The State of Online Wine Talk

Posted by Tom Wark on Aug 24, 2010

Back around the early 1990s if you wanted to spend time on-line discussing wine with fellow oenophiles you frequented the "wine boards" on AOL and Compuserve. These were the premier "bulletin boards" where folks passionate about wine would post topics, comment on topics and discuss the world of wine. I was somewhat active in the AOL board and its where I first witnessed not only the kind of very deep and consequential wine conversations that could be had on line, but also the kind of deeply contentious conversations that on-line forums could provoke.

Today, while the AOL and Compuserve wine forums are long gone,  the same kind of forums for wine lovers still exist. In fact, for many years, it was the "Mark Squires Bulletin Board" located at eRobertparker.com where by far the most robust and interesting on-line forum was found. Numerous topics of conversation were posted daily. Thousands of "commenters" would weigh in on a variety of subjects. Tasting notes, new wine releases, wine politics, philosophies of collecting, issues connected to terroir, buying strategies, anything under the sun was discussed.

To say the least, the "Squires Board" at eRobertParker was the most dynamic site on the Internet for the discussion of wine and for meeting up daily with some of the most interesting wine-minded people.

All this ended on April 26, 2010, when Robert Parker and Mark Squires decided to make access to this forum "subscriber only".

Prior to this date, one needed only to register and you'd have access to the most robust wine forum on the Internet with "posting" privileges. Today, one must subscribe to the website at a cost of $100 annually.

The change to subscriber only access came swiftly and without warning to the thousands that used the forum at eRobertparker. However, their was an explanation given:

"Supervising the
huge volume of posts has become increasingly time consuming and
expensive. At the same time, we've noted that the
subscriber-only forums we created some time back are
increasingly popular and much easier to manage. Moreover, we're
committed to providing even more functionality and greater
coverage of wines for our subscribers in the near future. This
will require us to spend wisely.
We are a small company with limited resources and, after months
of deliberation, we've come to the conclusion that it is in the
best interest of the people who count most – our subscribers –
that we change our policy with regard to the bulletin board."

The response to the change was not pretty. Many users of the forum felt like they had the rug pulled out from under then. Some felt like they had lost access to good and close friends. Many thought the move to subscriber only access was a response to contentious conversations in the forum over its administration. Among the response to the move posted at the Forum were these:

“Draining the board of the majority of its content and its value to make it easier to run is simply irrational.

But destroying the board — and make no mistake that is precisely what you have done — to solve that problem is an over-reaction of epic proportions. I am grieving the loss of community I suffered. I am angry that there wasn't any opportunity to prepare. An apology is warranted but I don't expect one.”“This was the WORST insult I have ever suffered on the www!

"THE WORST ever! I absolutely do NOT want to simply continue like nothing has happened! This was an attack-like action – WITHOUT any pre-information – without any chance for everybody to prepare (e.g. gain some contact e-mails of friends)…..and the reason was simply the intention the prevent any discussion about it in advance."

Today the Forum at eRobertparker is a shell of what it once was with a hugely decreased amount of discussion primarily because so many who had actively participated in the forum went away after its privatization and chose not to subscribe.

One very active member, still, of the eRobertparker forum as well as other wine forums on the net describes the upshot of the privatization decision in terms that users of forums would understand:

"At present time many posts will remain on the 1st page for days before moving to page 2, as of today (8/20/2010) discussions that were posted on 8/14/2010 are only on page 2, in previous times they would have been on page 6 or 7 by now.  There far less postings of tasting notes or wine driven conversation in the 'Wine Talk' section.  There is little to no posts in the Social Hall section on a regular basis. Mark Squires and Robert Parker are generating more topics than I ever recall seeing them do so since I’ve been a member since 2004."

For those unfamiliar with the logistics of posting topics on wine forums, all this translates to their being very few new topics posted at eRobertparker forums than prior to the privatization. No forum is of much use if there is little or no discussion. After all, this is what folks primarily go to wine forums on the Internet for: discussion of topics that are their passion.

The on-line wine community is relatively small compared to those who come on line to discuss politics, celebrities, food, technology and any number of other subject matter. But, it is a passionate community. I think it can be said without exaggerating that the shuttering of the eRobertparker/MarkSquire wine forum to non-paying members was a real blow to the on-line community of wine lovers.

So, do wine lovers just stop their gabbing? Hardly. Conversation on the Internet is like water. If flows, as though a gravitational force is pushing it toward the densest community of conversationalists. It doesn't stop.

There are other wine forums on the Internet where wine conversationalists have found a home for robust discussion.

Take WineBerserkers.com, for example. Founded in 2009 by former users of the eRobertParker board who either left in frustration or were actually banned from participating at the forum (that happens!), WineBerserkers is today, by most accounts, the most active wine bulletin board in use. In just the past 85 days, more than 72,000 unique posts have been contributed to the site by users for an average of 855 posts per day. Like all other wine boards, Wine Berserkers generates conversations on any and every topic under the sun.

Wine Berserkers, like most other wine forums on the Internet, benefited greatly from the exodus (banishment?) of users form the eRobertParker forum when it privatized. Wine Berserkers has increased its membership base by 50% in the four months since the eRobertParker Forum privatization and now counts roughly 3600 registered members. What's important to realize, however, about this new influx of registered members at Wine Berserkers is that these new members are more likely to be active members since many of them came to Wine Berserkers as a result of being shut out of the eRobertparker forum.

Of course there are other wine forums on the Internet.

Wine Spectator Forums: Claiming over 15,000 registered users, the Wine Spectator forums are and have been very useful for a long time. However, a quick look at the number of daily posts shows that despite its larger number of registered members, it is not as active as Wine Berserkers.

WineTalk: Another relatively new wine forum, WineTalk also has fewer posts and users than WineBeserker.

West Coast Wine Discussion Group: A granddaddy of wine forums, the West Coast Wine Discussion group was founded in 1996 By Brad Harrington. It remains a place to find astute commentary on wine issues.

Wine Lovers' Discussion Group: Another long time wine discussion forum, the WLDG was founded by Robin Garr. It too remains a venue where wine lovers can find a daily discussion of wine.

eRobertParker: At this point it is difficult to know exactly what kind of usage the eRobertParker board gets. The benefit, of course, is that Robert Parker himself often weighs in and that's not a benefit to sneeze at. Parker remains the most influential wine critic in the world and access to his comments is not to be underestimated.

I've said it before, but I think it deserves saying again: The on-line wine forums are the single best internet-based venue for learning about wine and conversing about wine. They are the location where you will find the most passionate and most deeply involved wine lovers on the Internet. They are places where, if you put in the time you will make friends. Frankly, nothing rivals them for pure, interactive, wine talk.

But they can also be contentious. No question the eRobertParker wine forum made this clear. But that forum was not unique. Every wine forum I've ever participated in has had its moment of ranker and contention. And they always will because there's something about conversing with people form a distance that encourages some to get aggressive and petulant. Still, the upside is great.

I encourage wine lovers that want to talk about their passion to check out WineBerserkers as well as the other on-line wine forums.