#BlindDrams Tasting Room Live Feed

Since the move to BlueSky we've been trying to use deck.blue to follow our #BlindDrams Tastings and whilst it worked fairly well at first it has recently started playing up...

Peter van Jaarsveldt has come up with a useful little app which works a lot better - our very own Tasting Room!

Some simple steps allow you to set it up. It's better on a computer or tablet with a large screen but will work on a phone.

In your browser go to BlueSky and select Settings, Privacy and Security then App Passwords.

You'll see something like this:

Click on the "+ Add App Password" button

Enter a unique name for the App such as "BlindDrams" and press "Next >"

This will generate an App Password for you:

Press the Copy icon and then the Done button.

Go to BlindDrams.com and paste in the new App Password and your BlueSky UserID (without the leading @) then press Sign In:

You'll then be logged into the group feed! You shouldn't have to repeat the steps above again.

The right hand side of the screen continually refreshes the feed for the #BlindDrams hashtag so you can keep up with what everyone else is saying.

If you want to reply to anyone click the "Open" text at the bottom right of the post to open the post in BlueSky and reply there.

The left hand side of the screen allows you to post your tasting notes for the drams or post a Free Post.

Select the dram we are on (1-5) enter your text in the Nose, Palate, Finish boxes or select a star rating (0-5 no decimals!) in the Score Box.

You can post each individually (the preferred method) by clicking on the Post label in the top right hand corner of each box or post them altogether using the blue box at the bottom of the screen.

The picture below shows how I've added my thoughts on 'Appearance' for Dram 1 and posted it - you can then see the entry in the main feed on the right!

You can add images or GIFs using the buttons below the box.

It can take 5-10 seconds for the post to appear - be patient!

As you can see the App automatically adds the dram number, thought stage and hashtag for you!

You can open and close each stage box by clicking the small arrow on the left.

Once you've posted all your thoughts and score for Dram 1, make sure you move on to Dram 2

Don't manually refresh your webpage or you'll lose everything you've typed in.

This is a prototype and we'll take any thoughts for improvements!

Huge thanks to Pete for coming up with the idea!

The App works best at 1/3 or 1/2 your screen width allowing the other space for the Zoom call.