text:
Why so few people?
OK, so I am fairly new to this site, being a refugee from seasoned advice.  But seriously, where is everyone.  I have been putting up questions, even answering them as I think that this is a great site.  How do we get more people through, and staying put?

Share the site and bring others in!  Really though, what it comes down to is the hard work of creating quality content, both questions and answers.   Our traffic has been slowly building.  We're considerably ahead of where we were a year ago, which was considerably ahead of where we were two years ago.
The number one source of traffic for StackExchange sites is web search results, and the StackExchange team has don a fantastic job of building a platform that surfaces relevant content to the search engines and regularly appears at the top of the search results.  In order to take advantage of that, get that traffic, and then turn some of eyeballs into committed community members who continue building our repository, we need to continue building the content base.
So, continue to do what you're doing, and tell people about the site as well.  It's a process, and it take awhile to build momentum, but we're headed in the right direction.

Hi, yes I might have been a bit 'harsh', and I do tell others about the site - and compared to other sites it is a youngster.  I noticed a comment about tags else where.  I seriously hope that the site carries on growing - and to be involved with Q&T's (not just G&T's!).  It's great all the work that you do...  It was meant as a troop rallier and nothing else - hope I didn't offend.

think I did my bit for the site on beta with my last question!

The problems are two-fold:

The majority of people aren't hobbyist drinkers
Alcohol is a shallow topic

No matter how well this site is advertised most people drink alcohol to get drunk, not to study the fine details of it, and so most people will just never be interested in a site like this.
The other part of it is that alcohol is a shallow topic. I've asked a fair number of questions in this area to date, but to be frank there just isn't a lot more that I want to know that would be appropriate for this site. And so the nature of not repeating questions on Stack Exchange means that activity is naturally slow here.
If anything I think this speaks to questions over why and how we define a site as 'beta'. To me this is a fairly mature community, but will likely never meet non-beta status just due to the nature of the topic. That doesn't mean that the section isn't interesting, worthwhile, valuable or in need of improvement.

Many sites do not seem to make it past small volume.
This site was expanded from just beer to hopefully bring in a larger audience a while ago.
I don't think fabricated questions grow a site as it feels fake.  But I am OK with users that fabricate questions.
I feel like this is welcoming site.
There are some sites that new users are not welcomed.

Confused - what do you mean?

I think apart from Beers we could bring in another drinks , juices etc from liquid side too to increase the potential users .
What say ?

Can you expand a bit please?

Kind of addition of juices from veggies and fruits and other drinks.. in all a generic drinks section

I hear what you are saying - talking about what we 'mix' with our drinks, but not in the more traditional meaning of 'mixers'.  Have I got that right?  I believe that it would expand our horizons, however we don't want to incur the wrath of cooking and veggie sites.  I wonder what all the others think?

http://meta.alcohol.stackexchange.com/questions/55/what-kinds-of-questions-will-keep-beer-se-active-relax-the-culture-against-bra?rq=1
Have checked the above question ... My idea would work as most of the users are concerned about the beer site not evolving ... Need of Evolution i Guess .

I think you may have something BeerFreezer, would you like to expand your answer to include other drinks like pop drinks, energy drinks, tea and/or coffee?

Exactly my point @KenGraham , we could generalise it for drinks  like pop , energy , tea etc and let users decide based on new tags this would add more users from different strata of society

We could start with tea if for example  , let say , there are many  different types  of tea only in India which could let to different types of answers depending on  content type of each  tea and slowly gradually we could add another category of drinks as well if the first idea took off

A site isn't just a collection of topics; it's a community of users who come here because of shared interests.  The site scope expanded last year from beer to all forms of alcohol, which still seems like a cohesive group, but I don't think we can reason that any community has a shared interest in beer, vodka, margaritas, herbal teas, Gatorade, protein drinks, grapefruit juice, and whole milk.  That would be too broad and incoherent IMO, and also overlaps with Seasoned Advice and Coffee.  I think we need to work more to expand our current scope (with quality, of course).


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User was removed
OK, there might be a few times that I have got up people's noses - but this morning I wake up to lots and lots of down votes across various different sites on SE.  Everywhere where this had happened I had a note of the amount and then user removed beside it.  I read the note about user removed notices, but is there any way to know who this user was, and why they took so vehemently against me? - I don't believe I have lost any rep though.

No, you can't find out.  Votes are private, so revealing who was the source of your reputation changes from vote reversals would violate that.  In addition, users are allowed to leave quietly if they want, or if SE removes them for violating the terms of service.
See this question on Meta.SE for more about this topic.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

sort: votes


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I clicked 'Unanswered' questions but question with answer came to
I noticed that visiting 'Unanswered' questions shows even questions with answers.  Does an answer have to be checked in order to be counted as an answer?  Does it matter of the only answer has a negative vote count?

Relevant FAQ from Meta Stack Exchange: Why does the "Unanswered Questions" tab show questions that have answers?

Unanswered questions are those questions that have not been accepted by the person who proposed that particular question. Sometimes an OP simply is waiting to see if a better answer will appear, while sometimes the OP never returns to the site.
An accepted answer is not necessarily the best answer. It simply means that for the OP that that particular response is best suited for his desired information.

I'm not sure if these two answers are the same.  So, is it the upvote to confirms an answer or a check chosen by the asker?

An unanswered question is one that has no upvoted answers.  (I'm not sure if the asker accepting an answer also affects this, if that answer isn't upvoted.)  Questions that have 0-score (or lower-scoring) answers are treated as unanswered so that people who come along later -- like you -- will take a look and perhaps be able to offer an answer.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Bartending questions
This site being dedicated to alcohol, it seems natural that we would attract bartenders to engage in the community. I believe that bartenders would produce questions frequently and along lines of thought that enthusiasts have not considered, due to constant exposure to product. It seems to me that the current community is made mostly of enthusiasts. I'd like to discuss this and define the scope of questions allowed that are specifically geared toward bartenders or bar managers.
Ex: Spotting fake ID's, are bartending licenses (different from liquor license) required, treating  phytophotodermatitis (citrus burn common amongst bartenders), organizing the backbar, tips for bartenders moving overseas to acclimate to different bar cultures.
While these questions may not be specifically related to alcohol itself, they are certainly part of the culture. People getting into the industry have these questions at some point in their careers and they will end up in our arms when they search for the answers, giving us a huge benefit of an advanced user base if they stick around.

I think the question is a good one and disagree with the below answer about the scope of the site.  I've noticed that there's barely movement in this community.  I would be for expanding the scope of the site.   The question here would be one of many needed expansions in my opinion.

Thanks for the support. I'm interested to hear of any other expansions you believe would be suitable.

Bartending questions that are specific to the drinks aspect -- organizing the backbar, techniques for making attractive cocktails quickly, choosing the right glassware for a particular drink, improvising a cocktail based on a vague request, and so on -- seem to be on-topic to me.
Bartending questions that are more about the business side -- like spotting fake IDs or complying with local licensing laws -- seem more nebulous to me.  We would need to expand the scope description.  That's certainly possible, but there should be visible community support for it.
There's no reason we have to do it all at once, though.  If you've got bartending questions that are more toward the drinks end of that space, please ask them!  One of the purposes of the beta stage for a site is to, together, see what works and what doesn't.

Our scope page says:

Topics include, but are not limited to:

Specific beers, wines, liquors, ciders, or other alcoholic drinks
Breweries, wineries, and distilleries
Alcohol & production history
Styles & ingredients
Cultural and geographic questions specifically related to alcohol

If your question is not specifically on-topic for Beer, Wine & Spirits Stack Exchange, it may be on topic for another Stack Exchange site. If no site currently exists that will accept your question, you may commit to or propose a new site at Area 51, the place where new Stack Exchange communities are democratically created.

So it would be quite a scope change.
Personally, I think checking ID etc has nothing to do with the core of the site, so this feels like it would be off topic, but I would imagine there are many bartending questions which would fit in the "Culture" portion of our scope.

Currently, with less than one question asked daily on this site, it's necessary to consider ways to generate traffic and strengthen the community. Six months ago people were questioning not if, but when the site would be shut down due to a lack of participation. We had a paltry 0.4 questions asked daily.  Our core scope was massively expanded because of this, adding liquor and wine. Since the expansion questions have creaked up, one more question every five days. Not quite the effect that we need.
If we don't attract more bartenders.... we're dead in the water. If you agree, what can we do about it? I think we can refine the scope page to include the service industry, in their relationship with alcohol. Like I said, fake id's come up a lot. Unruly and drunk patrons. Promotional events. These things almost all drinkers come into contact with at some point, it's definitely related to the culture. I think that specifying that this kind of conversation is okay, it might get the ball rolling.  Just spitballing here. Please share if you have a different idea.


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Changing the layout of the top menu to match stackoverflow?
This may sound very weird but I like the style and layout of stackoverflow's menu at the top, with a search centered and other menus to the right side. Is there a way to apply this to the rest of the stackExchange or at least this stack?

It sounds like you're asking about the top bar, where the inbox, achievements, and links like "review" and "help" are.  Stack Overflow changed that all around; it doesn't look like the other sites on the network.  That's not part of a site's design; that's baked into the SE code, currently only on SO and its meta.  I believe they intend to roll out something like that across the network at some point in the future, but I suspect it'll be a while.  (Some of the links on SO are only on SO, like Documentation and Careers, so they'll at least need to change that.  But I think they'll probably use SO's users to work out bugs and analyze how people are using it differently before they broaden it.)

