2 Untap r not 2

Okay, I've given in. Late to the game, I've begun posting beer reviews to Untappd.

Untappd is a social networking service that allows its users to check into beers as they drink them, and share these check-ins and their locations with their friends. Untappd also includes functionality that allows users to rate the beer they are consuming, earn badges, share pictures of their beers, and automatically suggest similar beverages. At present, Untappd can share check-ins with Twitter & Facebook accounts of its users, and can pull in locations from a user's foursquare account.
—Wikipedia, accessed 2013.07.06

Untappd exists primarily as a mobile phone application, limited to brief comments, although it does have a web presence as well. I'll be using it as an on-line beer-tasting journal, a 'malty,' virtual memory aid, if you will.

I recently tested the service, by automatically posting a 'checkin-in' to Twitter. That action concerned a 'follower' enough to comment:

Oh no, Untappd check-ins?! :( It's only because I really enjoy following you! Just no tolerance for auto check-in tweets. I like originality :)

Point taken. Not to worry!

I promise that, going forward, you will not find me re-posting —to Twitter, Facebook, or here at the blog— 'check-ins' of what I'm drinking, when I'm drinking, where I'm drinking, and what badges I'm earning (??) for drinking. Banal and presumptuous: who really cares? (Plus, what's up with all those schwa'd vowels? Flickr, Untappd, Tumblr, etc.)

I do maintain other on-line 'companions' to YFGF. These include Flickr (photos), Twitter (140-character posts), and Facebook (If you don't now what that is, well, I won't even try to explain. I'm not clear on it either.). Here, on the blog, the (very) occasional beer review will continue to appear under the heading "Drinking, Again."

As to Google Plus, Pinterist, Instagram, or others of their e-ilk? No, thank you! As this exuberant drinker's tee-shirt expounds: "Beer is life." So, enough of all this. Off to the pub ... to drink socially.

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• Yes, my 'check-in' page states that I've been an Untappd member since December 2010, but, until recently, I was less of user and more of a spectator. And I shouldn't gripe too much. Untappd is easy to use, and it's free. Follow YFGF (or, more precisely, me) on Untappd at: untappd.com/user/Cizauskas.
• There's also the issue of transparency. A brewer who follows my posts on Twitter had this to say: "I am only an @untappd spectator. It's a window when I'm not working. I think, as a pro brewer, I shouldn't rate brews publicly."
• Untappd has been around for a few years now. Google Playstore lists 100,000 to 500,000 downloads, somewhat (!) of an imprecise accounting, but indicating that credit belongs to the developers for creating such a popular virtual 'community.'