What is most concerning is that this company is headed towards IPO and Pincus has admitted to doing "every horrible thing to get revenue." His tactics (scam revenue) are geared towards getting him the highest possible payday, and these tidbits above only confirm that he doesn't place much value on ethics.
What's just as concerning are what the people around him (his leadership team) are doing to further enable this. His CFO, Mark Vranesh, came from Supportsoft with him. Vranesh's successor and former Finance team at Supportsoft helped them lose a 10.7 million USD class action due to the fact they over-inflated revenues - did this practice start while Vranesh and Pincus were still there?
I'd be highly suspicious of Zynga's revenue statements in the lead up to their IPO. #markpincus
Never trust a guy who has an aspiring male model on the payroll whose sole job is to troll blogs and post cut & paste comments about how awesome he (Pincus) is. Surely I can't be serious? Oh, yes, say hello to "Blake Loftus" #markpincus
Never heard of this guy, but this article has my agenda radar going berserk.
His comments about that class hardly show him to be cynical about ethics. He's lamenting what he considers to be the disingenuousness of the whole exercise, given that everyone in the room with him was apparently a sociopath. Whatever he may have done, his point of view, based on my reading of the above remarks, is pro ethics.
The use of the twitter post is also strange. If the guy's as bad as you imply you should be able to do better than a couple of tweets from someone who saw him speak once. #markpincus
@Benny: Have you read the Tech Crunch stories? The post assumes you have, and recognize that these things are merely further indications of the lack of ethics he's pretty much crowed about publicly. #markpincus
Another sight of the bullshit that is "social gaming"
You won't believe how much people gets hooked to this shit. And it's even weirder because these are all casual gamers that would pass on the chance of playing games like Sonic or Halo, which look complex but are really simple gameplay-wise. Yet they go and play games like mafia wars which involves lots of strategy (believe it or not) and can take you a long fucking time to get anywhere.
Anyway, I hope these assholes (the people behind the games) get what they deserve: they arent gamers, or game devs, just merely scammers: mafia wars is a rough copy of dope wars, a real game made in......wait for it.......1992! #zynga
This is one reason why I sort of don't blame some of the people who were duped: isn't it perfectly obvious that sooner or later this kind of crap is going to bite you in the ass? Forget how dumb you have to be to give your cell # to an IQ test -- how stupid do you have to be to rob people in plain sight in easily traceable ways and think you can get away with it indefinitely? Or to openly associate yourself with such people? I can see people thinking, "Well, this is probably legit, because how easy would it be to nab these people if it weren't?"
@bens: Are you saying that the robbers are ultimately as dumb as or dumber than the robbees? Because I'd tend to agree with you. If they'd pulled this as a quick scam and gotten out before they got too much stink on them, I'd have to give them credit for being slick, if sleazy. By sticking with it for this long, I think they've outsmarted themselves pretty badly. #zynga
@MissNormaDesmond: In this instance, yes. If you're going to be a robber, having an advertising contract with Facebook isn't a good idea. Become an art thief. It saves you from having to pay developers to code crappy games. #zynga
@squeakel: I don't think this story paints her as a victim. But it does point out the obligations of business owners, regardless of whether they're selling books or reviewing other businesses.
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
@AndPreciousLittleofThat: I disagree, Yelp is a review site. There are plenty of business out there that get good reviews so it isn't like it is impossible. Judging by the evidence this shop was not one of "quality" businesses. If the review had something that was blatantly untrue the shop owner could sue for slander. It also seems Yelp did have a few discussions with the owner but she just didn't like the answer. #oceanavebooks
@hadees: Really? Did these discussions take place outside your head? The owner was unable to reach anybody at Yelp through multiple contacts, and when she finally went to their (UNMARKED) place of business, she was turned away.
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
"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
I used to work at this restaurant in LA that had very recently opened. The owner thought it a good business move to pamper these ''Yelp Elite" with free food and booze all night. Meanwhile, they just ordered us around as if they owned the place and demanded things that weren't even on the menu -- all the while saying "We're from Yelp." Yeah, buddy. Me too. We can all type "meh" ad nauseum. What is it about Yelp that attracts such snotty people? People who have never had to work service jobs but love nothing more than to degrade those who do. Yelp is petty and useless.
