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  • #1

    Shenanigans at Yelp

    A little bit CheckItOut, a little bit PFB...

    http://ifyoucantaffordtotip.com/boycott-yelp/

    further info here -- http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimhandy...d-think-again/
    Last edited by EricKei; 05-03-2013, 01:41 PM.
    "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
    "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
    "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
    "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
    "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
    "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
    Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
    "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me
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  • #2
    I'm not surprised. IIRC there was another review agency that was supposedly charging companies to remove negative reviews.

    and yet another that was caught giving positive reviews... to a company that didn't even exist. from what the news article said, the deciding factor was that someone purchased a membership for the fake company.

    Comment

    • #3
      I'd like to see an official statement from Yelp on this. They have always said that their review filtering system is a sort of automatic thing that works on statistics. (Aside from cases where an individual review is flagged as an obvious plant.)

      Comment

      • #4
        there's also an article on the huff post about it too
        http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1885576.html

        not sure if ti's the same people who had the sign in the original photo though

        Comment

        • #5
          While I can certainly understand a site like Yelp legitimately screening out plants/fake positive reviews, the claims being made against them make it sound like they're taking things WAY too far and simply being exploitative about it -- especially given that they don't go out of their way to filter bad reviews (apparently); this is the internet, where a negative review is just as likely to be fake/a trolling attempt.
          "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
          "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
          "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
          "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
          "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
          "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
          Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
          "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

          Comment

          • #6
            I've done reviews on Yelp and gone back to discover them filtered. I've also discovered reviews that have conveniently "disappeared" which Yelp claims to be a system glitch through several emails with their admin.

            I'm guessing they think I'm a plant or something. I don't know. I just know there are places we avoid because of terrible service and places that we like because the food is good. So I'm a little on the fence with this allegation. If they are in fact deleting honest reviews, then it makes them look bad.
            Random conversation:
            Me: Okay..so I think I get why Zoro wears a bandana
            DDD: Cuz it's cool
            So, by using the Doctor's reasoning, bow ties, fezzes and bandanas are cool.

            Comment

            • #7
              I honestly can't say which side I believe...but I've been a long time Yelp poster along with a friend of mine. Between the two of us, we easily have about 400 reviews posted across about 30 states, ranging from 1-5 stars for various reasons, and I've yet to ever see one of them get filtered. Hell, I have some 5-star reviews up on restaurants that have closed down that are still up there, so I'm not sure why they would be removing them. It could be that I found myself in some sort of "green zone" where I just don't get flagged any more from the sheer number of reviews I've left.

              The only restaurants around here that I've noticed a lot of filtering on are the Chinese restaurants though...mainly because all of them have admitted to me that they make new accounts weekly to try and submit 1 star reviews for all their competitors with. They all get filtered out every time...

              Edit: As an experiment, I put in a new review about a place I like that seems to get filtered a lot We'll see if it keeps.
              Last edited by KhirasHY; 05-06-2013, 05:42 AM.
              "That's too bad. Hospitals aren't fun to fight through."
              "What IS fun to fight through?"
              "Gardens. Electronics shops. Antique stores, but only if they're classy."

              Comment

              • #8
                Some of the commenters claim that they tend to focus on brand new users (which I can understand), especially if they've never posted a negative review
                "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

                Comment

                • #9
                  Quoth EricKei View Post
                  Some of the commenters claim that they tend to focus on brand new users (which I can understand), especially if they've never posted a negative review
                  Yeah, if it's that I'd say it's more likely that they're getting autofiltered in case they're a fake profile, especially if the review of on a website that has had a lot of obviously fake feedback listed. Still, it's worth figuring out if my review gets filtered just on the basis of how many fake reviews get removed from the restaurant I've chosen
                  "That's too bad. Hospitals aren't fun to fight through."
                  "What IS fun to fight through?"
                  "Gardens. Electronics shops. Antique stores, but only if they're classy."

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Quoth KhirasHY View Post
                    Yeah, if it's that I'd say it's more likely that they're getting autofiltered in case they're a fake profile, especially if the review of on a website that has had a lot of obviously fake feedback listed. Still, it's worth figuring out if my review gets filtered just on the basis of how many fake reviews get removed from the restaurant I've chosen
                    But taken to its "logical" conclusion, manually reviewing feedback to see if it's obviously fake takes resources. Therefore, it's simpler for Yelp to assume that anything they filter is fake. Therefore, if a new user's first post is about someone who's got a lot of filtered (and assumed to be fake until proven otherwise, but won't be investigated because that takes resources) reviews, that user is assumed to be a fake profile until proven otherwise (but no investigation, that will take resources) and all their posts will be filtered, making it more likely for the NEXT new user to be assumed to be a fake. Lather, rinse, repeat.
                    Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

                    Comment

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