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Comment by billnguyen | Hacker News Reader

Your theory really only works for places with a large amount of reviews (positive or negative). When you have only a handful of reviews, the need for authenticity grows because they carry much more weight.

You would need much more data points to avoid the noise of fake reviews.

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That's not much different from any other form of word-of- mouth advertising. If anything, it's worse.

"Did you hear about restaurant x?"

"They suck. Don't go there."

If you've only got one friend who's been there, that's all the data you have. At least with Yelp, you can see reviews from people you've never met. The big difference between Yelp and any other form of word-of-mouth advertising is that the business owner can actually see the reviews people are giving to others.

I find the Yelp reviews pretty hilarious, especially dives, I go to this one place all the time that does $2.95 cent breakfast (full plate, coffee, etc) and many reviews talk about how the breakfast was greasy, etc. I'm wondering what kind of culinary miracle they expected to happen for $2.95 cents.

http://www.yelp.ca/biz/bons-off-broadway-vancouver

I wonder if the people on yelp ever go to metal shows and wonder why it's so loud.

Yelp is where people go to get recommendations and people with unrealistic expectations are given a soap box to pontificate.

I'm not saying every negative review is uncalled for, but I can't count the number of times I've heard someone say, "Fine, I'll write about this on Yelp." It's supposed to be a recommendation tool, not a weapon for revenge.

Yelp might be the most special-snowflake place on the internet.

I tend to ignore the negative reviews since 9 times out of 10 the people leaving them have a ridiculous sense of their self-importance.

It's more useful to focus on the positive reviews and if they're telling you the place has what you're looking for.

I really miss Zagat for restaurant reviews. (Thanks for nothing Google.) It seemed to attract a much more thoughtful and informed type of reviewer. For lack of better options, Yelp is still better than nothing but you get a lot of reviewers with seriously unrealistic expectations. My favorite are the reviews for things like (relatively) not-too-expensive NYC hotels that complain about things like the room being too small.

Okay now you have me interested... I might have to try this place.

Man $2.95 in Vancouver that's unheard of! lol.

I'd personally be afraid of any meal that costs only $2.95 in Canada... And if I did give in, I'd consider not getting food poisoning to be a positive outcome.

> It made me so incredibly sick. I've never eaten a breakfast that actually gave me a headache AND made me want to puke.

I'm not sure if this is so much looking for a culinary miracle as looking for something non-toxic.

I have one friend, if he says it's good, it's good. I have another friend, if he says it's bad, you can ignore him. Knowing your reviewers adds _a lot_ of context to the review, and you lose that online IMO.

at least with word of mouth, i can gauge the veracity of their statement.

If I know Bob has unrealistic expectations, I'll take his opinion with a grain of salt. I would only know that because I'm Bob's friend.

If Jane says "They suck. Don't go there." but in more words, I tend to take it at face value and place less significance on any individual review.

perhaps they (or any review site) could only show reviews only after they get a minimum number?

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