BYO Digital subscription? Where be all the articles n' stuff??

[Javaslinger]

Has anyone signed up for the Brew Your Own digital subscription? Supposed to have access to all the articles from past issues, but damned if I can find them.

 

[nealjp]

Not much help I'm afraid. They have just revamped their backend, and made it almost unusable. You used to have an actual digital magazine that you could flip through like pages in a normal magazine. Now it's just a massive link dump of articles, recipes, etc.

1. Click on your account/username in top right hand corner.
2. Under the big bold My Memberships, click on the linked text under the Plan.
3. And then you will see how unusable the content is.

I'm just about to send an email to them.

The support page provides explanation:
Starting with the January-February 2018 issue of Brew Your Own we’ve upgraded the experience and turned it into the new Brew Your Own Digital Membership. Instead of just providing a replica, now every piece of content from a given issue is broken out into its own page as separate article, recipes, and projects. This allows you a better reading experience across all platforms with responsive design and fully searchable content.

It's a terrible user experience and the search is like AOL in 2000...useless. The results aren't date stamped so you don't know which issue, year, or month its from.

 

[brandonlovesbeer]

You don’t get past issues. You get digital copies of the magazines that are released from initial purchase date up to the current issue.
However. Buyer beware. If you ever cancel your subscription, you loose every digital issue you acquired throughout the years.
The digital issues can only be read through the app or if you are logged in to your account online.
It’s a bit of a racket.
I’d stick to the paper subscription.

 

[nealjp]

Good point. I'm not in the US so the postage wasn't worth it.

The December issue is the last digital version:
"Starting with the January-February 2018 issue of Brew Your Own we’ve upgraded the experience and turned it into the new Brew Your Own Digital Membership. Instead of just providing a replica, now every piece of content from a given issue is broken out into its own page as separate article, recipes, and projects."

 

[Smellyglove]

This is OT. But I would rather recommend a membership in AHA. then you get Zymurgy (digi, paper, or both), and you can read the entire back-catalog in digital, and you also get access to seminars captured on tape.

 

[Javaslinger]

This is OT. But I would rather recommend a membership in AHA. then you get Zymurgy (digi, paper, or both), and you can read the entire back-catalog in digital, and you also get access to seminars captured on tape.

I've got that too. Mostly interested in perusing back issues.

 

[Javaslinger]

You don’t get past issues. You get digital copies of the magazines that are released from initial purchase date up to the current issue.
However. Buyer beware. If you ever cancel your subscription, you loose every digital issue you acquired throughout the years.
The digital issues can only be read through the app or if you are logged in to your account online.
It’s a bit of a racket.
I’d stick to the paper subscription.

So there's an app... Maybe that's how I can find everything. On the web I can't find any of this bounty of articles.

 

[DurtyChemist]

I received an email telling me I was switched. My membership expires in March so without the print issue going to a family member I’ll probably cancel. Since the app doesn’t ever just remember my login details I will either have to make it simple for family to read or just go with AHA and send print issues to people who enjoy storing them.

 

[Morrey]

This is OT. But I would rather recommend a membership in AHA. then you get Zymurgy (digi, paper, or both), and you can read the entire back-catalog in digital, and you also get access to seminars captured on tape.

I have a subscription to BYO magazine.....just the print product w/o any digital access. I tend to like the feel of slick, glossy paper and the old school idea that print still serves a purpose.

I had a LHBS owner suggest membership in the AHA which includes Zymurgy magazine. I don't really know what benefits AHA membership offers to me personally, but the magazine is likely the reason I'd join. Is the magazine well designed and equal in editorial quality to BYO?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I have a subscription to BYO magazine.....just the print product w/o any digital access. I tend to like the feel of slick, glossy paper and the old school idea that print still serves a purpose.

I had a LHBS owner suggest membership in the AHA which includes Zymurgy magazine. I don't really know what benefits AHA membership offers to me personally, but the magazine is likely the reason I'd join. Is the magazine well designed and equal in editorial quality to BYO?

I currently subscribe to paper BYO and digital Zymurgy. I'm happy with the design and quality of both magazines. The Zymurgy digital archives go back to around 2000. AHA conference seminars from previous years are available; the more recent year(s) come in video format. If I had to choose one, I'd keep Zymurgy. Here's a link to the list of AHA membership benefits: https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/membership/membership-benefits/ .

 

[dionito]

I consider this change to be a rip-off. I have paid for both the physical and digital copies of the magazine and they are "stealing" access to the digital copies from me. Not happy at all.

 

[bjanu]

I really enjoyed reading the digital version of BYO. Not any more. It is terrible and takes away the whole “magazine” experience. I’ll have to go back to print or give BYO up for good. I wonder if they are going to do the same thing to Winemaker.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I really enjoyed reading the digital version of BYO. Not any more. It is terrible and takes away the whole “magazine” experience. I’ll have to go back to print or give BYO up for good. I wonder if they are going to do the same thing to Winemaker.

It was the quality of the printed magazine that lead me to take a chance on a new web site (at a discounted price).

