An aggregation of beer drinking posted to @beerspotr via Twitter.

How to post spots to BeerSpotr

1. If you want to join in you'll first need an account on Twitter.

2. Once you have an account you can post a message to @beerspotr with the format:

   @beerspotr pint:x

   if you've spotted a pint or:

   @beerspotr bottle:x

   if you've spotted a bottle. In both cases x is the name of beer and should contain no spaces. So pint:londonpride not pint:london pride. BeerSpotr will pick up any tweet that mentions @beerspotr so:

   drinking a pint:x (@beerspotr)

   will work equally well. This is the minimum information you need to supply for your spot to show up in BeerSpotr. Everything else is purely optional...

1. If you want to rate the beer just add anything up to five *s on the end of the beer name. e.g.

   @beerspotr pint:darkhare****

2. If for some reason you want to make a note of the strength of the beer you can post a message with the format:

   @beerspotr bottle:x y%

   where y is the ABV of the beer.

3. If you know the brewery that makes the beer you can post a message with the format:

   @beerspotr pint:x brewery:y

   where y is the brewery name. Again no spaces please.

4. If you're drinking in a pub and can remember the name of the pub you can post a message with the format:

   @beerspotr bottle:x pub:y

   where y is the name of the pub. And again no spaces please.

5. If you want to rate the pub just add anything up to five *s on the end of the pub name. e.g.

   @beerspotr pint:darkhare**** pub:farmersarms*****

6. If you know the district part of the postal code (e.g. KT13, W12, OL2) of the pub you can post a message with the format:

   @beerspotr pint:darkhare**** pub:farmersarms***** pc:kt13

   This will help BeerSpotr to disambiguate different pubs with the same name.

7. If you want to tag your spot just use the usual Twitter hashtag style. e.g.

   @beerspotr bottle:tea**** 4.2% brewery:hogsback #hoppy

   You can add as many tags as you like:

   @beerspotr bottle:tea**** 4.2% brewery:hogsback #hoppy #smooth

   If the beer is accredited by CAMRA as a real ale you might want to use #camra. e.g.

   @beerspotr bottle:tea**** 4.2% brewery:hogsback #hoppy #smooth #camra

8. If you have a photo of your spot you can upload it using TwitPic, yfrog, twitgoo or img.ly and the picture will show up in BeerSpotr. BeerSpotr will also pick up Flickr images so long as they're linked to with a Flickr short URL.

   In order to show up in BeerSpotr the link to the photo must be the first link in your tweet.

9. If you're tweeting from a mobile device and that device is geo enabled, turning on 'Geo tag my tweets' from the Twitter settings page will add geo tags to your tweet allowing your spots to be shown on the BeerSpotr maps.

   NOTE: Please be aware of your privacy and only turn on geo tagging when you're down the pub. If you're drinking at home and don't want the world to know where you live please turn it off. If you're in a pub and you'd prefer to keep quiet about it please don't geo tag - or better still just turn your phone off.

10. By default all the spots (and accompanying photographs) you add to BeerSpotr are copyright to you. You can choose to retain copyright but licence them for reuse by other people using any one of the 6 Creative Commons licences available. To update your licence post a message with the format:

    @beerspotr licence:{licence code}

    The notes on licencing have a full list of available licences and their codes.

    Alternatively you can choose to give up any copyright claim over your spots and make your spot data and accompanying photographs public domain. Just post a message with the format:

    @beerspotr licence:cc-0

    Again the notes on licencing have an explanation of Creative Commons 0.

    Please note that updating your licence only updates the licence of your future spots. Once a spot has been made it's not possible to change its licence.

11. If you get stuck at any point you can post a message with the format:

    @beerspotr help

12. Please follow @beerspotr for service updates / downtime etc.

Happy spotting.