As promised, I've added an initial batch of features aimed at allowing community management of beer and brewery records in the database. Read on for information about the new functionality.

Add Missing Beer and Brewery Data
Missing data on beer and brewery records—such as BeerAdvocate URLs, beer styles, and descriptions—can now be added by any user when managing an entry in their cellar. As shown in the screenshot below (click for a larger version), missing data fields in the Beer and Brewery tabs of the entry management area now display links to add that data inline.

Please take care when adding new data! After a missing field is populated by a user, that field can no longer be edited by users. However, that brings us to the next feature...

Report Beer and Brewery Data Issues
You may also notice the "Report Beer Issue" link pictured above. When clicked, an inline report form will be displayed (see below for more detail, click for a larger version) that will allow the user to submit a report to fix any issues with the record. The same functionality is available for Brewery records under the corresponding tab.

Submitted reports will be aggregated behind the scenes (visible only to moderating staff), and dealt with as they come in. You can report incorrect URLs and data, typos, and duplicate Beer and Brewery records (see below for notes on duplicates). Please try to include the corrected information in your reports if applicable, and thanks very much in advance for helping to improve the data! Every correction is one less issue users will have in the future.

Notes on Duplicate Records
One of the big goals of this effort is to eliminate duplicate Beer and Brewery records in the database. You might have noticed that when adding a cellar entry and searching for a brewery, multiple hits will sometimes appear in the results drop-down (e.g., for Cascade Brewing). If you notice a duplicate, either for a Brewery or a Beer, once added to your cellar you can use the Report Issue functionality detailed above to make a note of the duplicate data.

On the back-end, these reports will be monitored and, where applicable, duplicate Brewery and Beer records will be merged. This will not affect the entries in anyone's cellar, as all related data will be updated upon merging duplicate records, keeping all user data intact. Some record names might change slightly, but only for normalization purposes (e.g., separate "Cascade Brewing" and "Cascade Brewing Co." entries would be merged into a single "Cascade Brewing" brewery record).

I have plans to expose easier ways to discover and report duplicate entries, but for now this provides a solid foundation for community data updates and reporting. You can expect to see more development around this area in the future, and in the meantime, thanks again for helping make The Beer Cellar a better tool for everyone!

As always, please feel free to get in touch (via message, Twitter, or email) with any bugs, feedback, or other issues.

Just a quick update about some more site improvements. Account management has been improved in the following ways:

  • Account emails and passwords can now be updated (email updates require confirmation)
  • Users can now delete their accounts, if desired (multiple prompts will be given before confirming the deletion)
  • Your username can now be changed (note that if you change your username, you may not be able to reclaim it later)

Consider these features that should have been added some time ago! Each new management option provides detailed instructions when selected, and they're all available via the My Account area. Enjoy!

Bug Fixes, Minor Additions April 3rd, 2016

First off, apologies for the downtime this afternoon of the beer/brewery search functionality, which in turn prevented folks from entering new beers into their cellar. It was a bug on my end, but it's now remedied. Thanks to everyone who reported the issue, and let me know if anything still seems off.

I've also been pushing little pieces of work here and there over the past week. Here's a short list of new additions and improvements:

  • Fixed iPhone icon when saving the site to your home screen
  • Fixed management rows not being hidden when sorting your cellar
  • Added "Expanded" view for Consumed Beers area to show all tasting notes inline
  • Now using Amazon's Simple Email Service (SES) for site-generated emails, which should hopefully fix delivery issues for anyone who's ever attempted a password reset and didn't receive the email

And more updates on the way!

What's Next? April 2nd, 2016

Now that The Beer Cellar v2.0 has finally launched, I thought I'd outline plans for what's next.

Data improvements are first on the list. The site is now more than three years old, and the largely user-generated database of beers and breweries could use some cleanup. The initial duplication is understandable in light of the previously strict matching algorithms, but the much improved fuzzy search for beer and brewery names introduced in version 2.0 should reduce the number of additional duplicate records created once we clean up the data that's there.

To that end, I've begun building a number of community reporting and moderation features to identify duplicate beer and brewery records, and to flesh out missing data on existing records. With the next release, users will be able to report duplicate or erroneous beers and breweries, and those reports will populate an administrative backend that will let me merge or correct records appropriately. In addition, missing data on beer and brewery records—e.g., URL, style, ABV—will trigger prompts for users to supply that data on existing records.

Trading upgrades will be next on the list (though part of a separate release—the data improvements take precedence). The new Messaging feature introduced in version 2.0 makes it possible to get in touch with other users, but trade discovery is still difficult. To address this, I plan to introduce a variety of features around trading to make discovery and trade proposals much easier and more visible.

In addition to the current searchable content under the Browse area, I'll be adding complex search options for beers listed For Trade or In Search Of. I also have plans to move ISO beers into their own area (i.e., not listed in your main cellar), as keeping empty records around for ISO purposes is less than ideal. This will let users maintain a list of the beers they're after, linkable to the external world, and powered by the same database as the rest of the site. Lastly, I want to implement a trade proposal interface that will allow users to manage a sort of "shopping cart" of beers when setting up trades with other users.

A mobile version overhaul is also planned, though the timeline here is less clear. I'd like to ditch jQuery Mobile and roll a customized, much nicer mobile interface, but as this will take a good deal of time I'm not sure when to expect it. I'll be sure to post updates as I have them.

And of course, I'll continue fixing bugs and remedying smaller issues as they come in. On that note, if you have any feedback, suggestions, or bugs to report, please hit me up via email, on Twitter, or with an in-site message. Cheers!

To celebrate both the release of version 2.0 of The Beer Cellar and reaching 3,000 users, here are some fun numbers about your beer. Thanks for contributing!

  • Over 3,500 breweries are now in the database
  • Among those breweries, users have added over 23,000 beers
  • More than 240,000 bottles are currently cellared
  • On top of that, more than 56,000 beers have been consumed
  • Put another way, users have imbibed over 950,000 fluid ounces of beer
  • Over 26,000 bottles are currently listed For Trade

You can find some of these stats (updated live) on the About page. A big thanks to all the folks using the site! Cheers, and feel free to say hello, as your feedback and suggestions are always welcome.