Gawker 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 3:23 PM
Sat Nov 28
12 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip Your Editors:
tips@gawker.com
Tipline: 646-214-8138
Editor-in-Chief:
Gabriel Snyder | Email
West Coast Editor:
Richard Rushfield | Email
Contributing Editors:
Valleywag:
Ryan Tate | Email
Media:
Hamilton Nolan | Email
Politics:
Alex Pareene | Email
Investigations:
John Cook | Email
Entertainment:
Brian Moylan | Email
Nights:
Adrian Chen | Email
Azaria Jagger | Email
Ravi Somaiya | Email
Weekends:
Foster Kamer | Email
Video Editor:
Richard Blakeley | Email
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/06/09
11/06/09
If Yelp truly does care about and want to promote quality businesses, they need to be willing to have discussions with those business owners when issues come up. It's just good customer service.
To be clear, allegedly assaulting someone because they exercised their First Amendment rights is NOT okay. But a company like Yelp, which is explicitly protected under that amendment, needs to realize the businesses they review are more than just data points. #oceanavebooks
11/06/09
11/06/09
What you said simply confirmed that Yelp is NOT a business, and they don't really give a fuck about other businesses. They delete posts and reviews without any explanation, and they don't seem to be willing to tolerate any discussion of their policies. Cowardly. #oceanavebooks
11/11/09
"Last Friday, Oct. 30, after an unsuccessful phone call"
That is a singular phone call, not "multiple contacts", and it doesn't say she was unable to reach anyone. It said unsuccessful as in she wasn't able to get them removed.
"(UNMARKED) place of business"
How odd an Internet business, aka not brick and mortar, would have poor signage.
Also note she got their address from the Better Business Bureau which is there to solve disputes with business. It isn't an address book to go there in person. I've made complaints to the BBB and they have gotten resolved through the BBB. There is no mention she did anything at the BBB other then get the address.
What you said simply confirmed that Yelp is NOT a business, and they don't really give a fuck about other businesses.
Wait you just said they aren't a business and they don't care about OTHER business in the exact sentence line. Isn't that a contradiction?
" They delete posts and reviews without any explanation, and they don't seem to be willing to tolerate any discussion of their policies."
How does this relate to this case? The issue here was things weren't getting deleted. I don't see your point. #oceanavebooks
11/06/09
11/06/09
Dear Yelpers,
Remember that old saying "everyone's a critic"? You know that wasn't supposed to be a suggestion, right? Pretty sure it's okay to put the stop watch and the notebook away there Frank Bruni. The third order of free bread is on its way. Entitled fucking CSI team combing over the ceviche with infrared cameras.
In terms of actual real world usefulness, firing off 300 word missives about the over-salted sea bass you had last night falls somewhere between rubbing one off into a hat just before you put it on and running around with scissors in your mouth the long way. Sure, probably a good way to relieve some stress, but keep that mess to yourself.
[putthatshitonthelist.blogspot.com] #oceanavebooks
11/07/09
11/07/09
11/08/09
11/08/09
11/06/09
11/06/09
How can I be sure of any of this? Yelp used that MO on my business. And when I finally started hanging up on the Yelp advert sales folks, the good reviews began disappearing, and a whole slew of new, one-star insults began appearing. Complaints about such things go nowhere at Yelp. So my best revenge was outing Yelp on its own website with a 1 star review. Jeremy the owner contacted me, told me how unfair I was being, and generally whined quite a bit.
But, I didn't show up at anyone's house with a laurel branch... or baseball bat.
And on another note: Does anyone else find it "curious" that Sean C. aka nine_lives DESPERATELY feels the need to be interviewed by Gawker/Valleywag? Isn't his 15 minutes almost up? #oceanavebooks
11/06/09
She wanted to "convey the seriousness of what was about to happen to her?" Uh, security!
Lady, it's the internet. If you get a bad review write your own positive one under a fake name, duh. Jeez, it's Yelp, not physics.
Also, stalking is bad. Please keep that on a Post-It where you can see next time you have a "crisis." #oceanavebooks
11/05/09
11/06/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/06/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
So, how's the store look today? #oceanavebooks
11/06/09
I don't care what sort of bush they're holding. That is crazy, wild-eyed stalker behaviour. #oceanavebooks
11/05/09
11/06/09
11/06/09
11/05/09
There was no impending doom until this lady forced the issue. Just a bad review, then a stupid decision to make a bad situation worse by engaging online. And then she panicked and tried to circumvent the rules.
But you have to keep this sort of thing online. I worked in a very similar environment, and if people turned up, they got stopped at our front desk as well. #oceanavebooks
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/06/09
I think you come out looking fine. I wouldn't worry about it. She's the one who looks nuts. #oceanavebooks
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
Why not just live and let live? #oceanavebooks
11/05/09
She could just as easily have posted in response, "It's true that my store's a bit disorganized, but that's because it's so full of treasures. If you're a used book lover who doesn't mind a bit of mess with your browsing, you'll love it here." Or even, "Thanks for the feedback. I'll get on this." The reviewer isn't responsible for her totally unhinged reaction. #oceanavebooks
11/05/09
Contact me when sticks and/or stones get spit out of the tubes that connect the Interwebs and then you’d have a point. #oceanavebooks
11/05/09
It was more that a mild review, he was just being an ass, trying to get a reaction and cool points from his buddies. "Hmm, this dumpy tiny business with no customers seems to be owned by crazy person who otherwise isn't bothering anyone. I think I'll go on the internet and trash the store!" Then when she starts emailing him, he engages and provokes her and posts the replies so she'll get really mad. He didn't stop replying and posting her replies until she showed up at his house. Re-read that first email she sent him, he should have known to stop. But you know its all for the lulz.
Then the people at Yelp get her complaints, online and in person, and should see that the situation is escalating. No one asks if it's worth it to keep this one and only review of a tiny store? They already have sketchy policies about what they keep posted, usually based on advertising. Watch how fast Yelp will take down a poor review of that hot restaurant that advertises with them. #oceanavebooks
11/05/09
I can see your point about Yelp to some extent, but how you can hold everyone else but this woman responsible for her behavior I don't understand. She didn't have to freak out, she didn't have to send him abusive e-mail, and she didn't have to stalk him in real life and physically attack him when he refused to let her in his home. Nothing anyone else did made her do those things. If she's mentally ill, I'm sorry for her, but it's not the rest of the world's job to treat her with kid gloves lest she explode.
[Edited to add] By the way, if she'd sent me those e-mails, I'd have posted them, too. If anyone got served for being a big mouth on the Internet, it was her -- she talked shit to him thinking she could be abusive in private, then found to her dismay that no, what you say in e-mail doesn't necessarily stay in e-mail. Maybe next time she'll think twice before filling someone's inbox with homophobic slurs.
11/05/09
11/06/09
@MissNormaDesmond, this woman has been correctly arrested and hospitalized, I was not disputing that. Based on the previous posts by Gawker and SF media it appeared that the reviewer had online bullied a mentally damaged person until they reacted*. As Nine_Lives states in his responses that was not the case. When he read her messages, he rightly cut her off.
*To me that is the same combination of stupidity and cruelty as the knuckleheads who threw rocks at the tiger in the SF Zoo. And yes I hold people who knowingly PROVOKE attacks from wild animals and mentally ill people partially responsible. The fact their targets do not react with the same sophistication as Gawker readers does not absolve them. #oceanavebooks
11/05/09
What was about to happen "to" her was that she was going to track some dude down and then confront him.
She's a nutter, this guy shouldn't be afraid to state an opinion and she is definitely not the victim here. #oceanavebooks