I've gotten very use to it and hoped it would be rolled out throughout SE cause currently, the search bar is on the right instead of centered, the index stuff is on the left instead of the right... it really confuses me sometimes. Thanks for the answer. I guess I'll just have to wait and hope for the best!

Whilst we are still in beta for this stack exchange we are unable to change our layout.
But rest assured as soon as we get out of beta we will all pitch together to make a layout fitting for the site


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Are multiple flags on the same answer possible/allowed?
I recently discovered that I had raised two flags on the same question.
I didn't know it could even be possible, as all other communities I know from the SE network don't allow more than one. And you have a written warning when trying to raise another flag on the same question/answer.
In the following case, I raised the "spam" flag, but not the "rude" one (and the answer isn't, anyway). A high-priority flag is enough to catch a user with privileges or a mod's attention.
Is this a feature or a bug?

I do not believe multiple flags on the same answer are possible. I believe this is just a quirk of the UI, graying out all of the high priority flag options once you've used one of them.
Looking at the flag history of the answer on which your most recent spam flag was cast, that does appear to be the only flag from you.  There were four flags on the answer from four different users, and they were all spam flags.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Can't select Beer, Wine & Spirits on Data Explorer
I can't select Beer, Wine & Spirits SE from the input field on https://data.stackexchange.com/.
The placeholder is "search by name or url" but:

if I start typing https://alcohol.stackexchange.com or alcohol.stackexchange.com no option can be selected,
if I type Beer... I can then select Beer, Wine & Spirits Stack Exchange but the url https://data.stackexchange.com/beer,%20wine%20&%20spirits%20stack%20exchange/query/new gives me a server error beginning with:

Server Error in '/' Application.
Runtime Error
Description: An application error occurred on the server...

if try experimenting/editing the above url with - e.g. - %2C in place of , or other, I always get a 404.

Is there something wrong serverside or am I neglecting something? The Joomla! one is another beta SE site but it does not show the same problem, obviously not depending on the web browser I use.
Thank you!

Reproduced.  Thanks for reporting this.

In addition, correcting the URL to https://data.stackexchange.com/alcohol/query/new gives a 404

Oh, but if you then replace "alcohol" with "beer" in @ArtOfCode's URL, it works.  Beer was the original name (and URL) of the site; it looks like SEDE half-updated, offering the new name in the drop-down list but not updating the URL.  You can get there with manual editing, but yeah, we should fix this.

@MonicaCellio I've seen it, it works. Thanks again!

Cross site duplicate on MSE: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/296521/data-se-breaks-when-looking-things-up-on-beer-wine-and-spirits

I've bountied that MSE post in the hope it attracts enough SE eyes so someone might find the time to run that sql update statement.

@rene great, I see. Thanks :)

The problem is the & in the name of the site. The actual error thrown is:

A potentially dangerous Request.Path value was detected from the client (&).

Here is my local reproduction of the error:

The easiest fix for now to change the record for alcohol.se in Sites table as found the Data.StackExchange database. I don't fancy fiddling with webserver settings
Particularly I propose to change the Name column to Beer, Wine and Spirits Stack Exchange but keep the Longname column with the &. That change will still show the site name as we are used to, even in the site switcher:

while it uses the value from the Name column to construct the url when you click that item.
A quick inspection didn't reveal any other serious mishaps with this change in place.
Now we need to bribe someone with database access to execute this query on Data.StackExchange:
update sites
set name = 'Beer, Wine and Spirits Stack Exchange'
where Id = 224 -- oh I hope these ids are stable ... please let them be

update sites
set name = 'Beer, Wine and Spirits Meta Stack Exchange'
where Id = 225 -- oh I hope these ids are stable ... please let them be


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Add migrate to Home Brewing in flag menu
In flag menu option needs improvement > a community specific reason > This question belongs on another site in the Stack Exchange network I think Home Brewing should be added. As of now only alcohol.meta.stackexchange.com is there.

There are so-called migration paths and not all sites have them; one of the footnotes in the FAQ about migration says this:

2 Not every site has selectable migration paths; in particular, beta sites, recently-graduated sites, and Meta Stack Exchange don't have any selectable sites (other than the site's per-site meta, if applicable, and vice versa). On such sites, only moderators can migrate questions out of that site (as they can choose any site to migrate to).


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Announcing a Pro Tempore election for 2021
Summary: Beer, Wine, & Spirits Stack Exchange will begin the nomination stage for a special election on August 16 to bring in one more moderator.
For full details of the process see the announcement on Meta Stack Exchange. The timeline:

Starting on August 16, users can nominate themselves. Users can also ask questions on meta for potential moderators to answer. (Use the discussion and election tags.)

On August 23, if there are two or more candidates we'll run an election. If not, I'll simply appoint the candidate. (There's a small chance we'll need to remove a nomination, but I doubt that will come up.)

If there is an election, I'll announce the results on meta on August 31.

(Note for current moderators: there's no need to nominate yourself even though you'll likely get an email saying you should. The system assumes the first election is a graduation election, which would mean moderators would need to be re-elected. This isn't that sort of election.)
If you have any questions about the process, please stick them in an answer here.


text:
2021 Community Moderator Election Results
Moderator election #1 on Beer, Wine & Spirits has come to a close, the votes have been tallied, and the new moderator is:

They will be joining the existing crew shortly — please thank them for volunteering and share your assistance and advice with them as they learn the ropes!
For details on how the voting played out, you can download the election results here or view a summary report online.

Well done Ken - well deserved. Happy to see you as mod here.

Thank you, Rory. It was an honour to run along side such a good challenger as yourself. Congratulations on becoming a moderator on Travel SE!

I wish to thank all who took time to vote in this election. A warm thank you goes out especially to Rory who ran as a candidate for being a moderator.
May this be a great occasion that I may serve this community in a way that it may be well built up and grow continuously.


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Why was this question put on hold?
I recently asked this.
I'd like to know why this is considered too broad. To me, it seems that there either are other major types of liquor or there arent, its not too broad...
I'm not asking about individual breweries making individual spirits, but major types emblematic to Cuba.
Kinda like Sake for Japan, Cachaça for Brazil, Scotch in Scotland, etc.

Just FYI, I deleted the comment that didn't answer the question as unhelpful, and then your comment that was responding to that comment as obsolete.   Cheers!

I have reevaluated your question and I agree that your question isn't too broad so i have re-opened that question for you i hope you get some good answers back and get what you are looking for


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Should [strong] be a tag?
Recently there was an interesting question about the strongest drink in the world: What is the strongest drink in the world?. The question has the tag strong, which seems off to me.
While it's clear in the context of that one question, in general it just seems really vague as to what that tag means. The tag wiki could of course help, but since it is empty it isn't helping here at all. It also doesn't seem to me that even if defined a bit better it would create a useful tag, as it doesn't really add a significant grouping to this site. On top of all of that, there also aren't any other question with this same tag.
So should strong be a tag at all? If so what should it be about?

I agree, and my finger hovered over the "edit tags" link when I saw that question but, for reasons I can't remember, I didn't click it at the time.

@MonicaCellio Well, I left it out of this question because I didn't want to focus on that, but it might have something to do with the fact that I already removed the tag and the author added it back.

Why is it 'off' I believe it said exactly what I wanted it to say STRONG!  Can you please expand and enlighten me.

@dougal It's not the combination of the question with the tag that seems off, but the tag itself. I'm also using "off" as a synonym of "odd" here. The explanation for this in the next paragraph and some of it can also be found in the answers (which articulate things I had more trouble putting into words)

Per the general consensus, I've removed the tag.

I'm also in favor of removing this tag.   Tags should be to help people find topics of interest, and I'm not sure how useful this particular tag is to that end.

Let it be removed. Generally speaking, when one employs tags such as rum or whisky and the like, these imply a strong alcohol by their very nature.

Comments deleted. This isn't the place to discuss something that happened on another site.

After being bounced around, and bouncing my own dougal head around and great comments from Jamie Eltringham, I agree!  Having sorted out my screen settings, I now see the advice on the right side bar!  New tags only dilute the site.


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Would anyone like to create a community ad?
I think cooking folks would probably be happy to serve a community ad for y'all. It'd be awesome if someone would make one!
There are pre-made community ads from area51, but they're not exactly exciting:
area51 ad http://area51.stackexchange.com/ads/proposal/48905.png
Simple images with text often work out pretty well; see for example the current community ads on cooking.
The image requirements:

The image that you create must be 300 x 250 pixels, or double that if high DPI.
Must be hosted through our standard image uploader (imgur)
Must be GIF or PNG
No animated GIFs
Absolute limit on file size of 150 KB
If the background of the image is white or partially white, there must be a 1px border (2px if high DPI) surrounding it.

this is a great idea ill have ago see if i can make anything

Great idea!  Let's think about other graduated sites where targeted ads might make sense, too.

Well here is my attempt its not 100% needs to have the image a bit sharper and its a bit bland but I though I would get the ball rolling


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Should recommendation questions be on topic?
I agree that the Food/alcohol pairing questions should be on topic because there are reference-able guidelines and cultural norms for those beyond opinion.
However I noticed a few questions asking for a recommendation for a spirit for a specific cocktail or for a beer that matched a certain group of flavors/notes  or questions about sourcing beers in a specific locality that seem to be really low quality/opinion-based/overly specific.
I worry that allowing these sorts of questions will open up a flood stream of opinion based list answers.

