Yelp.com TROLL HAVEN!

[capt_noonie]

I have been having gripes about using yelp for a while now. Firstly bc I found out that you can BUY your standing in the search results, and that the filters they use to filter out "fake" reviews does not work. In addition to all the people who think they are food writers, writing these pages long reviews about how they even came to find out about the business/restaurant before they even start discussing the food. Oh yeah, and most of the highly rated places are crap.

Now I have been receiving messages from people who are clearly TROLLS! (I only leave very good reviews or very bad reviews. There's no point in leaving a review of a place that was just ok.) So now I have gotten messages from people who don't seem like they are affiliated with the company sending me rude and snarky messages about my reviews. Why are you taking the time to argue with a complete stranger about a subject that is totally subjective! Have you got too much time on your hands? This is what one person sent me after I left a 2 star review for the Lime Truck (the boys that won the food truck competition on Food Network):

"Then go to a sit down restraunt. The point of food trucks is to eat outside, FROM A TRUCK, not in a building w chairs and walls and a ceiling"

I responded, "Thanks for confirming my point. If I want to pay $10 for a two bite appetizer, I would just go to an actual sit down restaurant where I can be comfortable and get better food. You must have a lot of time on your hands to message a complete stranger about a business that you don't have any affiliation with."

He came back with:
"You're the a**hole w too much time on your hands. All you yelpers are big mouth punks."

Why is he on yelp then? No reviews. Nothing to add to the community. Just a TROLL.

[jencar98]

You just have to laugh at some people and what they'll waste their time doing.

[yorkietalkjilly]

Wow! Sounds like those people don't have near enough to do!

[Britster]

I get sooo confused by yelp.

My moms salon had a few bad reviews from groupon ppl, who were a big pain in the butt lol.

Well we also have some very nice reveiws and you cannot see any of them - they are all filtered and all you see is one bad review and 1 star.

i am completely confused by it.

[DvlshAngel985]

Originally Posted by Britster

I get sooo confused by yelp.

My moms salon had a few bad reviews from groupon ppl, who were a big pain in the butt lol.

Well we also have some very nice reveiws and you cannot see any of them - they are all filtered and all you see is one bad review and 1 star.

i am completely confused by it.

How does that even work? I mean yelp. Aren't you suppose to see what peoples honest opinions are and go forward based on honest reviews?

[Carmeow]

I think the website Angie's list claims a company cannot buy their good standing.

I hate trolls Never feed them!!

[backwardsrain]

The yelp filter absolutely doesn't work. Every single review I wrote got filtered so I stopped writing reviews! I know several businesses where all the reviews that looked legit got filtered, and the only reviews kept looked like they came from paranoid people with a grudge or people who appeared to be working for the company and writing an obviously fake review. It's too bad because otherwise I really liked that site and found it useful.

[capt_noonie]

Originally Posted by backwardsrain

The yelp filter absolutely doesn't work. Every single review I wrote got filtered so I stopped writing reviews! I know several businesses where all the reviews that looked legit got filtered, and the only reviews kept looked like they came from paranoid people with a grudge or people who appeared to be working for the company and writing an obviously fake review. It's too bad because otherwise I really liked that site and found it useful.

Exactly! I read some of our business' filtered reviews and I remembered almost each person, but bc they only had a handful of reviews they were deemed "suspicious" and were filtered.

The dumb thing is, people can still read the filtered reviews. So I can load the filtered ones and read them, and then still come to my own conclusion if I want to try out that business or not. Why don't they just leave all the reviews then?

I have to admit, I still do use yelp a lot to find new restaurants, but I don't trust the info other than hours of operation! I sometimes use chowhound, but find those people utterly pretentious!

[capt_noonie]

Originally Posted by DvlshAngel985

How does that even work? I mean yelp. Aren't you suppose to see what peoples honest opinions are and go forward based on honest reviews?

That's how it's supposed to work, but then trolls came and ruined everything.

The thing is, with yelp, reviewing a business is so subjective, and everyone's opinion is different. You have to find a yelper that has similar tastes to you and follow them. Hopefully they eat out a lot. I have found one person like that. I know myself, and I usually don't like what the majority people like, in many aspects. So if a place has a lot of good reviews, I'm still weary to believe them.

I just ate at this BBQ place for lunch. Highly rated and they were packed already at 11am. Brisket was dry, bread seemed stale, sauce was meh. $20 for two sandwiches. But I won't rate them, bc I think they were a 3 out of 5. I don't rate 3 stars, what's the point?

[capt_noonie]

Originally Posted by Carmeow

I think the website Angie's list claims a company cannot buy their good standing.

I hate trolls Never feed them!!

That's what yelp claims too, but it's not true.

[LunasMomma]

Trolls ruin everything! Angie's list you have to pay for a membership to even read there.

[Bluemoon]

Originally Posted by Carmeow

I think the website Angie's list claims a company cannot buy their good standing.

I hate trolls Never feed them!!

Although they don't pay to get in, once you are in, order to be preferred so to speak you can pay Angie to advertise you. That's how you get noticed the more you pay the more you get in the searches so it's the same thing. Except that the consumer pays to get the info which is the same info at the BBB and it's free. Angies commercials talk a good game but why would I pay for something I can get free anyways? And lets be honest, not everyone is impartial or sane lol.