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Comment by usaphp | Hacker News Reader

http://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=hnH6RaPkJ2Tfw9ZkKMfL... see how many bad reviews he already wrote for Sause! I think his profile should be flagged, you can't trust a person who does this kind of things.

Edit: He just changed his name to West C. what a guy :)

Another Edit: Just look at his reviews date - they all are written on July 29-30 - why would anybody write so many reviews unless you receive a commission to do so?

View on HN

"This Yelper's account has been closed."

So I guess

Negative reviews = No sale

Positive review = Sale

Indifferent review = ???

Indifferent review = actually went there.

You should patent this: "a system and method to filter Yelp reviews based on Groupons offered in locale" :)

0xfe your account is dead. but your comment is accurate: > Interesting. He just got one of his cronies to write a review: http://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=BfVinuuuFVCAr77TnI9k...

I wonder how long it's going to take before he realizes he is fucked?

The funny part of this is that if you look at his list of reviewed places he has a bunch from Chicago, IL, then the 2 for the 2 locations of Sauce in SF, then another place in Chicago on the SAME DAY.

Now I know that you could wait to review places, but that certainly seems like a suspicious line. Also 2 of the 3 total reviews he's ever given a 1 star rating to are Sauce (out of 71 total reviews).

I thought the same at first and honestly expected that the guy had just flat out committed libel. But after a tiny bit of research, I found that his claims about the restaurant's cleanliness were in fact accurate. (http://bit.ly/16xkdCO)

So while he probably was just writing the review to help his friend, his review is informative and factually based so really, there is no reason to remove it or the guy's account as far as I can tell.

This also makes Andy J's threat to make his active Yelp friends aware of his discontent with the restaurant make all the more sense as they are obviously better at it than him.

He has cherry picked some lines from the report, and ignored the 'confirmed fixed' date, and the follow-up visits.

So, while true, it is a bit misleading.

Actually, I could see small businesses paying for a service that tracks Yelp and other review sites for "interesting" activity based on patterns like this one. Perhaps getting information from other sites to figure out who the reviewer works for.

Other than sauce, his reviews seem good to me (I've been to most of the places in his reviews... coincidentally, while I worked for Groupon and had to travel to Chicago)

Just look at the dates he wrote those positive reviews, he is writing about 20-30 new reviews per day...

Great catch. Flagged

Does anyone really take unscreened "review" sites like Yelp seriously? I never even bother looking at them.

Yes, some people take them seriously.

What do you use instead?

That's the trouble. Consumer reviews are just not credible to me. They are anecdotes. I find the entire concept to be unworkable.

Anecdotes maybe, but supposedly all anecdotes from the same source. Instead of stuff that's like "my friend" or "I know lots of people that...", which is different from person to person, a bunch of people reviewing the exact same location is a bit more accurate. Also, after awhile you can usually separate the quality comments from the noise. Kinda like we all do on HN or any other forum. I think I can mostly tell when someone is just pushing an agenda/cherry-picking facts to support a particular claim, versus a comment giving a mostly objective review. Particularly when they point at facts & actual events rather than vague feelings.

If I am in an unfamiliar town, sometimes I use "sites like Yelp". I definitely take reviews with a grain of salt. Sometimes it [might be] better than nothing.

"I don't normally like [style of restaurant] but this one was fantastic!" is usually informative but not as intended.

I do. Usually reviews work pretty well, especially if you actually read them and don't just look at stars. Fake ones usually are easy to spot, and for sites with a lot of reviews there's usually a pattern. Of course, the system can be and is abused, and you have to take it with a gain of salt, but it's helpful, especially if you don't know much about the place or the area.

I work with Dentists in their online marketing. Guess what: nothing, in our measurement, has quite and impact on their bottom line and new customer acquisition as Yelp & maybe a little bit of Google Plus Reviews. So, the answer to your question from a quantitative point of view would be HELL YEAH THEY DO!

I find Yelp reviews to be pretty unreliable, because you giving "5 stars" for a single specific business is not necessarily a predictor of me doing the same. You and I are different people with different tastes.

I've gone to restaurants based on their 5-star Yelp average, and ended up not enjoying my experience. I've gone to places with 2 and 3 star averages ("Yelpers say it sucks, but I'll still take a chance"), and loved them.

I wish Yelp had a prediction/discovery engine for restaurants along the lines of what Netflix has for movies.

I do. I think there's lots of good information on Yelp.

Account has been closed.

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