http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2012/11/09/portland-business-owner-complains-yelp-skews-reviews Comments On: Portland Business Owner Complains Yelp Skews Reviews by Sarah Mirk en-us Copyright 2013 Portland Mercury. All rights reserved. This RSS file is offered to individuals, Portland Mercury readers, and non-commercial organizations only. Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact Portland Mercury. webmaster@portlandmercury.com (Portland Mercury Webmaster) Sun, 19 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Sun, 19 May 2013 09:45:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Posted by Bar Rat]]> Tue, 20 Nov 2012 07:38:56 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by Sean Paisant]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 17:52:06 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by Dinia Presley Huffman]]> Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:18:32 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by Angela Gulbrandson]]> Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:07:57 -0800 Portland Mercury That said, he needs to get a decent website and a Facebook page. If it's handled right that should push the yelpers farther down the page.
Posted by Jeffrey Smith]]> Wed, 14 Nov 2012 19:13:42 -0800 Portland Mercury
The good thing about Yelp is that the posters/reviewers are actually public. Other review sites, like the Oregonian newspaper. OregonLive allow posts from haters and competitors hiding their identities. Do you want to crush your competition? Create throw away email addresses, and post nasty reviews of your competition. Their only recourse is to find more positive reviews to stack on top of your nasty reviews.
Posted by Unhappy with Oregonian Reviews]]> Wed, 14 Nov 2012 13:41:03 -0800 Portland Mercury
The other thing I have noticed is that some places close to my house never appear in the listings for places near me. I always have to just search by name. I am sure that is related to paid places but that leaves out a lot of great restaurants, bars or other businesses. They should be more forthcoming on how their search results are delivered.
Posted by Emily]]> Wed, 14 Nov 2012 12:26:38 -0800 Portland Mercury
It's an extremely common practice, especially in the restaurant business. If this is news to you, perhaps you need to get out more? Many restaurants leave comment cards on the table with the check...this is simply the modern/Internet version of that.
Posted by Biscuit1001]]> Wed, 14 Nov 2012 12:16:27 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by MartinW]]> Tue, 13 Nov 2012 08:44:44 -0800 Portland Mercury
Have you heard the story of the three men in the lifeboat? They note particular areas in the boat that "belong" to each as they make their way on their journey, each hoping for land and safety.

Each personalizes their area as best they can with seaweed, driftwood, and such using tools in a little kit in the lifeboat.

One day, one of the men begins drilling in the floor of the boat. The other two, obviously alarmed, ask him what in the world he thinks he's doing. He replies that it's his section of the boat and he's making his own modification. Of course, the other two point out that if he drills a hole in his section, the entire boat will sink!

How often have you found yourself in that situation, where somebody else's actions put you at risk?

Obviously, if it's something as clear cut as a hole in the bottom of a boat, we'd probably all speak up, but what about when somebody's callousness, self-centeredness, or just plain obliviousness causes harm that's not quite so clear.

Would you have the courage to speak up in that kind of a situation? I bet you would.

You're come across as the type of person who does not keep his opinions to himself. I think your intelligence and your strong-willed self-reliance are probably your two most prominent personality traits, and there's no doubt that you'd address something that could hurt you or a loved one right away.

Do you ever wonder if you might be the person holding the drill? I know there are plenty of times when I'm focused on something so much that the consequences of my behaviors to other people seem to be lost on me.

Sometimes, it's just a refusal to willing relinquish any rights of my own at all. It can be as simple as me not enjoying a meal as much as I should and complaining to management. I have no idea if I'll be causing someone to lose his job, but I think it's easy for us to put ourselves ahead of everyone else.

What do you do when you catch yourself being the person with the drill? Do you respond by putting it down or do you insist on your rights and flood the boat?

I think how we respond when we know we're wrong probably says more about us than how we respond when somebody else is wrong.

I realize that I'm rambling a bit, and I hope you'll forgive the way I'm going all over the place. But the implications of acting on what we believe to be our rights, while simultaneously hurting other people just kind of hit me when I thought about the story.

I think it's good food for thought for anyone, though, and I hope that the story has a good and life-affirming impact on you as well.
Posted by Apooman]]> Tue, 13 Nov 2012 05:52:48 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by lol]]> Mon, 12 Nov 2012 15:37:59 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by Farrah Smirk]]> Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:31:16 -0800 Portland Mercury Additionally- we have more than 1 negative review from the same person, with different accounts. The kicker? We can't actually find any proof that they're a client, and not just my partners ex. Yelp refuses to move them, even though they have the exact same wording in each of them. Fuck Yelp.
Posted by Ophelia]]> Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:06:10 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by Eli Cabelly]]> Sun, 11 Nov 2012 23:43:06 -0800 Portland Mercury
If you feel that strongly about your point of view, be a man (or woman) and put your name and face next to your words, not some bs moniker and a fake picture. I have little respect, if any, for people like that.

Yelp is losing credibility every day…it’s the MySpace of review websites.
Posted by Eileen c]]> Sun, 11 Nov 2012 22:51:38 -0800 Portland Mercury
You want decent reviews, then make your customers happy.
Posted by Dr Insanos House of Psin]]> Sun, 11 Nov 2012 20:28:47 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by Ian Karmel]]> Sun, 11 Nov 2012 18:34:15 -0800 Portland Mercury
I try to remind otherwise-reasonable people that Yelp somehow seems to have gotten only entirely negative or entirely positive reviews, no so-so reviews, and that suggests that it's not an especially accurate way to judge a business in advance. But of course; in lieu of having a friend / reviewer who you don't find stupid to tell you, what other criteria do you have?
Posted by rich bachelor]]> Sun, 11 Nov 2012 15:06:39 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by Al Herre]]> Sun, 11 Nov 2012 08:46:28 -0800 Portland Mercury
Ad supported papers and websites generally give fawning reviews of eateries. They run ads from those eateries. Expecting Yelp/ Urbanspoon/ Google reviews from ordinary people to be 100% positive is a mistake.
Posted by R]]> Sat, 10 Nov 2012 12:12:39 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by The Showstopper]]> Sat, 10 Nov 2012 10:15:00 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by Mark WU]]> Sat, 10 Nov 2012 09:44:22 -0800 Portland Mercury Posted by Chuck Garabedian]]> Sat, 10 Nov 2012 08:53:16 -0800 Portland Mercury
I noticed a local bar and grill had gotten panned. The damning reviews were all whining about how a particular KJ got treated that one time -- not the food, or the service, or the drinks, but a slighted KJ. I wrote a favorable review for the joint, hoping it'd average in... but no, it got dumped because of the algorithm. I told Yelp they needed to tweak the algorithm. After several months I popped back by the review -- no change.

I'm skeptical about the value of crowd-sourcing reviews anyhow, but Yelp's added B.S. with the "algorithm" makes it a useless site.
Posted by 2StarMobRule]]> Sat, 10 Nov 2012 08:22:13 -0800 Portland Mercury Eileen c
2:59 am on Saturday, November 10, 2012
Jeremy Stoppelman CEO of Yelp.com is a real winner. Well, no, not really. This man runs a company that not only thrives on negative attention, but refuses to respond to legitimate concerns.
I am not sure how he can sleep at night knowing that he is running such a joke of a company.
You can see here that you're one of thousands of people who feel the same way you do:,
http://m.yelp.com/biz/yelp-san-francisco
Posted by Eileen c]]> Sat, 10 Nov 2012 03:03:47 -0800 Portland Mercury