From what I have been seeing there are a few different tags that really need to be outlined correctly so people know exactly how to use them I agree with your worry and I have added it to the list of tags I am going to have a long look at


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Should we be asking and answering our own questions?
As a new discoverer of this site, I was pleasantly surprised as to what is around here. I'm trying to delve in and participate as much as I can, but (as noted in numerous other places) there aren't a lot of questions coming in here. So my question is, how much should we be asking and answering our own questions?
One answer I've found basically states that we should be doing this - one way to help build the site is to ask and answer a lot of questions to come up with, in essence, a Beer FAQ, so that when people go online to search, they start coming up with the site here.
So, is there a consensus around this? Should we be asking and answering our own questions (and, obviously, encouraging other people to provide answers)?
EDIT: And yes, I'm aware of the blog post about asking and answering our own questions. I just don't see a lot of people doing it, hence my question.

In addition to the information in Andrew's answer, the self-answer help center topic specifically encourages answering your own questions.  There's even a checkbox when asking a question to make it easier.

Coincidentally, I asked kind of a similar question on Arqade just a few hours before, though, in my case, for the lack questions around a very specific topic, rather than the whole site. The moderator @badp replied:

The kind of question seeding we frown upon the hardest is the
  systematic one, as in a bunch of largely identical questions that
  differ slightly (e.g. asking "how can I obtain an X" for every item in
  an RPG). Either phrase the question more generally, or only ask for
  values of X that you actually are struggling/have struggled with.

I side with this advice myself. For example, asking the BTU range for an IPA, then for a double IPA, then for a Pale Ale, and so on in separate questions, would be suspect. Instead, I'd encourage either (1) asking generally in a manner that seeks to answers some central curiosity of all these questions, or (2) asking about one or two kinds of beer due to genuine interest.
An even better example is when we discussed brand- or region-specific questions on this site. Questions like "Where can I find <beer> in <location>?" aren't great questions to spawn for the sake of increasing questions—they're often too specialized to help any future visitor. But when someone asks because they're genuinely having trouble finding a beer (and we seem to get this often from people who go abroad and can't get their hands on a beer they used to get at home), then we welcome the question. @MonicaCellio pretty much sums it up:

Limiting it to questions people actually care about should mitigate the fear of flooding the site with trivial questions. On the other hand, barring all of them just because some could be abusive, with our current question rate, seems unwise.

All this may very well be obvious to you, so maybe I haven't provided much of an answer. So to answer in another way, I'd say this:
Go for it. Just use some discretion and common sense as you go along. If you're unsure about a post, then bump it to the bottom of your list and come back to it. If you're still unsure, try asking just the question and letting someone else respond, at least for 24 or 48 hours, before you self-answer. If your posts start looking a little spammy or gratuitous, @Xander and I will keep this conscientious meta post in mind, and let you know in a comment. If you get downvoted by others, you have this meta post to reference in defense (but perhaps the downvotes are also an objective indicator of how your questions sound to the community). In any case, the worst that can happen is you delete a few questions. I'm all for having more questions on the site.
Welcome to Beer.SE, and thank you for your desire to participate at this level!


text:
Beer Crosswords?
Should we consider having beer crosswords permitted as on topic? Would it be of interest to put them on, say a "challenge week/day" in order to build up our user list and more interest to this site in general. The Latin Crossword question had been proposed for the new Latin Language site! Of course we would have to make sure we do not infringe on any copyright status in doing so.
I would like to know your thoughts on this topic, both pro and con!
At the moment of writing this question, we have not had a question in 9 days. This may just be a temporary (band aid) solution!
What do you guys think?

FYI, I tried to answer your question a few times, but I honestly don't know. So I've asked on meta.se. I didn't link your question specifically in case you didn't want the direct attention (and nay-sayers potentially downvoting you here), but if you don't mind that then I'll link you from my post.

@AndrewCheong Linkage is fine with me.


text:
What constitutes rude?
I flagged a comment as rude. It was declined by the moderator and I am OK with that. I am not complaining about moderators. They do fine job and give freely of their time.
But I would like to weigh in on if you think the comment was rude

go to space, without a suit, and enjoy the buffet

To me that is go suffer a freezing death with no oxygen.  I looked it up for slang and don't find it as a slang term.
The question is Flavour components in beer
Again I am OK - no real harm.  I sold my space craft last year. It was getting difficult to get approval for even low orbit space flight with heightened security. So no chance of unprotected space walks.

I'm the one who handled that flag.  Here is the full comment for context:

I don't believe that chemicals in food products necessarily mean additives that are unnatural. There are lots of chemicals responsible for flavor and aroma of hops. When I add baking powder to my biscuits, that's also a chemical (actually, a few). Like I say, if you want chemical free food, go to space, without a suit, and enjoy the buffet.

In hindsight, yes, the part that you've pointed out could certainly be considered rude, and I should have accepted the flag rather than declining it. When I was initially reviewing it, though I read it several times, in its entirety I didn't see what was rude or offensive about it, given that the bulk of it was on point for the conversation. Since I didn't know at that time that it was only the final sentence at issue, I didn't think to separate it from context, and to be honest, was probably reading a bit to quickly at that point to notice that the tone changed.   I'll watch that in the future.


text:
Can I link a beer brand or specific model or should I be generic?
I asked this question, Is caused because an specific technique bottle dry-hopping I've found Naparbier (Spain) brewers are using and I've never seen before.

Is ok to name / link the beer and it's brewer?  The question is related to it's production process, I don't know any other example and will help others if any one want to taste it
Or should I be generic?This may be seen as Spam or promotion of the brand

Yes, I would say that's fine, because it's pertinent to the question.  Spam is only a concern when the reference is purely for promotional purposes, and particularly when there is an undisclosed relationship between you and the product that you're mentioning.
If you look through our existing questions and answers, brands and specific beers are commonly mentioned, so we've clearly set precedent that by itself, this is not a problem.

By own experience, I can tell you I have done it here a few times and haven't heard from anyone to not to do that. I don't see any problem as well. Many times, it's almost impossible to ask or answer something without mentioning brands. Don't be afraid.


text:
One of my questions seems to be missing
I had a very generic question about Popular beer by country .
Its seems to be missing from my list ?
Why so ?
EDIT :
https://alcohol.stackexchange.com/questions/2168/most-popular-beer-by-country
It seems  deleted why as it has many great answers , I thought it should have been protected by community .

The question was auto-deleted by Community.  I'm not sure why that happened; while it was closed, the votes, answers, and views should have protected it from deletion.
The question was locked after a failed attempt to migrate the question to meta.
I removed that lock but added a historical lock.  This preserves the question and its answers but sends a clear signal that this is not an example of a good question for our site.  It's way too broad, but with all the answers you can't narrow it down now.  Instead, review the guidelines for asking questions and then ask a new, narrower question for whatever it is you want to know.  Keep in mind that "list all the X" is usually a poor question on Stack Exchange; we're looking for questions that can be answered in a single answer, rather than questions that call for 30+ answers each with a piece of the full answer.

From what I can tell from reading this the issue is that the question is far to broad as it is asking for not just popular beer in a country but for every country in the world which will wield far to many answers as this is a very broad question which would raise a flag by stack exchange policy and second it is very opinion based as without people doing a county wide survey of everyone it is impossible to see what the most popular beer is you may well find the best seller but just because it sells well doesn't mean it is most popular over the majority and with this being opinion based thus raising a second flag so with the two flags in mind the site (community) deemed that this question did not fit the question structure and eventually closed of the question
so whilst it might have produced some good answers the were ultimately far too many different answers(Too broad) and not accurate to a fact biases(opinion based) would lead any question to be closed
Hope this helps clear things up a bit

It emerged for stack community to close this question after 2 years , WOW . Doesn't seem convincing .It could have been modified for best seller by country , if flagged

@BeerFreezer The question was first closed for being to broad on May 7th 2015 and them was eventually deleted on December 10th 2016 due to no edits being made

So let me know if I make an edit for more specification now , would the community consider it to repoen , considering it has got many answers linked to it... if i get a chance to edit , ie

@BeerFreezer I'm not sure as even changing to bestsellers is still asking for a global count and would still be seen as too many answers and it would get stopped by the Auto Mod

@BeerFreezer you could always make the changes and it will get put for a reopen vote and them we could see what happens there is no harm in trying

I feel 190+ odd countries , some company could answer in one anwer for all the countries who hold drinks community all over world responsible

I feel I cannot change or edit anything in existing closed question ... how  can i do it @Jamie

@BeerFreezer I will un-delete the question for you to make the edits

Can't edit though , its locked for edit purpose too

@BeerFreezer I'm not sure what to do then i will get back to you when I know the cause


text:
Why was this post closed
https://alcohol.stackexchange.com/questions/2168/most-popular-beer-by-country
I think this should be reopened as Community question as the only question Country wise to check for their respective specialities of beer brands

