I have received a lot of helpful advice, both directly and indirectly, on this forum over the past 18 months or so, and I owe a lot to my fellow members for this. It really has helped me out as I have got stuck in to my homebrewing.
I am trying to not be critical of others in the way this comes across - hopefully it shall be taken as wel-meaningl and not upset anyone.
It may be that what I am seeing has always happened (in fact, I am sure it has), but I am just noticing it more. A real bugbear of mine of late has been other people dismissing the experience and preferences of others as though what they're doing is pointless, daft, or a waste of money (or indeed all three). We all brew in different ways, on different budgets, using different equipment for reasons that suit us as individual brewers. Particularly when it comes to new brewers, I feel we have a duty not to simply imply our way is best and everyone else is silly, but to provide information which can be used by the person inquiring to make the choice that fits their requirements profile (as in, time, space, budget, desired result). I have found myself of late feeling like if I even mention I just bought a Brewzilla, that I have to justify my reason for it before someone comes back and says something along the lines of "What a waste of money, my setup cost £50 and I make great beer". The same goes for process preferences. For example, some use liquid yeast and love it, some prefer dry for different reasons. Some like to whirlpool, others don't. Some use tap water, some bottled, some RO.
Some like to bottle exclusively, others like to spend more on kegging? Great, you may have bottled for 30 years and always had great beer. If someone else wants to spend £300 on a keg set-up (I know, I know, it'll always end up more than £300 by the time you've bought 10 more kegs, a maxicooler, a gold-plated beer font...), let them do it, and let them enjoy it without being dismissive of it.
When I was first trained as a software tester, the first thing to learn is that it was not my job to say "this product is not good enough" or "this cannot be released" or "it's rubbish", rather my role was to provide information so that those who needed to make the decision could do so with the information I had provided them.
Similarly in life more generally, some people tend to spend all their money on cars. To me, buying a car is like buying toilet paper - I do it because I have to and I don't get excited by it. That said, just because I am not in to cars, I can see why some poeple are, and why they like to spend their money on them. I don't poo-poo them for it just because I am happy with my £700 '07 plate Vauxhall Astra that gets me from one place to another in a way that suits me.
So in summary, can we please be understanding of our differences and not make eachother out to be weird just because we are all different? (<--Whilst I am talking there about homebrewing, perhaps apply to life too.)
: Dealing with forum "Trolls" and the like is flippin' hard work and I consider this forum to be something of a refuge, especially when things turn ugly on other forums.
