What I do not understand is why nobody copied yelp with an ethical business model yet.
In Denmark you will find almost all restaurant and food places in Openstreetmap.
I have created tools that help to keep POI'd up-to-date by mapping to public health inspection reports.
https://github.com/elgaard/OpenStreetmapTools/tree/master/re...
https://digitalfrihed.dk/restaurants/all.html
We could use some kind of open reviews. That is more tricky, which is also why the commercial platforms are not that good.
Wikivoyage.org is great for tourist, but too limited for locals (you cannot have every single pizza and burger place in travel guide).
The Osmand app with Wikivoyage is a great example of what can be done with free software and data. It is all offline. You can search for restaurants near you without revealing you location to anyone. When you click on the the webpage of a restaurant, it opens in your browser without redirecting from Yelp or sending the URL to Tripadvisor. And when you click on the phone number for the restaurant, your phone just calls directly.
What a great idea, thank you for sharing. I'll take it upon myself to do some investigation into if those records are easily available here
Victor Shcherb, the creator of OsmAnd, is working on OpenPlaceReviews: https://openplacereviews.org
Unfortunately it's a lot of blockchain babble so I am afraid it might be super overengineered, but whatever, so long as it works. Not sure when this is going to be released. There is a Telegram channel at https://t.me/openplacereviews
As long as there isn't a huge discrepancy between the expectation and the services/goods rendered, most people can't tell the difference over something that is largely subjective anyway.
Same reason why it's been a very long and hard road to replace craigslist for many things.
It's something I've wanted to do for awhile. Do Things that idk yelp does like give older ratings less weight.
I also think the the ratings are mostly useless. 4 1/2 star restaurants in the same area are not comparable. The rounding to half puts restaurants that are miles apart to close together. Ratings below 3 are useless. Sushi in sf is frustrating with yelp. Michelin stared restaurants have the same ratings as local sushi places. The whole scale needs to be used. There also needs to be separate ratings for food and service. Places get hit hard for unreasonable service expectations when the food is great. I'm pretty sure the average yelp reviewer has crap taste in food. Especially in tourist areas.
I mean because you've either had a good experience or a bad one, and if you've had an average experience why post a review?
Average reviews should be added. I don't think every restaurant is perfectly average. Some are better, do a dish particularly well, have some thing else that might just slightly set it apart. Others might be average but unusually cheap. All of that can be part of an average review and influence a rating and help people find meals they're in the mood for.
Agree with most people on Yelp having bad taste.
One can argue that a Michelin star restaurant is objectively better than the neighborhood McDonald's, but they could have identical ratings because the expectation of service is different. What is considered above and beyond at McD's is merely baseline at the other.
However it also works in reverse as well! Many sit-down Chinese restaurants in my area are rated poorly due to substandard service, but this is de rigeur at these establishments. The waitress is gruff, rushes you along, gives you the bill before you are ready, and in some cases, you have to make your own tea because they're too busy.
The food could be great but the ratings don't show it.
This. If I am not local, I can't know if 4.5* listing is a local diner that locals love, not necessarily for the quality of food, or a venerable Michelin-starred restaurant. Photos and descriptions do not always help.