@BeerFreezer. Thanks for participating in the meta as well as the main site.
As discussed elsewhere in the meta, the consensus at Beer.SE is, unlike other stack exchanges, to allow regional questions as long as they are sufficiently constrained. There are hundreds of countries that produce beer, and therefore, although I think it's indeed a useful question, I agreed (with whoever cast the first close vote) that the question was [too broad].
Take a look at this question: What does AngularJS do better than jQuery? [closed].
Try to remember that questions aren't closed because they're not useful, but rather because they don't fit certain site guidelines. Even if I don't personally agree with site guidelines (I'm actually closer to your side than you might think), as a moderator I am somewhat obligated to enforce the guidelines as set by the community. You'll still get reputation for upvotes of course—you just won't be seeing any new answers, since, it's been decreed the question covers too much ground and lacks specificity.
That said, you've reminded me of this question of mine: Local beers to try at airports (major airports only). To give you some context, at the time, the site was very young and I was trying to increase community participation by asking a "fun" question—a question any of us might remember the next time we're at a brewery in an airport. Some users commented immediately that the question wasn't well-suited for an SE site; I shared their sentiments and agreed to a motion to close. However, one might argue users aren't willing to act "against" a moderator. (Though, personally, I don't see close votes as antagonistic, at all. Also, I try to respect users by believing in their willingness to express honest thoughts; similarly I hope I have users' respect in trusting me to be able to handle said thoughts.) Now, the above question, I attempted to "constrain" by defining a "minimum enplanements" threshold. However, since I'm also allowing 1 airport per country regardless off that criterion, clearly my question is even less constrained than yours! And especially since the site has grown and there's less of a need for the original purpose I sought to fulfill (fun, immediate participation), I will be consistent in my judgments and close my own question.
Please don't hesitate to speak up about things like this in the future.
If you still disagree with my judgment, that's okay! If you believe your question would be valid as a community wiki, then please find a meta.stackexchange.com post that helps substantiate your reasoning. (I'm placing the burden of proof on you, since the community has already voted according to its established system.)


text:
Beer SOS - The state of the site
Ahhh...Beer, a lot of people love to enjoy it but as far as participating on the site, we're struggling.  Beer.SE is averaging a bleak 0.1 questions a day. While we have a great percentage of questions being answered, at 97%, the lack of activity is concerning.
There are a few active users but the overall userbase seems to be lacking enthusiasm to keep things running. I'd like to direct you to this recent post about when we graduate sites, and when we shut them down. Specifically:

What does this mean? If there's enough moderation for a public beta site to consistently remain free of spam, for flags to be cleared, and for our Be Nice policy to be upheld, your site will remain open. However, if community leaders drop off, flags sit without being addressed, and we can’t find any suitable volunteers to step forward, the site gets closed.

Very recently, Xander agreed to step up and help out with the moderation duties, but we need other active users if we want to keep this site running. The site has been free of spam, flags are slowly being cleared,  but there are items sitting the review queues waiting for users to help out.
What can we do to engage the users of the community and rally Beer lovers to participate?

@NormalHuman Possibly, but the lack of activity on Beer.SE is concerning. Very few questions being asked, reviews sitting for days before being handled, no meta participation. A site needs users to survive and right now, it's lacking a bit of everything.

I'm not active in other english-speaking communities like Beer Advocate, but I think spreading the word out there on those kind of forums which are already consolidated and well known would be a good thing. My point is: are people even aware of this place? Maybe the lack of activity here is just because SE is a platform well known and common amongst IT guys (like me) but not the craft-beer community.

+1 to first two answers posted. Easiest thing to do right now in order to boost search rankings, traffic and most importantly, posting activity, would be to broaden the scope of beer to include all adult beverages and then discuss merging with Homebrewing SE at a later date.

I tried to start a wine StackExchange site, but couldn't even get it out of Area 51. There were just other sites without larger user bases already well established in that space. Is not the same true with beer?

It feels like our scope is too narrow.  Questions about brewing are more likely to be asked on Homebrewing, though they're also on-topic here.  Questions about beer drinking just don't seem to be all that plentiful.
A couple days ago I noticed a new Area 51 proposal for Wine and asked there if Beer and Wine should join forces.  The topic has come up here before, and we've had questions about whether mead and cider are on-topic here.
Is it time for Beer to either merge into Homebrewing or broaden to cover alcoholic drinks in general?  For the former, of course, Homebrewing would need to consent to take non-brewing beer questions, so someone would need to open a discussion with them.

The community is willing to help, but there are not enough questions asked.
Unless we get many more people to join and actively participate in this SE, the numbers won’t change significantly.
How can we increase the number of users?
Word of mouth and posts on other platforms probably won’t cut it.
A better option would be a stock of great answers to the most common questions (like an FAQ) so the googling masses will end up here, and start to see the Beer SE as the platform of choice. It has been addressed in this question.
Another problem is a partial overlap with the more active Homebrewing beta SE.
Compare the statistics of Beer and Homebrewing.
While not exactly on the verge of graduating yet, Homebrewing SE had 53 questions asked specifically tagged beer in 2015.
The whole Beer SE itself had 153 active questions this year.
As far as I can see, the only other SEs related to food are Homebrewing, Seasoned Advice, and Coffee.
If we cannot keep the Beer SE alive, I suggest to ask the maintainers of Homebrewing whether they’d be interested in merging.
Together we are strong, since many people on the Beer SE are also interested in brewing.
Maybe they even agree to a more generic name that encompasses the tasting of the product as well as its creation, like Beer, Wine and Brewing.

I would suggest if a site is put together that will handle all kinds of Beer discussion then it should be named: Beer and Brewing. However if a broader range of subjects are to be included, such as Beer, Wine and Spirits (and the making of each); then it should be named Intoxicating Drinks, this way all kinds questions and answers regarding alcohol can be discussed such as:

Drinking
Creating (Distilling, Brewing, Fermenting)
Tasting
Serving
Pairing
Obtaining
Storing
Understanding
Classifying
Preserving
Etc

All which can be dealt with in one website. Much like how Stack Overflow deals with all kinds of programming related questions. That would generate much more traffic, many more Q/A, as well as keep all the alcohol enthusiasts enjoying feedback from each other.
If an overlap between types of alcohol is something not desired, then putting the same types of alcohol on their own is fine. As long as the making of and the drinking of said alcohol exist on the same site. The overlap would be more constructive due to the same subject and it would keep the same category of interested people together.

I would call such a site Alcohol -- short and to the point.

@MonicaCellio that would imply everything about alcohol, a solid site description will clear that up (see my answer for the win)

I don't understand what "Intoxicating Drinks" excludes that "Alcohol" includes, but, eh, people would have to decide to change scope before it matters anyway.

@MonicaCellio it would only be relevant to what other Alcohol related stacks would have to say about it, beyond that it wouldn't be an issue


text:
Shaken, not stirred; let's expand the site!
The state of Beer SE has been on my mind for quite a while now, and after another user suggested that the site expand our scope, we've decided it's time to shake things up.
In its current state, Beer is averaging 0.4 questions per day. While we have two active moderators who are keeping the site clean, we don't have many users asking or answering questions, or participating in review.
Community engagement is critical to keeping a site running.
The Plan
The site's current scope is too narrow. We'd like to widen its purview to all alcoholic beverages, including but not limited to:

Beer
Wine
Cider
Rum
Vodka
Other spirits

As you can see, the new site scope will be broader than its current form. We want the community to be revitalized and open to these areas.
Why the change, now?
I'll admit that I was hesitant to change scope, but after looking it over, I decided that a lot of work (800+ days in beta) has been put in and it would be a shame to throw that away by combining the site with Homebrewing. There is no guarantee that a change in scope will breathe new life in the site but in my opinion, it's worth the effort.
The change will allow the site to encompass the current proposals of Wine, and Cider. We're hoping it will get interest from users of the now closed Alcoholic Beverages proposals (1, 2)  to join the site and participate.
We want the community to succeed and if broadening the scope is needed, then let's go for it.
What's Next?
The community will need to flesh out the new scope of the site.  What will be on-topic?  We will also need to come up with a new site name. "Beer" is too limiting, so what should it be named?
Once these are decided, then we will get the highball rolling and have some fun with alcohol.

Wow, was surprised to see this proposal from you after your answer on the linked post.  I take it you're speaking on behalf of the CM team?  Cool -- let's liven up this site, then.

@MonicaCellio As I mentioned, I was hesitant to change the scope but after looking over the site and discussing it with the CM team I don't want all the hard work to go to waste.  This change might not fix it, but I'm willing to give it a go to see if we can make the community thrive.  BTW, if you have thoughts for a new name propose it in an answer. :)

Thanks!  Yes this might not fix it, but I'm glad we're giving it a shot.  If it doesn't work we're presumably back to merging a subset of questions into Homebrewing (depending on what they'll take), but let's treat that as a fallback.

I don't know what the SEO juice would be, but for the new name, I'm partial to "libations.SE" at the moment.

@Xander I like Libations.SE on first glance -- how 'bout writing it up in an answer for voting?

can we ask about tequila?

@JustDoIt That would fall in the "other spirits" category, so yes, go for it. Or should I say Just Do It. :)

From the perspective of Seasoned Advice, this seems like a great idea. We've always regarded drinks, alcoholic or otherwise, as on-topic there, but it's not totally intuitive. Having a more obvious home for those questions would probably get a lot more of them actually asked. (And if you do choose a relatively generic name like "drinks", and get off-topic non-alcoholic drink questions, you can always send them to cooking!)

Yea having a general 'alcoholic drinks' site would be a huge win.

Did you consider just combining beer with home brewing?

