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A comment on Yelp.com Stands Accused of Acting Like a "Modern-Day Mafia". Parent comment

Re:Yelp.com Stands Accused of Acting Like a "Modern-Day Mafia" by emmett on Friday April 23, 2010 @02:58PM (#1289160)
Yelp can also put bad businesses out of business, and does. And it can make an already good business a success, which it also does.

What evidence is there that they change the world net negative, rather than net positive? My experience with Yelp has been great: it has encouraged me to explore much more widely which restaurants I attend.

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Re:Yelp.com Stands Accused of Acting Like a "Modern-Day Mafia" by potatolicious on Friday April 23, 2010 @03:15PM (#1289191)
Even if Yelp is still a net positive on the world at large, it in no way justifies extortionist behavior like the ones alleged.

Your argument sounds like "but he's such a great guy, so what if he murders a few people now and again?"

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Re:Yelp.com Stands Accused of Acting Like a "Modern-Day Mafia" by nfnaaron on Friday April 23, 2010 @03:37PM (#1289255)
The point of the complaints, and the lawsuit, is that you as a consumer are not receiving a fair picture of reviews. The allegation is that businesses that don't pay lose positive reviews and gain negatives, by yelp's manipulation.

If the allegations are true, then what yelp may have helped you do is frequent businesses that knuckled under and paid the extortion.

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