Rate Whisky and Share Your Tasting Notes

In several months of whisky tweeting on Twitter, I got the impression that it would be nice to have a place where whisky lovers could meet and trade samples of their favourite tipples.

After some heavy pondering I figured out that a forum would be the best method of doing so. There are already some German forums with sample swap sections, so why not go international with this idea?

The forum offers you the possibility to list the whiskies you want to share either for swapping or selling (non-profit only!). There is also the option to share whole bottles or even casks, if anybody is willing to jump onto that. There is also a request sub-forum where you can publish what you are looking for. Of course there are also sections for general whisky discussions. But I don’t excpect this forum to become a serious competitor for the catch-all whisky forums that already exist, as the main focus certainly is on sample trading.

Before posting, please take the time to read through the Terms of  Service in the sample and bottle share forums (they are slightly different). They are a bit lengthy, I have to admit, but they are necessary to set a frame in which fair sample trade is possible. Most of it is self-evident anyway.

During the process of integrating the the forum I decided to connect the existing site membership option with the forum. Although quite a few users have put down their star ratings on whiskies on the site, nobody actually had the guts to put up their own drams. Almost all registered users were spammers. So I restricted the membership to the forum where you can post a request, if you wish a specific bottle to be listed.

To join, klick on the forum link in the top navigation bar. You will find a “Register” button there. You will be mailed a random password that you can change after your first login. All your user data is saved encrypted on the site. Nobody, not even the system administrator, can see your password.

When you log into the site, you are taken to the forum section where you first should complete your user profile. Gravatars should autmatically be recognized. The look and feel of the forum might need some getting used to, but this system blends very easily with the blog, this is why I decided to use it.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me, should you experience any difficulties with the forum system. I would also be happy about any comments or suggestions regarding this new feature on Whisky Rating.

And now, let the trades begin!

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