@Paparazzi Yes that was a possibility, but considering there have been other proposals for alcoholic beverages we decided to expand the scope instead.

That is an insanely large group of drinks! Although I can understand that it will bring more feet, I am a bit worried that the scope will be too large. Then again, stackoverflow covers all programming... So; the more the merrier! Welcome to the other spirits (and Tequila)!

And regarding the name, libations is good, but it might be a bit "high" for the average user. May I suggest "ABV"?

Scope
The on-topic help currently says the following:

Topics include, but are not limited to:

Specific beers
Breweries
Beer & brewing history
Beer styles & ingredients
Cultural and geographic questions specifically related to beer
Questions about other fermented drinks including:

Cider
Mead
Rice Wine

One specific topic that is not on-topic is home-brewing, and associated technical brewing questions which should be directed to Homebrewing Stack Exchange.

If we want to preserve the distinction between product and production -- that is, if we want questions about vintning, distilling, etc to be off-topic just as questions about home-brewing are now -- then we could generalize that list as follows:

Specific beers, wines, liquors, ciders, or other alcoholic drinks
Breweries, wineries, and distilleries
Alcohol & production history
Styles & ingredients
Cultural and geographic questions specifically related to alcohol

(And then a note about brewing/vintning/etc, TBD.)
I think that captures the spirit of the proposal here.  Is that what we want?

I'm in favor of this.  I might just delete the note about production entirely for now, and see how it goes with the additional scope (and hopefully traffic.)

The FAQ has been updated.

Site Name
Based on the scope described in this answer, which so far has some support and no opposition, we need a name and URL that cover the broad range of alcoholic drinks.  While Alcohol is an obvious candidate here, I'm going to propose that we follow in the footsteps of sites like Seasoned Advice (cooking) and Ask Different (apple).  A catchier name might draw more attention from users we want to engage.  I don't actually claim to be good at this, so I hope other people will offer competing answers.
Proposed name: The Open Bar
Proposed URL: alcohol.stackexchange.com (see alternate URL proposal in comments)
Favicon: You know how Aviation has that little airplane and a couple other sites have graphemes instead of text in their beta logos?  Is there one of those for a beer mug?

I'm very much for an alternative to "Alcohol," and "Seasoned Advice" is a great example. To me, the word "alcohol" brings up a lot of impressions from negative or "sterile" contexts, from alcoholism to other adverse effects of alcohol, even the chemical group (COH). "Alcohol" also feels like a name indifferent to the culture of drinkers who enjoy the creative process, the locale-dependent search, the subjective evaluation of taste, the fun.

To me, alcohol is only a byproduct of the creation process, and happens to have a side-effect during consumption, but is otherwise unrelated to what this site is really about, even if it happens to exist in beer, wine, and liquor.

I'm going to ask around English.SE and general chats to see if people have some creative ideas. I thought Brewed and Distilled might be close, but doesn't quite cover wine, and Brewed, Fermented, and Distilled is too long. And neither are creative. The Open Bar is quite creative and I like it, except for its association (for me) with... drinking to get drunk / celebrate, but not to enjoy what's being had.

@AndrewCheong those are good points.  When I think of an open bar I think of happy occasions like weddings, not drunkenness, but you're right that that's not universal.  And "alcohol" does sound kind of clinical.  Let's see what else we can come up with!  (Let's try to avoid "X and Y" names, though; we're looking for a category, not an enumeration.)

Friendly amendment: instead of the URL being "alcohol", how about "drinks" or "drinking"?  I don't want to edit for that now because this answer already has votes, but please upvote this comment if you agree and leave (or upvote) a comment opposing it if you don't agree.

Ah, "clinical" is the word I've been searching for. Yes, I would say that "Alcohol" sounds clinical to me. The Open Bar though, I really do like—I think it's a fun name that would draw more visitors than Libations. And my personal associations with open bars are definitely not the norm; I've only been to two weddings :-)

what about speakeasy? It's a catchy name :)

@JustDoIt Propose that as an answer so people can vote.

I don't know how to make a decent proposal. I just liked how it sounds :(

@MonicaCellio - After a discussion with bluefeet and Xander, we've decided to create a separate thread for site name proposals. Would you mind re-posting your suggestions to: http://meta.beer.stackexchange.com/questions/132/official-proposals-for-a-new-site-name-and-url-subdomain.

I like Monica's suggestion for the new name, The Open Bar.   Here are a couple of other options to consider:

Libations

I'm particularly partial to this one, though it may be to esoteric

Drinks

While not specific to alcoholic beverages, it's used enough as a synonym ("we're going out for drinks") that I think it could work.

Happy Hour

No comment needed.

Any of these could have a matching URL, but in any case I would probably (like Andrew commented on Monica's answer) like to find something a bit less sterile than "alcohol" for the name and URL.

Sorry to be a stickler but let's do one name per answer so people can vote on them. It would be easier than trying to decipher from comments a winner.

I like Drinks (or Drinking).  I'm holding off on voting until you split this up.

I've voted but I'll re-vote when these are split up. I'm quite fond of Libations as well. It's a word that's esoteric enough that users can reforge a new meaning somewhere in between "a drink poured as an offering to the gods" and what this site is. I like that even the literal definition gives the impression of valuing the drink as something symbolic of more than its chemical content.

I'm personally digging Open Bar and Happy Hour

@Xander - Please  migrate proposals to http://meta.beer.stackexchange.com/questions/132/official-proposals-for-a-new-site-name-and-url-subdomain :-)


text:
Urgent Call for Moderators
We recently had a few slots open for Moderator positions that we need to fill. Finding folks who are willing to take on these leadership positions is crucial to the continued existence of this site.
We need your help filling two moderator slots. Please nominate folks you would like to see become provisional moderators for this site. Your input will provide valuable insight to help us make our selections. You can read more about the process here: Moderators Pro Tempore.
The Nomination Process:

Nominate a user by posting an 'answer' below. Each nomination should be a separate answer. Use the template at the bottom of this post to complete your nomination.
Self nominations are encouraged. This is a volunteer activity, so users should not feel obligated to accept these positions. A self-nomination is simply a way to say, "I am very much interested in this, so let my record speak for itself."
Tell us about the candidates. Nominations can include links to other activities like Area 51 participation, participation in other sites, or any relevant thoughts/links that may help us make an informed decision.
The nominee should indicate their acceptance by editing the answer to say they accept/decline the nomination. Optionally, nominees are encouraged to write a bit about themselves following their acceptance.

I accept/decline this nomination.
Hi, I am name/location/fun fact (all optional). I live in <location>, so I am generally active on this site from <time> to <time>. Some other things you may want to know about me are…

Here is what we'll be looking for in a Moderator candidate:
We are looking for members who are deeply engaged in the community's development; members who:

Have been consistently active during the earliest weeks of this site's creation
Show an interest in their meta's community-building activities
Lead by example, showing patience and respect for their fellow community members in everything they write
Exhibit those intangible traits discussed in A Theory of Moderation

Nomination Template
To nominate a candidate, copy and paste the text below as an answer and complete your nomination writeup:

  ###Notes:
  This nominee would be a good choice because …

Always willing to step up if it means a site not languishing in the land between moderators and death, but that's most definitely a last resort.

Notes:
I nominate Monica Cellio, if she's up for moderating one more site.
She would be a good choice because she is a long-time active user of this site, both as a direct contributor with answers and questions, but also in meta and community moderation activities.  She's also a thoroughly proven SE moderator, holding that position on several other sites in the network.

Monica here.  Thanks for the endorsement.  I'm willing to do it if needed; however, I'd prefer to see others step up, ones who aren't already moderators (or at least not moderators on as many sites).  I think this is a good opportunity for people to learn the moderation ropes in a friendly, supportive, low-stress environment, so rather than giving me my fifth diamond, I hope we'll see some new diamonded names.
I'm in the US eastern time zone (UTC-4 at the moment), and am generally around in my afternoons and evenings.

Notes:
Jamie is relatively new to the site (February 2016) but has been steadily active since then -- asking and answering (with good results), reviewing, flagging, and voting.  The profile declares: "Have a real passion and love for Beer".
I wouldn't normally nominate somebody with <500 rep and no meta posts, but this user brings activity and enthusiasm.  I think as part of a team including an experienced moderator, a user like this could step up and be effective in helping the community to grow.

Accepted (see comment).

I accept this nomination I may have not been on this site long but my love for all things alcohol is strong I visit this site almost every day (sometimes miss a weekend) and I love the community we have here and would love to part of helping it grow since the nomination i have posted in the meta to a good response so I feel I will be able to step up my game and really be an asset to the site. Thank you for your vote

Notes:
This user has been active since the early days.  He(?) has a good track record of answers and is also active in reviewing.  As a homebrewer (and member on Homebrewing.SE) he can help us handle cross-site issues.  This would be this user's first diamond, and this seems like a site on which a new, interested moderator could learn the ropes.  (It's not like there aren't experienced moderators around, after all.)
Meta participation is light, but meta activity has been pretty light so if he's prepared to step up, I presume he would become more active on meta as part of that.

I decline the nomination, but with much appreciation for the thought; see below.

Thank you so much for the nomination!  Unfortunately, these days I'm wrapped up in work and other projects, and haven't been able to focus the appropriate attention to this SE.  When things calm down a little and I can focus more on my drinking & homebrewing, you'll see a lot more of me.  Thanks again!