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.
@MissNormaDesmond: Roughly equivalent to farting on the deck of an overcrowded submarine, then waiting for everyone to give you a high five for how awesome it smells. #oceanavebooks
By the way, this is an interesting opportunity to discover whether the adage "There's no such thing as bad publicity" is true or not. My bet is she has more visitors than usual over this, if only to gawk, you should excuse the expression. #oceanavebooks
Granted, her forthcoming insanity plea will probably hold in court, but take a step back and look the whole picture: The economy sux, and has for some time, so her sales are down (regardless of the state of the book store). Yelp has most likely bombarded her with sales calls telling her how her ratings can "improve" if she throws some advertising dollars its way. And while she desperately wants good reviews on Yelp, her advertising budget is currently non-existent and some of her better reviews have been "mysteriously" disappearing.
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
I'm sorry, but if this woman comes off half as nutty in person as she does in writing, I would also give her blank stares until security asked her to leave.
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
She is pretty obviously a total nutcake. I mean, first she goes to Yelp's offices to complain about a bad review, then she tracks down the poster of the review and shows up on his door step? I'm sorry, I just don't believe one thing she's saying about how she's the victim here. #oceanavebooks
I should also add that after her user account was suspended she opened a business account and posted a rebuttal to my review (since removed by Yelp) saying that i constantly came in her store drunk and I was surly and rude to her - absolutely untrue. If she continues to tell these "stories" at the restraining order hearing or at her criminal trial she will be committing perjury - my wife and I both submitted statements to the police - SHE was the one arrested for trespass and battery and arrested and placed on a psychiatric hold at the jail. The truth will come out in court - Sean C (from Yelp)
@nine_lives: Yeah, I don't think you have much to worry about. She's making her own bed here. Sad really. She could have just posted, "yes, it's a mess, but we have everything!" or something and that would have been the end of it. #oceanavebooks
How can you not feel bad after opening your door to someone with a laurel bush in-hand, pushing them out invoking a scuffle, proceed to push them down the stairs, file a police report for battery and not feel any remorse posting defamation all over the internet? On SFWeekly he is reported to have said "I pushed her out, she pushed me back in, and I pushed her out again." #oceanavebooks
@funknut: If someone from the Internetz spazzed out at me online, then tracked down my address and showed up at my front door, uninvited? Every single bet is off at that point.
I don't care what sort of bush they're holding. That is crazy, wild-eyed stalker behaviour. #oceanavebooks
11/14/09
What's just as concerning are what the people around him (his leadership team) are doing to further enable this. His CFO, Mark Vranesh, came from Supportsoft with him. Vranesh's successor and former Finance team at Supportsoft helped them lose a 10.7 million USD class action due to the fact they over-inflated revenues - did this practice start while Vranesh and Pincus were still there?
I'd be highly suspicious of Zynga's revenue statements in the lead up to their IPO. #markpincus
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
His comments about that class hardly show him to be cynical about ethics. He's lamenting what he considers to be the disingenuousness of the whole exercise, given that everyone in the room with him was apparently a sociopath. Whatever he may have done, his point of view, based on my reading of the above remarks, is pro ethics.
The use of the twitter post is also strange. If the guy's as bad as you imply you should be able to do better than a couple of tweets from someone who saw him speak once. #markpincus
11/13/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
You won't believe how much people gets hooked to this shit. And it's even weirder because these are all casual gamers that would pass on the chance of playing games like Sonic or Halo, which look complex but are really simple gameplay-wise. Yet they go and play games like mafia wars which involves lots of strategy (believe it or not) and can take you a long fucking time to get anywhere.
Anyway, I hope these assholes (the people behind the games) get what they deserve: they arent gamers, or game devs, just merely scammers: mafia wars is a rough copy of dope wars, a real game made in......wait for it.......1992! #zynga
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
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
11/06/09
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