31–40 of 95 posts
> but there will always be a small handful of businesses who mistakenly think it’s a good idea to threaten consumers who exercise their free speech right Wh... what? the free speech right only covers repercussions initiated by the government. Businesses are not the government so consumers have no free speech right or expectation here.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Off-topic, but would Amazon have anything to lose if they completely purged all reviews by users without verified purchases? It would certainly combat the spam reviews problem.
>but would Amazon have anything to lose Potentially sales. Unfortunately they are in a spot right now where lots of normal people not aware of the fraud see a product with 2000 reviews and 4.5 stars and take that as a strong signal that it's a good buy. They are conditioned to think that 'lots of reviews == well vetted'. If suddenly the review counts plunge by 90% people might be more wary of making a purchase. They…
How adorable. Yelp taking the moral high ground. Once I wrote a negative review for a business describing my personal experience with them. The company first wrote me an email and asked me to remove it, I obviously didn't because everything I wrote was true. Then Yelp removed my review, because it was "irrelevant"! :-) Strangely enough, that business had all positive reviews on Yelp with near 5/5 score, while on Goog…
Hundreds of millions of users?
> but there will always be a small handful of businesses who mistakenly think it’s a good idea to threaten consumers who exercise their free speech right Wh... what? the free speech right only covers repercussions initiated by the government. Businesses are not the government so consumers have no free speech right or expectation here.
That's a provincial US view, constricting it to what the constitution says, etc.
In any case, it's inadequate for the era that we live in.
There's more to free speech and freedom of expression than avoiding "repercussions initiated by the government", especially these days where large private interests can be as large or larger than governments and equally powerful.
Even if the government is allowing you to speak up against some mogul in X Latin American country, if he has his people intimidating or even killing you, that's an attack on your "free speech".
In the same way, big business can stifle free speech, as can various churches, internet companies censoring stuff selectively, etc...
> but there will always be a small handful of businesses who mistakenly think it’s a good idea to threaten consumers who exercise their free speech right Wh... what? the free speech right only covers repercussions initiated by the government. Businesses are not the government so consumers have no free speech right or expectation here.
In effect the government cannot act to limit your freedom of speech without a very narrowly defined compelling reason I'm not sure why you believe otherwise.
Further frivolous lawsuits as a threat to free speech are so commonly understood we have an acronym for it
SLAPP: A strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.[1] Such lawsuits have been made illegal in many jurisdictions on the grounds that they impede freedom of speech.
> but there will always be a small handful of businesses who mistakenly think it’s a good idea to threaten consumers who exercise their free speech right Wh... what? the free speech right only covers repercussions initiated by the government. Businesses are not the government so consumers have no free speech right or expectation here.
Private businesses can suppress freedom of speech because (unlike for the government) there is no law preventing them from doing so.
> but there will always be a small handful of businesses who mistakenly think it’s a good idea to threaten consumers who exercise their free speech right Wh... what? the free speech right only covers repercussions initiated by the government. Businesses are not the government so consumers have no free speech right or expectation here.
> the free speech right only covers repercussions initiated by the government. Businesses are not the government so consumers have no free speech right or expectation here. That's a provincial US view, constricting it to what the constitution says, etc. In any case, it's inadequate for the era that we live in. There's more to free speech and freedom of expression than avoiding "repercussions initiated by the governme…
Debate by Webster's definition like it's 1996, ack, thbbft!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This simply doesn't happen. People have been saying it for years, but there's zero proof. My theory is something like this. A mom and pop shop opens Yelp one day to see they have some bad reviews. Then, if around that time a Yelp sales rep happens to call to pitch some ads or "enhanced profile" (actual name of an ad product they sell which doesn't alter reviews, just makes the profile prettier), and OMG all of the su…
This absolutely does happen. I have a small business that is facing it right now. I either pay the Yelp tax or they have taken our community-created page with all 5-star reviews completely off the site. Can still find it from Google search, but can't find it from search within Yelp. And if you search for us, they show our competitor as a search result. Got a call from Yelp sales guy about an offer 'that expires this…
Is this page inside Yelp? You have two business pages on Yelp?
What I could suggest is that you get (old) Yelp users to put (legitimate - not exaggerated) comments on your page.
And of course, you can make a video lambasting them on YT as well.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Off-topic, but would Amazon have anything to lose if they completely purged all reviews by users without verified purchases? It would certainly combat the spam reviews problem.
>but would Amazon have anything to lose Potentially sales. Unfortunately they are in a spot right now where lots of normal people not aware of the fraud see a product with 2000 reviews and 4.5 stars and take that as a strong signal that it's a good buy. They are conditioned to think that 'lots of reviews == well vetted'. If suddenly the review counts plunge by 90% people might be more wary of making a purchase. They…
My only concern is around the lack of ability for businesses to respond or request any level of verification that a person actually did business with them. The BBB at least contacts the business and oversees a process for resolution (documenting the entire thing). I personally know multiple business owners who've dealt with threats from customers who will go and write a bad review if they don't simply bow to demands.…