I am a member of Yelp.com, a restaurant review website which has local "chapters" set up in every major city. I had a disturbing confrontation with someone from the group recently, after months of experiencing social castigation from other members of the group.

We ran into each other at a bar and to summarize a very ugly discussion, at one point she said to me "you need to reflect on your lifestyle". Odd words to be shared at an establishment that serves alcohol and thrives on its sales. I felt very threatened and angry with this statement, and in subsequent days reflected on why she would have said that.

Members of the group review restaurants and other establishments and seek to be given "Elite" status, which gives them additional perks and notoriety in the group. Numerous members also adhere to a "green" lifestyle and have radically liberal views on political and social issues. Some even hold to vegetarian or vegan diets, and over time I noted these members are held in particularly high regard and reputation. Those members like myself who are of a more moderate or conservative political viewpoint and critical of those diets' benefits are marginalized, subject to conditional friendships and I personally suspect that a potential relationship with a woman from the group was sabotaged because of my opposition to these things.

Restaurants and bars have been subjected to demands of free food and drinks by Elites and non-Elites alike and have been harassed and caused losses of business due to their bully tactics. This is well documented and they have been sued in several states. Their rating system also seems to favor restaurants that have more reviews and also have dropped favorable reviews according to an obscure algorithm that "automatically" filters potentially fake reviews by people who may be deliberately planting positive reviews. That filter drops legitimate reviews for businesses that do not seem to comply with certain membership or advertising fee structures.

I have remained a member of the website but have cut myself off from any social ties to it. After lost friendships, being shunned at social events, and some heartache, I have resigned to be a fringe member and remain in contact with a few others who refuse to attend social events. This seems to be the trigger for the beginning of their abuses and "brainwashing" techniques as I was strongly encouraged to attend about two years ago. I used to attend Evangelical churches with similar social and psychological groupthink tactics and a mutual friend with who I've discussed this situation came up with a nickname for Yelp which relates it to the name of ministry - "the Outpost without Jesus". Speaking of which, Christianity is considered abhorrent to them and they openly ridicule its founder and beliefs.

I would like to know what resources I may employ for not only personal healing from their abuses, but which ways I can increase awareness in my city for both members who have been mistreated and establishments that are victims of their irrational and greedy demands.

You might want to talk with a journalist at East Bay Express who wrote an article
some time back about this group.

Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0 | Feature | East Bay ExpressFeb 18, 2009 ... Local business owners say Yelp offers to hide negative customer reviews of their
businesses on its web site ... for a price.
[www.eastbayexpress.com] - 286k - Cached - Similar pages

and

[yelpclassaction.wordpress.com]


Read the article, see if anything is in there that matches what you describe and contact the journalist.

Additional discussion here, pro and con

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http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=east+bay+express+yelp&btnG=Google+Search

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/21/2010 11:09PM by corboy.