I attended a meetup that was held at Yelp and I can confirm that entrance to the building is weirdly extra secured compared to meetups at other SF companies I've attended.
Apparently Yelp has a no-fly list
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Re: Apparently Yelp has a no-fly list
#22Go give yelp a bad review on yelp.
Re: Apparently Yelp has a no-fly list
#23If they had the guest list beforehand, they had a responsibility to inform you of this issue before the trip. Putting you on the spot forced you into making a crappy decision either way you went with it.
I personally would have yanked all the students out and explained why and exactly why you were all leaving to someone in authority if this couldn't be cleared up, further that it was going to go up on the Internet, but my personal bias stems from years of being excluded from things for no obvious reason as a kid.
Re: Apparently Yelp has a no-fly list
#24You seem to think it had something to do with her name? Was it a Middle Eastern name?
It had everything to do with her name: she was turned away by the person with the guest list, but not by the security guy checking for fake IDs. That was the only piece of information they had. And no, she's got a down-home 'good old American' type name, if I've ever heard one.
I'd guess it is the name of a disgruntled business owner.
Re: Apparently Yelp has a no-fly list
#25this is extremely common in a lot of meetups in SF - really the only reason they want your name on the list is so if you are a crazy homeless person looking for free booze and free food with a lot of expensive ass computer shit laying around you can't just waltz in also, I am in that meetup group and yesterday was insane email traffic w/the amount of people that couldn't follow the most simplest of advice -- "we need…
I'm a crazy homeless person, my name is Adam Smith, nice to meet you. Or was it John Brown? Do they check government-issued ID? I'm visiting from BC or Ontario, you think they could recognize a fake ID?
Re: Apparently Yelp has a no-fly list
#26> But here I was, helpless. The only thing I could do was direct her to BART and join the rest of the class inside ... or pull the class out and refuse to attend it out of principle?
I had another 9 students inside, and the talk was worthwhile for them. Furthermore, the problem was not with the organizers (who were generous and accommodating) or the speakers (who were similarly generous), but with the venue. Nothing would have been solved by protesting: I'm not important enough that anyone would have noticed.
Isn't this the kind of mentality that is 'dangerous'?
"Why vote, I'm just 1 vote. It's not going to make any difference."
And you said you're not important enough that anyone would have noticed? So all the 'unimportant' people, when faced with difficult choices, should just roll over and go with the flow? (Not saying you made the wrong/right choice, but your reasoning is off.)
While you had to weigh a group of students' benefit from the talk against 1 missing out on some talk, this also could've been an opportunity for you to teach your students to a different kind of lesson.
I hate to say it but leaving a student alone waiting is pretty shitty.
Re: Apparently Yelp has a no-fly list
#27> But here I was, helpless. The only thing I could do was direct her to BART and join the rest of the class inside ... or pull the class out and refuse to attend it out of principle?
Yelp wasn't gaining anything by people attending. The attendees were gaining by attending (I would love to hear how Pinterest scaled). Should the whole class be punished for Yelp's stupidity? Now, if Yelp gained anything other than "they gave us a spot to meet", I would agree with you 100%. I would give them no benefit for being moronic.
I guess that the silver lining is that a young person starts to be switched on about how humiliating and insulting it is to be screwed by idiotic authorities and their pathetic rules.
Re: Apparently Yelp has a no-fly list
#28this is extremely common in a lot of meetups in SF - really the only reason they want your name on the list is so if you are a crazy homeless person looking for free booze and free food with a lot of expensive ass computer shit laying around you can't just waltz in also, I am in that meetup group and yesterday was insane email traffic w/the amount of people that couldn't follow the most simplest of advice -- "we need…
I'm a crazy homeless person, my name is Adam Smith, nice to meet you. Or was it John Brown? Do they check government-issued ID? I'm visiting from BC or Ontario, you think they could recognize a fake ID?
I think the logic is that if you have successfully guessed a name that is good enough for them - remember - we are talking about people who are literally walking in off the street - they aren't trying to 'game the system' - they might not even know where the hell they are
some places ask for ids - but really a lot of places you just need to have the name - that's all
Re: Apparently Yelp has a no-fly list
#29Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had another 9 students inside, and the talk was worthwhile for them. Furthermore, the problem was not with the organizers (who were generous and accommodating) or the speakers (who were similarly generous), but with the venue. Nothing would have been solved by protesting: I'm not important enough that anyone would have noticed.
And it was worthwhile enough to tacitly agree to such a policy? Edit: read your comment in a separate post. It would have been worthwhile not to abridge all the context out of your story.
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Re: Apparently Yelp has a no-fly list
#30this is extremely common in a lot of meetups in SF - really the only reason they want your name on the list is so if you are a crazy homeless person looking for free booze and free food with a lot of expensive ass computer shit laying around you can't just waltz in also, I am in that meetup group and yesterday was insane email traffic w/the amount of people that couldn't follow the most simplest of advice -- "we need…
Name on a list, sure, fine. Pretty standard practice in big office buildings.
Running the guest list against some database of banned names, not so standard.
One reason it's not standard is that properly operating a list of banned names is very difficult, for the reason pointed out here in this post.