After about a month of trying to get something useful out of the new site, I have temporarily given up on the site (and I cancelled my renewal in case I don't get back to the site).

At the moment, in my opinion, they launched a "minimum viable product" (their perspective) which is not useful to me in it's current state.

In fairness to BYO, the next update to the web site may make the site useful to me. My subscription is good for about a year, so I'll be back from time to time to see what's been fixed.

 

[mrwizard0]

Is there anybody that likes the new format? I absolutely hate it. It’s very unusable and doesn’t provide an easy offline experience. I am currently out of the country for the year and have sporadic internet access so I liked having the replica magazine that I could download to my iPad. Without it, I get no use from the digital stuff. Instead I have to wait until my wife sends out my print version, which is just another thing to carry around. I already sent them an email saying how poor it was and that I was cancelling my digital membership. The reply said that lots of people liked this format better because it’s better for phone and tablet users, maybe for phone but I don’t see it for a tablet.

 

[Pjdes42]

I have been a consumer of BYO paper version for many years and the digital version since about 8 months after it came out. Simply put, I have no clue on what the hell they are doing. They’re new web-based version has essentially **** the bed IMHO. Maybe I’m a Luddite by enjoying the look and feel of a of the digital version being the same layout of the paper version, but so be it. They have turned it into an unusable mess.

As for the “added” content that the digital subscribers now get, they have essentially taken much of the old free content and put it behind a firewall that only subscribers can access. What’s funnier is that they they haven’t updated a thing, except for taking the date that the article originally was featured. Today I read an email form them and in one of their “projects” was building a spunding valve. A project that was featured years ago and seems not to be that relevant as the part numbers that they list cannot be found.

I have already wrote an email with respect to their changes to the digital version and received what amounts to a BS answer.....so, this guy will definitely not be renewing his digital version this year, and I will have to strongly think about wether or not I should bother with the print version. If they won’t listen to my email, maybe they will listen to mine, and other people’s silence.

 

[Want2BS8ed]

I'm getting stonewalled on canceling the balance of my digital "subscription." Not certain who made the decision to eliminate the electronic version of the magazine, but as Pappy used to say, they're about dumb as a post. I typically read magazines while on transcontinental flights and downloading individual articles before boarding as Brad Ring with BYO suggested is NOT going to work.

The iPad app is no longer recognizing previously purchased/downloaded issues either. Every... single... issue... I have purchased back to May/June of 2012.

Not particularly happy at the moment.

M

 

[DonGavlar]

I'm a new subscriber to BYO. Last year I was simply buying individual digital copies on my Ipad, once purchased on the app I could then flick through the magazines like a normal magazine.

I enjoyed them so at the start of this month I signed up for the digital subscription to save me buying them individually. Once subscribed I found out they no longer offer these digital copies and apparently the site just contains the individual articles? So far I'm clueless to where all these passed articles are? It appears I have to search for them but how can I search for an article I don't know exists? To me google search is providing me better write ups than BYO. I can't really subscribe to the paper version as I live in the UK. Unless something changes I'll be cancelling my subscription and just getting a sub with HBA and zymurgy. At the moment it seems like I'm not getting anymore benefits than when I used to browse their site without a subscription?

Very confused.

 

[Pjdes42]

I'm getting stonewalled on canceling the balance of my digital "subscription." Not certain who made the decision to eliminate the electronic version of the magazine, but as Pappy used to say, they're about dumb as a post. I typically read magazines while on transcontinental flights and downloading individual articles before boarding as Brad Ring with BYO suggested is NOT going to work.

The iPad app is no longer recognizing previously purchased/downloaded issues either. Every... single... issue... I have purchased back to May/June of 2012.

Not particularly happy at the moment.

M

Want2BS8ed - Although I did not strictly ask for a refund I asked what people that paid for the App-based version of BYO were going to be compensated with and have not heard anything from them. I am equally worried that I will lose e-versions of the e-versions that I have received through subscription or bought over the years. So far, the iOS App is still working for the time being and my iPad just went through an update.

ALL - Does anyone know of a way to extract these as pdf or other format??

I am also thinking about what to go with for a magazine subscription .....Zymurgy or Craft Beer and Brewing....still looking at options. For those that have either or both of these, what are the e-versions like? Are they like the old BYO magazine format, or are they web-based like BYO have moved to?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I am also thinking about what to go with for a magazine subscription .....Zymurgy or Craft Beer and Brewing....still looking at options. For those that have either or both of these, what are the e-versions like? Are they like the old BYO magazine format, or are they web-based like BYO have moved to?

I don't know what the "old [digital] BYO magazine format" looked like. The digital version (iPad) version of Zymurgy definitely has a magazine look and feel. Complete back issues, including advertisements (yes, the back issues in digital format are that complete), back to 2000 are searchable.

I'm likely to renew AHA membership for a variety of reasons (including the magazine).

My BYO digital subscriptions currently runs for another 10 months (I cancelled the renewal) -- I will need to see a return of the full magazine archive and a much better web site before I consider renewing.