Yelp Angers Its Merchants By Deleting Their User Accounts
from the yelp-me-rhonda dept
Review site Yelp caused quite a ruckus this week when they deleted a bunch of user accounts that they deemed to be gaming the system. Many of the users whose accounts were deleted were business owners -- Yelp accused them of trading positive reviews with other business owners, quid pro quo. Yelp has had a tumultuous relationship with its merchants in the past because of negative reviews from Yelpers; some merchants had even tried to ban Yelpers from even visiting their establishments. This tension is unfortunate, since Yelp makes its money from selling these very merchants their services. That said, hopefully Yelp has not overlooked the larger problem that still exists on their site: an overwhelming number of reviews per establishment without any good tools for filtering or determining trust. Furthermore, Yelp has become quite a target for "Foodies," who complain that the reviews from users are pedestrian and inconsistent; Eater has an entire column devoted to the "shortcomings and nuances of the Yelp empire." Despite all of the negative attention that Yelp has been getting, the most important factor is whether or not it continues to grow as a useful resource for users. Yelp just recently surpassed Citysearch in number of users in March of this year, so perhaps they are on the right path.
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If there is too much 'spam' of review type sites - like other things, their value will drop to nil, because they are no longer unbiased - not that they are unbiased now...
But some seem credible.
Seems like things are cool on the web until the mass of 'dumb users'/spammers manage to find it, heh
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I was told by a coffee shop owner that I should be shot in the face and that if he sees me in his store he'd break my nose.
My review wasn't as bad as the coffee that I had there that I reviewed. After his whining and threatening, I went back. Apparently I went there on a bad day and the coffee the first time was completely undrinkable. Much better the 2nd time and I know that he's venting on me for his failing shop. But still. Maybe I should post his yelp mails to me as a new review.
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Re: coffee shop owner
Yeah, post his messages, and maybe file a police report for assault. He can tell you to leave his store, but he cannot threaten you, especially because you said something that he did not like.
Any honorable merchant, especially in food service, would ask you what he could do to improve.
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Yelp
Interesting information about Yelp. I do not use the Web site very often but have been reading about it quite a bit recently.
I wrote a blog posting about Yelp and their supposed "strong arming" of businesses earlier this week.
http://kreuzer33.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/yelp-in-trouble/
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Yelp Executives: Confused , Panicked & Immature
Here's another blog with quotes from Nish Nadaraja and Stephanie Ichinose , both executives of Yelp. Makes you wonder what the hell is going over at Yelp. Is anyone in charge over there?
http://phillips.blogs.com/goc/2008/07/the-yelp-mess.html
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Yelp Elite Party ...Total IQ of all in building = 97
Here's a site with pictures from a recent Yelp Elite party.
This is an event where Yelp wastes $100,000 of their investors money rewarding those unemployed and uneducated Yelpers who have enough time to write 500 or more reviews.
Check out the obscene picture on the bottom right . Two slobbering Yelp Elite ( one is breastfeeding another , and stupid enough to allow a picture to be taken).
Yes indeed, these ARE the Yelp Elite.
Nish Nadaraja and Stephanie Ichinose are also in attendance.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Yelp Elite Party ...Total IQ of all in building = 97
Here's a site with pictures from a recent Yelp Elite party.
This is an event where Yelp wastes $100,000 of their investors money rewarding those unemployed and uneducated Yelpers who have enough time to write 500 or more reviews.
Check out the obscene picture on the bottom right . Two slobbering Yelp Elite ( one is breastfeeding another , and stupid enough to allow a picture to be taken).
Yes indeed, these ARE the Yelp Elite.
Nish Nadaraja and Stephanie Ichinose are also in attendance.
http://valleywag.com/photogallery/yelpeliteatmighty/
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Yelp Elite Party ...Total IQ of all in building = 97
Here's a site with pictures from a recent Yelp Elite party.
This is an event where Yelp wastes $100,000 of their investors money rewarding those unemployed and uneducated Yelpers who have enough time to write 500 or more reviews.
Check out the obscene picture on the bottom right . Two slobbering Yelp Elite ( one is breastfeeding another , and stupid enough to allow a picture to be taken).
Yes indeed, these ARE the Yelp Elite.
Nish Nadaraja and Stephanie Ichinose are also in attendance.
http://valleywag.com/photogallery/yelpeliteatmighty/
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yelp is pissing a lot of people off
As you can see, yelp is pissing off a lot of people. Hate breeds hate. The hateful reviews on yelp are propagating more hate against yelp. Yelp is finally getting a dose of it's medicine.
If I were running yelp, I would do the following:
1. Restore all positive reviews.
2. Reinstate banned members.
3. Issue a public appology.
4. Remove reviews that are inflammatory, personal in nature, or legal disputes. Yelp should focus on reviews and not as a means for people to attack legitimate businesses. Also, they should remove disputed accounts.
Perhaps by following these steps yelp can gain a little credibility.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
yelp is pissing a lot of people off
As you can see, yelp is pissing off a lot of people. Hate breeds hate. The hateful reviews on yelp are propagating more hate against yelp. Yelp is finally getting a dose of it's medicine.
If I were running yelp, I would do the following:
1. Restore all positive reviews.
2. Reinstate banned members.
3. Issue a public appology.
4. Remove reviews that are inflammatory, personal in nature, or legal disputes. Yelp should focus on reviews and not as a means for people to attack legitimate businesses. Also, they should remove disputed accounts.
Perhaps by following these steps yelp can gain a little credibility.
(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
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