@object88 thanks for responding, and I hope to see more of you here when things calm down for you.


text:
The future of “Beer, Wine & Spirits”
Update: Barring anything unforeseen, the switch is scheduled for Monday, May 9. Hold on to your beer mugs, wine glasses, and whiskey tumblers.

Recently, we solicited a thread to Propose a new name for Beer SE!
As you can see from the diverse responses, voting, and comments... naming is hard! You can never satisfy everyone's vision of how a community as diverse as this one should be labeled. So I compiled all of your suggestions and shared the various points and discussions with the Community Team.
An expanded Beer + Wine + Spirits site has all the pieces of an interesting community; we are very enthusiastic to see this initiative finally take hold — we just need a name to capture the entire scope.
We had to bend a few of our naming conventions for sites, but I think I've finally gathered enough support to move forward with a really comprehensive and straight-forward name for this site:

Name: Beer, Wine & Spirits
URL: alcohol.stackexchange.com

Given the history and future direction of this site, I thought a comprehensive and simply-stated name would work best for this site. The scope of the site is for all alcoholic beverages and while many of the proposals were fantastic, they weren't necessarily clear what the site was about.
We're excited to get the new site name and URL in place immediately.
Any questions?

Beer, Wine & Spirits sounds like the Bed, Bath & Beyond of alcohol, I can't help but to think of a store when I say that name out loud; I don't like it but I guess that that's one of the downsides of not having a lot of traffic in meta, administrative decisions have to taken from time to time.

@JustDoIt: I thought BevMo! was the Bed, Bath & Beyond of alcohol.

emphasis on the words sounds like @JonEricson

Also I think 8 days for a low traffic meta site is not enough to get a proper perspective of what the users think, but at the same time that input might be as good as it gets :(

@JustDoIt: Ignore my snark. It's going to be pretty hard to land on a perfect name if we had all the time in the world.

That's definitely part of the problem that we're trying to solve @JustDoIt. We need more users to engage on the site. The post to propose a new name had very few views and very few votes. We can't leave this waiting forever, we need to make a decision to move the site forward.  Naming is hard for everything, we're excited for the change because it's pretty clear what the site is about based on the name.

That works -- and we can save the "cleverer" names for a possible rename of the site's chat room.  (Note that it's not a full enumeration -- mead and cider are also on-topic -- but we don't want a full enumeration anyway, just enough to suggest some bounds.)

...but, coukd I trouble you for an Oxford comma? Pretty please? (Am I about to call down a firestorm?)

I am cool with your decision but why did you not propose that name and see what reaction it got?  Link is not active.

Yeah I understand @bluefeet I'm still gonna visit the site regardless of the name but the low input and traffic in meta worries me

It could be that most people will be drawn to the site because of the questions. That is how I always end up on stack exchange. I search for a solution to a problem in google and some SE forum comes up. The popular gaming forum doesn't have an obvious name, neither does 'Seasoned Advice'. At least not a name that people would search for often. I think the site should have a name that includes more. Unlikely that a site just on Cider would be able to sustain itself, where else would it go but here? I am fond of 'Open Bar'. It covers it all plus opens up for questions on serving etc.

Q: When are these changes going live?

@JustDoIt We're in the process of making all the changes.


text:
Why not expand homebrew.stackexchange to include beer.stackexchange?
It really seems like homebrewing is a subset of beer.  It seems like the two should be contained in the same q&a site.
What is the rational for creating two separate sites?
EDIT: This may be relevant to the discussion: the impetus for asking this question was posting this question on beer.se: https://alcohol.stackexchange.com/questions/358/what-ingredients-would-be-most-appropriate-to-prototype-new-flavors-in-a-randall?noredirect=1#comment371_358  The overlap between beer and homebrewing looks significant to me..

Homebrewing includes any Q&A that is related to homebrewing alcoholic beverages, including wine and other beverages. So, homebrewing is not only limited to beer.

Crossposted to http://meta.homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/364/beer-stackexchange

I tend to agree with you. I will be evaluating the private beta of "Beer SE" soon, and this is what has become evident to me as I watch this site develop:
My Beer SE Evaluation
The cross-cultural interests between "Homebrew SE" and "Beer SE" have way more overlap than I would have anticipated. I am not typically an advocate for combining producers and end users, but in this case, there is simply too much overlap of interests — not necessarily physical audiences, but interests — to ignore.
Hypothetically, if we were to remove the "brewing-related questions" from Beer SE (I'm not suggesting that), this site would become one big snooze fest fast. After I figure out what temperature to keep my beer… and how to keep it going skunky, just about the only interesting questions left are those that DO veer into what goes behind the brewing process. The deeper "consumers" here are asking about the "artisanship"… and that's the best part of this site.
It makes sense, really. When there's a fervent appreciation for a subject (at least food/drink space), the more-engaged experts almost have to delve behind the scenes to study what separates good brews from bad; to understand the parameters that go into what they're "appreciating."
You don't have to be a literal "brewer/craftsman" to have an implicit interest in the subject. Many of the beer enthusiasts here are curious about the craft — you almost have to, to appreciate the subject — and that's why they are asking about it here. And of course the craftsmen need to know what makes a good beer … so there's a lot of cross-cultural interests here, whether you an actual, literal "home brewer" not.
It simply makes sense to combine these subjects. While the brewers and consumers are not physically the same exact audience, they do largely seem to have the same range of interests… and questions. Essentially, the scope of these two sites overlap considerably; much more than I would have anticipated.

Put them back together. They will be stronger in combining their expertise; stronger for sharing their mutual interests and appreciation for the subject.

I'm leaning this way too.  I think the question of whether these 'aficionado' questions are permissible on homebrew.se (I assume they are, or nearly are) seems pretty illuminating.  But in that case, homebrew.se would be better named beer.se.

End user (i.e. pure "appreciation") questions are not currently on topic on Homebrew SE, but I'm suggesting that these two communities would be stronger if they were (hosted by one site). Their overlap of interests is way bigger than their differences.

@RobertCartaino I guess the relevant question then is -> is there any will from the homebrew folks to combine?

I really believe that Homebrew and Beer should be a separate pages. I, as a homebrewer, am personally quite interested in both topics, however I feel that the homebrew page is muddled with situational questions relating to specific aspects of brewing (i.e. "how well to strain wort after boil") that many beer enthusiasts (including myself half the time) are not interested in. Even if there is a large overlap in material I think that those issues would sort themselves out fairly quickly. I've been answering chemical questions, but they do not seem to belong in Homebrewing.

Yeah, I think the case for why to do this is very strong. The big question is one of the will to do this and whether the logistics can be worked out. If the two sites are combined, it probably makes the most sense to keep the 'Beer.SE' url, at which point, is the easiest thing to do a mass-retag of all questions from homebrew.se as [tag:homebrew] before importing?

@LessPop_MoreFizz Ok yeah, that makes a lot of sense. My issue is that I feel like ridding SE of 'Beer' and simply allowing "aficionado" Q&A in Homebrew would really just end up alienating the [perhaps small] group that isn't there to brew. It's a psychological issue; names do matter. Although I do agree that aficionado types "almost have to" appreciate homebrewing, I don't think a site called "Homebrew.SE" creates a comfortable environment for their implicitly "off-topic" discussions.

@LessPop_MoreFizz since all brewing is on-topic on Homebrewing (ber, wine, mead, melanol, cyser...), wouldn't Beer.SE be seen as too limiting by them?  (I'm not there and also don't know the history of this site -- apparently it's a spinoff?  I saw it on Area 51, no other context.)

@MonicaCellio why not put them under one Alcoholic Beverage SE then?

@IBG don't know; I'd want to hear from some folks from Homebrewing on that.  I don't know enough of the history of these sites to know what ground has been covered already.

Homebrewing (as I understand it) is about home-brewing beer, wine, mead, etc.  Beer is about beer, and while all beer is brewed, not all beer is home-brewed.  So if these sites combine (and that's looking like a good idea from over here), it would involve broadening their scope from homebrewing to brewing, and of course also questions about the brewed product that aren't about how it's made.  Maybe "Brews and Brewing"?  (And yes I know that wine isn't technically brewed either, but they have questions on that too.)

Theoretically, homebrew.SE could be renamed to 'fermentation.SE'... but even so, it wouldn't change the current situation where homebrew.SE has many users who don't brew beer, and may not even enjoy it. Merging it into beer.SE would just leave them out in the cold, without a home for their questions. During import, would all non-beer questions be marked as off-topic?

I'm in the "No" camp, and I think Wax Eagle answered pretty well.  I'd just like to expand on the audience point a bit, though:
Although H.SE and B.SE have very similar audiences right now, they'll probably diverge later.
To put it another way, the people likely to commit to both sites are pretty similar, but the people likely to visit each site is significantly different.  The people who are interested in beer enough to go out and help found a community like B.SE are far more likely to brew than the average mild beer enthusiast.
As such, I predict that we'll get more and more non-brewers as we exist public beta.  Keeping the sites separate will serve those people better than a combined one.

I have the opposite opinion.  I think these topics will continue to converge as the audience of beer.se attracts a large, more informed following.  As beer questions become more specific I suspect they will delve into the creation process (again my beer question as an example).  I don't see how distancing the process details could better serve beer lovers...

