"The contribution of Yelp was to combine a model of the '60's television game shows with the Internet, Consumer Reports, fraternity hazing, the former regime of Hosni Mubarak, and a series of Chinese boxes." (2020 HBS Review?).
Yelp has given you a box to review "your things" in. Now it is time to think outside of the box.
Write inside the box, think outside of it.
* * * * *
My review of Yale University was removed on 4/13/12 because it was "not primarily relevant to a consumer experience."
Consumer experience.
Does that mean I needed to have eaten at the Snack Bar?
Be enrolled for at least one semester? Worked there? Be a neighbor of the institution? Walked across the campus twice?
I did visit the campus and apply as an undergraduate but no, I did not try to buy Yale University. Nor did my daddy try to buy my way into it.
I do believe my review is particularly relevant to many consumers, namely, those tens of thousands of applicants each year who are not admitted and bypassed in favor of those with much weaker academic records.
Consumers of the frequently chaotic and sometimes idiotic billion-dollar industry of college admissions.
As I said before, if you can't literally "eat it," smash it with a hammer, or take it out of a shopping bag, Yelp don't want you to review it.
* * * * *
Yelp: the reviewer's paradise for consumer goods and services. But it is so afraid of diversity and the "marketplace of ideas" (yes, hypocrisy and social problems do exist) that it practices censorship.
Yet it more than tolerates four-letter words and profanity.
And possible "improprieties" as well:
"...has found many instances of http://Yelp.com sales people calling restaurants and, for a price, offering to move negative reviews down on the page."
http://techcraver.com/...
http://www.wekidyounot...
* * * * *
"Satiric" and "snarky" are two adjectives frequently used to describe the reviews on Yelp.
Yet my review of The Stranger (4/10/12) was removed because in my review decried the open use of racial slurs by this newspaper. The parody and satire in my review--I modeled myself after the writing style of The Stranger itself--obviously hit a raw nerve in the reflexes of the "Support" Team.
The stern warning I got from them NOT to write additional updates of I think was directly lifted from government censors in the People's Republic of China. O.K., an exaggeration, but we're all Americans, so no big deal, right?
"They keep pulling our site down as fast as we can get it back up running."
* * * * *
Better reams of superficiality, shallowness, and jokes than truth spoken from the heart, brain, and guts, I am assuming.
Guidelines?
"Political or historical references, analogies, metaphors, satirical touches, quotations from cultural luminaries, and words that no one can pronounce are frowned upon. On the other hand, scatological humor, obscenities, cliches, pet stories, profanity, grammatical mistakes, the absence of punctuation, misspelled words, and--above all--political correctness (but no politics!) are entirely welcome."
* * * * *
What is the annual net revenue? How many tens of millions does the CEO make? How many employees does it have? Is it publicly traded? How does Yelp make money (and stay in business)? What is the actual power structure? Who is using whom?
I am assuming Yelp's support team will soon inform me that they had to remove this review because "it lacks a primary first-hand consumer experience." Did I need to visit their main office in S.F. and/or talk with a Yelp staff person by phone or email (an impossibility)? If this is the case, I am assuming Yelp should remove another 3,000 reviews.
This IS all and nothing else but my "first-hand consumer experience of Yelp."
* * * * *
Where is the non-Yelp? (Google are you listening?).
Yelp has given you a box to review "your things" in. Now it is time to think outside of the box.
Write inside the box, think outside of it.
* * * * *
My review of Yale University was removed on 4/13/12 because it was "not primarily relevant to a consumer experience."
Consumer experience.
Does that mean I needed to have eaten at the Snack Bar?
Be enrolled for at least one semester? Worked there? Be a neighbor of the institution? Walked across the campus twice?
I did visit the campus and apply as an undergraduate but no, I did not try to buy Yale University. Nor did my daddy try to buy my way into it.
I do believe my review is particularly relevant to many consumers, namely, those tens of thousands of applicants each year who are not admitted and bypassed in favor of those with much weaker academic records.
Consumers of the frequently chaotic and sometimes idiotic billion-dollar industry of college admissions.
As I said before, if you can't literally "eat it," smash it with a hammer, or take it out of a shopping bag, Yelp don't want you to review it.
* * * * *
Yelp: the reviewer's paradise for consumer goods and services. But it is so afraid of diversity and the "marketplace of ideas" (yes, hypocrisy and social problems do exist) that it practices censorship.
Yet it more than tolerates four-letter words and profanity.
And possible "improprieties" as well:
"...has found many instances of http://Yelp.com sales people calling restaurants and, for a price, offering to move negative reviews down on the page."
http://techcraver.com/...
http://www.wekidyounot...
* * * * *
"Satiric" and "snarky" are two adjectives frequently used to describe the reviews on Yelp.
Yet my review of The Stranger (4/10/12) was removed because in my review decried the open use of racial slurs by this newspaper. The parody and satire in my review--I modeled myself after the writing style of The Stranger itself--obviously hit a raw nerve in the reflexes of the "Support" Team.
The stern warning I got from them NOT to write additional updates of I think was directly lifted from government censors in the People's Republic of China. O.K., an exaggeration, but we're all Americans, so no big deal, right?
"They keep pulling our site down as fast as we can get it back up running."
* * * * *
Better reams of superficiality, shallowness, and jokes than truth spoken from the heart, brain, and guts, I am assuming.
Guidelines?
"Political or historical references, analogies, metaphors, satirical touches, quotations from cultural luminaries, and words that no one can pronounce are frowned upon. On the other hand, scatological humor, obscenities, cliches, pet stories, profanity, grammatical mistakes, the absence of punctuation, misspelled words, and--above all--political correctness (but no politics!) are entirely welcome."
* * * * *
What is the annual net revenue? How many tens of millions does the CEO make? How many employees does it have? Is it publicly traded? How does Yelp make money (and stay in business)? What is the actual power structure? Who is using whom?
I am assuming Yelp's support team will soon inform me that they had to remove this review because "it lacks a primary first-hand consumer experience." Did I need to visit their main office in S.F. and/or talk with a Yelp staff person by phone or email (an impossibility)? If this is the case, I am assuming Yelp should remove another 3,000 reviews.
This IS all and nothing else but my "first-hand consumer experience of Yelp."
* * * * *
Where is the non-Yelp? (Google are you listening?).
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