Yelp Prison Review Faxbot • Hacker News Board

Re: Yelp Prison Review Faxbot

#11

Post by jupiter90000 » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 5:23 AM UTC

dantillberg wrote: post #2

But what of possible negative repercussions? I imagine that prison administrators that get poor reviews on Yelp are more likely than average to respond negatively to reviews received, and more likely than average to expend a lot of energy figuring out (even if they are wrong) who wrote the review, and exact revenge upon them. It would be less snarky, but maybe it would be better to send these faxes to state/federal e…

I can't say I know what happens at a prison, but I'd assume there's some person(s) working as office admin at these places who sort out the incoming faxes. I'd be surprised if these don't just get trashed when received as they have no real bearing on the prison operations. I doubt Yelp reviews would sway elected reps either, unless there was proof a person they represent who can vote was upset. In other words, I imagine these faxes just waste some prison admin time in filtering them into the trash/recycle heap.

Re: Yelp Prison Review Faxbot

#12

Post by bobo123 » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 5:23 AM UTC

I think this is really great. How often do we as a society take the voices of prisoners seriously? It's kind of interesting to see a "view from below." Very cool work.

Re: Yelp Prison Review Faxbot

#13

Post by jakejake » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 5:26 AM UTC

dantillberg wrote: post #2

But what of possible negative repercussions? I imagine that prison administrators that get poor reviews on Yelp are more likely than average to respond negatively to reviews received, and more likely than average to expend a lot of energy figuring out (even if they are wrong) who wrote the review, and exact revenge upon them. It would be less snarky, but maybe it would be better to send these faxes to state/federal e…

Reading the reviews it's about 95% joke reviews with an occasional honest one about visitation or conditions. I doubt anybody takes them seriously.

Re: Yelp Prison Review Faxbot

#14

Post by jrochkind1 » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 5:43 AM UTC

vinceguidry wrote: post #4

dantillberg wrote: post #2

But what of possible negative repercussions? I imagine that prison administrators that get poor reviews on Yelp are more likely than average to respond negatively to reviews received, and more likely than average to expend a lot of energy figuring out (even if they are wrong) who wrote the review, and exact revenge upon them. It would be less snarky, but maybe it would be better to send these faxes to state/federal e…

Off the top of my head I imagine that most prison administrators are political appointees and probably know far less about the actual conditions of the prison and are less removed from the day-to-day running than one might expect. They have the ability to enact top-down changes in operations, but generally have no motivation to do so. I would think feedback like this would be quite valuable to them, so they could gai…

that's quite an imagination you have.

Re: Yelp Prison Review Faxbot

#15

Post by saaaam » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 5:45 AM UTC

Authors here - if anyone has any questions or critiques please let us know.

Re: Yelp Prison Review Faxbot

#16

Post by jrochkind1 » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 5:45 AM UTC

this is good art.

Re: Yelp Prison Review Faxbot

#17

Post by jlgaddis » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 6:26 AM UTC

eridius wrote: post #7

Cute, but I'd be concerned that automated unsolicited faxes are not necessarily something that people want to receive.

I'm pretty sure that every company with a fax machine whose number isn't private is accustomed to receiving "automated unsolicited faxes". At $work, we receive just as many (if not more) spam faxes as we do legitimate ones. People just toss 'em in the trash and don't think twice about it.

Re: Yelp Prison Review Faxbot

#18

Post by blairanderson » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 6:38 AM UTC

i think this is rad.

Re: Yelp Prison Review Faxbot

#19

Post by TeMPOraL » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 8:53 AM UTC

jlgaddis wrote: post #17

eridius wrote: post #7

Cute, but I'd be concerned that automated unsolicited faxes are not necessarily something that people want to receive.

I'm pretty sure that every company with a fax machine whose number isn't private is accustomed to receiving "automated unsolicited faxes". At $work, we receive just as many (if not more) spam faxes as we do legitimate ones. People just toss 'em in the trash and don't think twice about it.

I worked for a few months in a research facility in the UK, and had a fax machine on a desk next to me. Once a day, it would turn itself on and print out an ad for a car, or insurance, or something. I was shocked to discover that spam is a thing on fax machines.

Re: Yelp Prison Review Faxbot

#20

Post by crystaln » Wed, Dec 30, 2015, 8:54 AM UTC

dantillberg wrote: post #2

But what of possible negative repercussions? I imagine that prison administrators that get poor reviews on Yelp are more likely than average to respond negatively to reviews received, and more likely than average to expend a lot of energy figuring out (even if they are wrong) who wrote the review, and exact revenge upon them. It would be less snarky, but maybe it would be better to send these faxes to state/federal e…

I imagine anyone writing these reviews from within the prison might anticipate them being read by prison staff, regardless of whether they were faxed to the prison.