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SilkTork here. Interesting to read people’s RB stories, and then speculate what they’ll do next.

I wasn’t the first Brit on RateBeer, but I was one of the first, and I was certainly the first active Brit, the first British admin, and the user who got stuck in and organised the fucking mess that was supposed to be the British beer breweries listings. I was the British point of contact. If anyone was coming to the UK, I would meet them and show them some pubs, buy them some beers, give them a meal, and put them up at my house. They were exciting days. And daft days too, because I put in a shit load of hours on the site. And pushed Oakes and Joe (User_Experience back then) to organise things differently. Some of my pushing, I know, antagonised them both, but we ended up with a better site. I insisted that if a “review” was to be public facing that it had to have words. And a minimum number of words. That pushed some people away, but it did mean that it attracted a hard core of users who were genuinely interested in beer, not just ticking. And this hard core had stuff in common that meant when we did meet up, we all got on immediately. We shared interests and quirks.
It’s kinda known that RateBeer’s UK and European community are the strongest part of RateBeer (American raters seemed to prefer BA), and back in the day people seemed to feel I was a significant part of making that so. As it was happening, because I was so obsessed with the site, I wasn’t really aware of the impact I was having, and was always a little bemused when a RateBeerian met me for the first time, and got excited and shook my hand. But, with the benefit of time and distance, I can understand the hand shakes now. And, yes, I do feel proud of the part I played back then.
Things wound down for me a few years back. First I had a child - which limited social activity. Then we moved away from Kent to Southampton, and there isn’t a RateBeer community here in this part of the country (not that I’ve found anyway). Then the original, integrated RB forum closed, and this forum opened with a different set up. As RB friends were already communicating on FaceBook and in real life, there wasn’t - for me - much incentive to get into the new forum.
I continued to use the database. I like getting a beer in a pub, opening RateBeer, and finding out when and where I previously rated the beer, and who I was with, and what I thought of it. I value that information. And I shall miss that. But I have decided to stop rating beers. For much the same reasons as have already been mentioned in this thread. And possibly for the same reasons that Simon Johnson (Reluctant Scooper) often talked about. It’s actually more relaxing to just have a beer than to chase after the scoop. I have found more and more that I’m actually quite happy with a handful of beers I like, and I’m more and more reluctant to buy beers just to scoop them.
So, in the end, I’m not sad or sorry that RB is closing. I enjoyed the early days. Had a brilliant time with some great people. Met folks from all over the world. Made some firm friends. But that part of my life is over. And I really, genuinely, do not care what happens to my ratings. When the site closes after Feb, and my ratings are no longer accessible, I’ll not miss them, so I’m making no effort to save them. I have other things I’m collecting and learning about, and I have a number of blogs which keep me occupied and entertained.