Possibly.  I agree that as the questions become more specific, they'll delve more into the creation process.  However, as Wax Eagle pointed out, I think they'll focus more on large scale production.  Eg, "How are rauchbiers made?" on Beers would get an answer describing the process at a high level (as done by commercial brewers), whereas in Homebrewers the answers would revolve around specific equipment, recipes, whether to smoke your own malt or buy it, all-grain vs extract, etc.

This has been answered in a couple of places, namely in a comment, but I'll go ahead and give it a go.
Mission
Homebrew has a pretty specific mission and vision. To support home brewers in the brewing of their own beer. To do that they do take on a variety of topics around the beer industry, tasting, ingredients etc.
However, the scope of this site is broader and more expansive. It includes large scale production, excludes super small scale production and generally is more focused on the consumption of beer rather than production.
Audience
This is where the real differences lie. While there is likely a good bit of audience overlap (probably all homebrewers are beer drinkers), Home brewers are a subset of all beer drinkers. This site is intended to appeal to the superset of beer drinkers.
Conclusion
The only real issue here is the ordering of the site's beginnings. Typically how site parentage would work would be that the larger audience site would be the first, and then the separate interest group would splinter. In this case the separate interest group already has their own site with their own question set.
There are a couple of interesting questions here on meta that address this further:

Is Homebrewing on topic?
What should we do when a question already has an answer on the Homebrewing site?

And lastly, I'd like to point back to an instance where I had many of the same thoughts I've seen re: homebrewing with another set of sites that I was involved in. The Sport.SE/Fitness.se meta crisis.

Sport.se and Fitness.se should be combined

Shog set me straight here, and I've come to see his way of thinking about these things. It's worth a look back at what was said there to inform any future discussions here.

Very well put. Your 'audience' section was going to be my main argument. I don't foresee the 'parentage' problem being a huge issue though; I imagine the site will grow outside of the high overlap issue quite quickly. +1 for detail and historical evidence.

To throw in another datapoint, I'd reference reddit.com/r/beer at 120k subscribers vs reddit.com/r/homebrewing at 76k subscribers.

The mission of homebrew is not 'To support home brewers in the brewing of their own beer.' Rather it is 'To support home brewers in the brewing of their own alcoholic beverages.'
While that includes beer in many or even most cases, it isn't limited to beer. It includes wines, meads, gruits, ciders and even odd questions about other more obscure fermented beverages.

I think there's probably overlap FOR NOW, but I would hazard that beer.SE would grow significantly quicker than homebrew.SE, and in the long term, homebrewing-related questions would be only a very small part of beer.SE. Homebrewers are a small subset of those who appreciate good beer, and so the proportion of the content we add would be correspondingly small.
I much prefer keeping a separate homebrew.SE as it collects and lets me focus on homebrew questions without having to sort through pages about asking opinions on latest-fad-beer-of-the-week-not-available-here, which I really couldn't care less for.
If these two were merged, I would probably be lost as a user, as while I appreciate good beer as much as the next guy, I am much more passionate about trying to create it than buying and sampling it.
On a final note that I should perhaps have started with, homebrew.stackexchange is not solely about brewing beer, even though that is the largest segment of brewing represented. There is a non-trivial body of content devoted to wines, meads and other types of brewing. Merging with Beer.SE would essentially exclude those users from the combined community.


text:
Should pairing questions on Homebrew.SE be migrated here?
The Homebrew.SE site has a few questions about food pairings:
https://homebrew.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/pairing
Should these be migrated to Beer.SE?

Not right now. We're too early in the beta process for incoming migrations, for two reasons. The first is that our survival is tenuous right now. The second is that as a new beta we don't want an influx of migrations that will change or set the tone of the site.
When we get on our feet a little bit better (a few months in perhaps, after we have an established tone and userbase), if y'all decide that those are off topic on your site, then yeah, send them over, so far they're on topic here (that could change though).
Lastly, as far as your existing questions, most likely unless SE wants to do a bulk transfer, they are probably mostly too old for migration (60 days).


text:
Asking brand-specific / regional questions "responsibly"
There's been a lull in new questions lately, so I'd like to lead the way in generating some brand-specific or regional questions as discussed here, in hopes of giving confidence and encouraging others to ask such questions (however "taboo"-feeling) comfortably.
One thing I feared about doing this, though, was that we might ask too many "superficial" questions—questions asked for the sake of asking, not actually solving a specific problem the asker is having. I felt that such questions, asked with no "skin in the game," would necessarily be of low(er) quality, because we don't tend to think things through as much when we're not personally involved.
For example, I'm currently in San Diego but originally from New York City and visit family and friends there often, so when asking about NYC, I have some vested interest in getting useful answers, and care more about specificity, e.g. I don't necessarily want to know about breweries inaccessible by NYC's public transportation system, since I almost never have a car while there. Such considerations would not enter my mind were I asking about, for example, Austin, TX, a place I've never been and don't have any current plans to visit.
So, I propose that, while we should feel comfortable asking questions about brands and regions, we should ask "responsibly," i.e. ask questions we earnestly imagine ourselves making use of in an upcoming trip or encounter—questions that benefit us personally.
Feel free to link this meta post when asking regional questions, as a "disclaimer." That's why I'm writing it.

I suggest that people ask these questions when you have a real question.  Asking questions just to populate a site is no good; they tend to be shallow and superficial, and if even the asker doesn't really care, why should answerers be motivated to invest effort?  On the other hand, if you have an actual question that you care about, please do ask it, giving us more than a one-liner.  (What motivates the question? What have you already investigated?  Etc.)
Limiting it to questions people actually care about should mitigate the fear of flooding the site with trivial questions.  On the other hand, barring all of them just because some could be abusive, with our current question rate, seems unwise.

Generally all stackexchange answers should be answerable within a certain scope. You will have  a ton of same styled questions and answers where one region is just swapped out for another.
This would mean that technically you couldn't stop anyone from going on an asking spree as it would not be out of scope. So my personal opinion on this subject is to not allow it. Defining "responsibly" will be too open ended.
I believe your questions would be appropriate for the chat, but not for the main site.


text:
US Law questions?
What should we do about questions like this?
United States Beer Shipping Laws
It's clearly something people want to know about: Can I ship my homebrew to my brother on the east coast?  Is beer trading legal?  Can I join a "Beer of the Month" club?  It seems like that's the sort of question one would go to a beer stackexchange site to answer.
However, as people have pointed out in that question's comments, the answer may depend quite a bit on the state, and we don't want 50 copies of the same question: "Can I ship beer to Idaho", "Can I ship beer to Washington", etc etc.
So, what should we do about questions regarding US law that may vary by state?

For questions to be good here, they have to be of sufficiently limited scope. We should not expect people to provide as single answer for all 50 states, or even for the dozens of counties in each state that might have a different set of laws.
More importantly, we're here to help people solve their problems. A general answer for all of the US, or even their state, might not solve their problem.
We can, and really, must, deal in specific questions with specific answers.
So if I want to ship some beer to a friend, I should ask about the laws that are relevant to my case, and no more

If each question will be different, then it should not be discouraged. That there may be an issue with having "too many questions" is really not something that should be prevented.
Moreover, are these types of questions really bogging down the exchange? I don't see any evidence of that. Until it actually becomes a problem that is recognizable then there is no point in preventing it. At that point, look to how Stack Overflow deals with it now since they deal in large volume. But before that point, do not use the current Stack Overflow as an example because it would be out of context. Look to how Stack Overflow started, and garnish ideas from their outlook back then (in 2008).
Preventing content will only harm this new exchange. So, what should be done about these questions? Answer them if you can, or move on if you don't feel like answering it.


text:
Propose a new name for Beer SE!
As initiated in Shaken, not stirred; let's expand the site!, Beer SE is expanding to include a variety of topics not limited to wine and spirits!
What should the new site's name and subdomain be?
Please submit ONE proposal per sitename or URL. If you feel that your name or URL pairs better with certain other URLs or names, then feel free to suggest those pairings, as long as it's clear we're voting on a singular sitename or URL.
Also, you can find the latest guidelines for site names and URLs here.

Some things to consider about the target audience:

How does the name sound to someone who stumbles upon the site accidentally? e.g. browsing SE's list of communities, or while Googling a loosely related question. Would they remember our name or bookmark the site?
How does the name sound to someone who participates in comparable communities? e.g. RateBeer and BeerAdvocate forums, /r/beertrade, and wine and spirits counterparts. Would they consider our site a serious alternative to their home grounds?
How does the name sound to experts in the field? e.g. homebrewers, distillers, industry experts, etc. We'd love to attract this group to build a strong, reliable community. Would a name that sounds too generic turn off potential experts, e.g. with the feeling that the site might fail to appreciate or highlight their level of experience and sophistication?

Again, one proposal per sitename please!

I see. Thanks, Marshmallow! I meant to highlight how different names vs subdomains could be, not necessarily the quirkiness, but that's a good point I didn't realize I might be miscommunicating.

To clarify what you type into the browser is the subdomain.  It should be something easy to remember and easy to key in.

@Marshmallow MI Yodeya might be a special case, but it's a little different from what you said so I want to clarify.  Mi Yodeya was an SE 1.0 site; when it joined the network in 2011 it became "Jewish Life and Learning" (with the subdomain "judaism").  When the site graduated in 2012 the team restored the Mi Yodeya name.  I think if we can make a case for a non-matching name the team will be open to it, especially given that bluefeet has been part of this conversation and hasn't said anything against the idea yet.

