searching and filtering - all the way down to the ingredient level. Add your own recipes through the browser, or upload your beerXML files. Notate recipes that have won awards. Review recipes you have brewed or drank.
Wish you had a blog, but don't have the time or knowhow to set one up? Blog right here! Any user can make their own blog posts at any time, or submit articles to the site - all the while retaining their own intellectual property.
Do you already have a blog or homebrew related website? Great! Feel free to promote it - Homebrew Dad is a community, and the community should be free to share ideas and projects. Feel free to cross promote your own content; make a guest blog post to let us know about it.
Of course, the various calculators and utilities aren't going anywhere; in fact, we intend to continue adding new utilities (and adding new features to the ones that we have) and new areas to the site.
Welcome again to the Homebrew Dad community. Help us to realize that dream of making this the best homebrewing site on the internet!
Permalink
Tags for this post: homebrew, homebrewing, community, forum, blog, utilities, Wheaton's law
1 Comments
this is great, so glad to be here from the beginning to watch this grow to be a great group. Cheers and good luck.
posted by beerguyfromri on 1/21/2015 at 03:48:51 PM
On an evening drive home, the wheels got to spinning in my head, and I wondered... why not convert this site from a personal blog into a real community? After all, I had already started somewhat down that path, what with the various calculators and such. I had planned to add other major areas to the site. Why not go all the way? Why not try to make the single best homebrewing site on the internet?
That night, I composed a long message and sent it to a select group of brewers that I knew were not only knowledgeable about brewing, but also, legitimately good people. The response was fantastic - they ranged from cautiously optimistic to full bore enthusiastic - but not a single person turned me down.
And so, I started on the project full bore, with the help of around twenty brewers to serve as a sounding board, site testers, quality control, and sanity checkers. These charter members were absolutely critical to the development of the site, and I cannot thank them enough.
Well, today is finally THE DAY. We have had a few people trickle in "off the street", so to speak, but today is the official grand opening of the Homebrew Dad community. Welcome!
So, what makes this site different than any other brewing site? That would, of course, be a fair question.
Homebrew Dad is truly a community of homebrewing, by homebrewers. There is no media company that owns the site with the purpose of monetizing it. There is no advertiser-created content.
Brewers of any skill level are welcomed at Homebrew Dad; the only requirements are that you are here because you want to make better beer, you enjoy making/discussing beer, and you can follow Wheaton's Law (aka "Don't be a dick.").
Our recipe database is designed from the ground up to be user friendly, to allow quality recipes to shine, and to lend itself to searching and filtering - all the way down to the ingredient level. Add your own recipes through the browser, or upload your beerXML files. Notate recipes that have won awards. Review recipes you have brewed or drank.
Wish you had a blog, but don't have the time or knowhow to set one up? Blog right here! Any user can make their own blog posts at any time, or submit articles to the site - all the while retaining their own intellectual property.
Do you already have a blog or homebrew related website? Great! Feel free to promote it - Homebrew Dad is a community, and the community should be free to share ideas and projects. Feel free to cross promote your own content; make a guest blog post to let us know about it.
Of course, the various calculators and utilities aren't going anywhere; in fact, we intend to continue adding new utilities (and adding new features to the ones that we have) and new areas to the site.
Welcome again to the Homebrew Dad community. Help us to realize that dream of making this the best homebrewing site on the internet!
Permalink
Tags for this post: homebrew, homebrewing, community, forum, blog, utilities, Wheaton's law
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1 Comments
this is great, so glad to be here from the beginning to watch this grow to be a great group. Cheers and good luck.
posted by beerguyfromri on 1/21/2015 at 03:48:51 PM
