An Open Letter to Yelp Management

Since Yelp does not publish email addresses for their management team, I’m stuck with writing an open letter on my blog in hopes that they will read it after I target them on Twitter and LinkedIn.

To the Yelp Management team,

I agree with and support a filtering system on Yelp. There was nothing I disliked more than seeing businesses try to game the system and leave dishonest reviews for their own benefit. But after finding all my reviews filtered out without reason, I’ll never use your service again and will persuade others to do the same. Who knew that all my efforts  would not be seen by the general public. This will be the quickest way to lose your users.

I understand that algorithms can catch regular, honest reviewers like me. But what’s frustrating is Yelp’s FAQ section basically saying I am out of luck. Too bad. better luck next time. There’s no contact to resolve my problem and no way of knowing if my reviews will ever be read. I’m just caught in an algorithmic black hole. I’m not going to spend my time writing reviews and uploading photos and business information to be treated like a bot.

It’s really too bad because I loved Yelp and was an evangelist for some time. But now I just feel betrayed.

Off to find another review site,
Marcel Moreau

If anyone out there has any comparable services they use for business reviews, please leave a comment with your favorite one.

Tracy Morgan on NPR Fresh Air

I’m a huge Tracey Morgan fan. Like most people who are familiar with Tracy Morgan, I think of his run on TV shows Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock and his various YouTube clips acting out, making the interview job painful. But there’s one interview (I’ve read and heard nearly all of them) that really captures the pain and struggle of his formative years in Brooklyn, NY. It’s an NPR Fresh Air interview promoting his memoir I Am the New Black. During the 40 minute interview, we learn about Tracy’s time as a crack-dealer, his father’s death of AIDS, and how he ran away from his mother. The interview was so emotionally powerful that Terry Gross named it her 2009 interview of the year.

Without a doubt, the saddest part is around 13:00, hearing Tracy weep as he described returning home to take his siblings away from his mother:

“…that was the hardest day of my life, and I heard my mother cry…and it just broke me down…and I think about it now…I never meant to hurt my mother.”

Noxzema Deep Cleansing Cream

I bought a bottle of this to wash my face areas and it was terrible. You can’t get any sort of lather unless you pump out half the product.

Do not buy.

</consumer rant>

The power of reviews – Alfredo’s in Allston, MA

Preaching to the choir here, but I love Yelp and how it drives action, specifically with me personally. Yesterday I spent the afternoon with my friend Jake in Allston, a section of Boston. We were drinking some beers at the Sunset Grille, some of which were complimentary of Otter Creek Brewing and their new brewer, Mike. We ordered a hummus appetizer and wanted to head elsewhere for dinner. Out came the iPhone and I checked out what was around us on Yelp. One of the first results was Alfredo’s in Allston, with 38 reviews at 4.5 stars. It was exactly what we were looking for – quick, inexpensive, and good food.

Alfredo’s looks like a typical, small sub shop but it’s so much more. There are maybe 3 tables and it’s setup like a sub shop, but the food tastes above and beyond what you’d  expect. Jake ordered pasta primavera and I had the shrimp fra diavolo. I’d never seen $10.95 fra diavolo anywhere so I was skeptical. Shit ruled, though so I will be back if I’m ever in the area again. They have a Keurig coffee maker in the corner, too, so have a coffee on the house.