Whatever name is decided, please keep in mind that we have naming standards.

If you read the standard linked by bluefeet  The subdomain should match the site title as closely as possible (even if it's not the shortest possible subdomain we could use). We can still create redirects if there's a true need for them.

@Paparazzi - Thanks, I did see that, but I think a part of me didn't want to overconstrain the proposals here, because so far I haven't seen a matching sitename + URL that captured the "craft and appreciation" intent of the site in a casual or common term. Not a good reason to break the guidelines, of course, but let's see what's out there. Appreciate all your inputs regardless!

@AndrewCheong I politely disagree.  That is the standard and should at least be a recommendation.  Right now the question reads as no need to match.

@Paparazzi - Fair enough; you're right, I had forgotten my own wording of that paragraph (written before I read bluefeet's link). I've removed it altogether, and linked the standards from the question.

Name: The Open Bar
I think the name will stand out to those browsing the site list and is memorable.  It's all-encompassing without being wordy, and feels to me like it fits in with BeerAdvocate and similar sites, which is where (some of the) expert consumers hang out.  I don't know how experts in the beer/wine/spirits industry will view it (I don't know any of those to ask).

Initially proposed here.

I split out my proposal for the subdomain to allow separate voting, and also because I think the subdomain works with several names.

I like it without The better.  Open Bar

I like "Open Bar" while BYOB is catchy I feel that BYOB is associated with beer and if that's the case then don't even change the name, the obvious like paparazzi said ( alcohol or more precise, ethanol) is clean and straight to the point, if you want catchy then I would go with "Open Bar"  because it encompasses all drink types, BYOB is subjective since you can use BYOB for almost anything that starts with B Y O And B ... Bring your own beer, Buy your own beer, build your own boat, bake your own brisket...etc...etc.

Interesting -- where I live "BYOB" almost exclusively means wine.  But the alcohol laws are very strange here and that might be part of it. :-)

Would this option leave it open to general questions about the bar industry? Such as appropriate customer service in different kinds of bars, how to handle unhappy customers etc.

I also agree with @Paparazzi and Mr Hons that just 'Open Bar' would be better.

Only if the url is TOB.stackexchange :3

Subdomain: drinking.stackexchange.com
As noted by someone in the earlier thread, "drinking" and "going out for drinks" are common ways to describe going to a tavern to appreciate produce in aged liquid form.  "Drinking" implies alcohol.
Drinking, as opposed to drinks, conveys an activity.  While production questions are in-scope too, first and foremost this site is for consumers of alcoholic beverages.  The verb does a better job of conveying that.
Drinks would create more ambiguity; we'd get some questions about non-alcoholic drinks and, in particular, would need to redirect some questions to Coffee.
Stack Exchange has historically been a little inconsistent about verbs versus nouns -- Writers but Worldbuilding, Astronomy but Community Building, Ask Ubuntu but Academia, Programmers but Programming Puzzles.  So I think we're free to go either way here, especially in a subdomain (I'm not talking about the site name here).
The subdomain is memorable and easily typed.
On the downside, I wonder if drinking carries a connotation of "to excess"; do people hear "drinking" and think of frat parties?  Anybody who stops to think about it would likely conclude no, because a whole Q&A site about that kind of drinking doesn't make sense, but first impressions matter.  This is why I'm proposing this for the subdomain but not for the name.

I propose this subdomain to go with a different name, such as this one (but others might be suggested too).

To me drinking is not specific to alcohol.  Looks like you are drinking coffee in your picture.

The word "drinking" is broad, which is why I didn't propose Drinking as the site name. By the time people see the URL they'll have seen the name, so in context I think it's OK. But I'm just one person, so people should vote.

I don't follow they will see the URL before the name?  But cheers.  I don't want it to seem like I am arguing with you as that is not my intent.

No worries - this is a productive discussion, and this is how we figure out what's best.

@Paparazzi - For those who feel drinks still works, here is the complementary proposal.

How dare you insinuate coffee isn't for drinking‽

@Caleb lots of things are for drinking, and coffee is important enough that it has its own site.  When somebody says "we're going drinking" without further context, though, do you think of coffee?  (Dunno, maybe you do and I'm seeing a western bias here?)

Where I live going out for drinks means getting tea. There are more specialised ways of indicating alcohol but the default social beverage is tea. Unless you come anywhere near my office then there will be coffee on hand.

Name: Alcoholic Beverages
URL: alcohol.stackexchange.com
Not all that fun but is a clear description

I also submitted BYOB,  I think BYOB and Imbibe are more fun but if I could vote on my my own answer I would vote for this based on clarity.

URL: drinks.stackexchange.com
I don't propose "Drinks" as the sitename, for pretty much the reasons @MonicaCellio described in her proposal above or below, but, between "drinks" and "drinking," I am indeed one of the people to whom the latter is associated with bar hopping, loosening up after the 9-5 (usually in pursuit of the alcohol rather than the craft of the beverage), etc.
Meanwhile, "drinks" to me sounds a little more casual and inclusive of the beer / wine / bourbon / tequila enthusiast looking to enjoy a few drinks.
As for ambiguity with other, non-alcoholic beverages, for me it takes more pause and thought to dispel the non-refined notions of "drinking," than to simply click "drinks" and realize the site's not really about coffee. So, I think the simplicity and lightheartedness of "drinks" is perfect :-)

Actually, I think somebody else suggested Drinks on the other proposal, so it's not really my idea either.  Thanks for raising it separately.

Woops, you're right, it was Xander's—but I first read it proposed as a subdomain in your comment. I'm just gonna remove the crediting since we're all friends here.

Name: Speakeasy
The term Speakeasy was used back in the 1920's when you wanted to refer a place where -due to the Prohibition era- alcohol was sold (Illicitly). They were called this way cause you had to "speak quietly about such a place in public, or when inside it, so as not to alert the police or neighbors" Wikipedia
The Prohibition era is long gone now, and although we are not doing anything illegal in the site, I felt like besides being related to alcohol in some way the name itself is quite catchy.

How funny would it be to have se.stackexchange.com ^^,

Speakeasy is a US term and I associate it with an establishment not alcohol.

That could be one of the negative points of this suggestion @Paparazzi , thanks for pointing it out. Although it doesn't really matter since the name has already been chosen.

URL: byob.statackexchange.com
Bring Your Own Bottle/Box/Beer/Booze
If you don't know the term then not a good fit but it is pretty common
It is most often associated with alcohol
But BYOB to a prayer meeting means bring your own bible
"Your Own" has a sense of community
wikipedia

I like this. What do you think of it for the namw, too? (Note: byob.se + Open Bar name sounds like cognitive dissonance, so probably not those together. :-) )

@MonicaCellio I will add a name.  It don't really like the way the question was formatted.  I think you should have a list of names with a subdomain.  Not a list of subdomain with single name.  It does not work well with Open Bar.

You're right Paparazzi, and I've realized it's probably best to simply to separate subdomains into separate answers, as @MonicaCellio began doing, and maybe suggest pairings with other names if there are better pairings than others. I apologize, but can you split byob.stackexchange.com into a separate answer? I personally love the subdomain and want to upvote it, but not so much the name.

@MonicaCellio OK I will add it as a name

@Paparazzi I just did; refresh the page.  Sorry for causing any confusion.  (I just deleted my comment after doing so, but too late!)

Name: BYOB
good pairing URL byob.stackexchange.com
Bring Your Own Beer/Bottle/Booze.
If you don't know the term then not a good fit but it is pretty common.
It is specific to alcohol.
"Your Own" has a sense of community.
An alternative proposal to the spelled-out form. "BYOB" is short and, as far as I know, widely understood. In contrast to The Open Bar, it focuses more on the drinks than the venue. BYOB is less likely to have connotations of drunkenness.
Wikipedia

Name: Bring Your Own Bottle
good pairing (pun intended) byob.stackexchange.com
If you don't know the term then not a good fit but it is pretty common
It is most commonly associated with alcohol
"Your Own" has a sense of community
wikipedia

Name: Imbibe
It just sounds classier than 'drinks' or 'alcohol'! The term is often associated with drinking alcohol specifically. But the definition can include alcohol free drinks, so questions on 'virgin cocktails' would also be permitted.
The term is widely used in the bar industry. For example, Imbibe bar magazine, Imbibe trade professionals, Imbibe inc. - a team of beverage scientists, Imbibe! by David Wondrich - a guide to the drinks of the famous American bartender 'Jerry Thomas'..and that's just the first few items that come up from a google search.

this definition could also incorporate 'coffee' and 'tea', which IMO should not have sites of their own if beer does not.

The usage of the term in the industry is a significant point in its favor.

@QuizzicalCreature Beer was just not getting enough traffic.  I personally would have moved beer to home brewing and tried wine alone but need to go with the flow and respect the moderators need to make a call.

I personally like Imbibe but I am wondering if the normal user would know the word.

The obvious
Name: Alcohol
URL: alcohol.stackexchange.com

This is the URL that was selected and it has 4 down votes.

downvotes mean disagreement, so it doesn't really matter if it was the url chosen or not, disagreement with this suggestion(now new url) exists.

@JustDoIt Uh, yes

Name: Let's Talk Ethanol
URL: ethanol.stackexchange.com

In case you are new to meta a down vote does not really mean bad answer.  It just means a not vote.   It does not go against your reputation.