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In Chicagoland, there are a scant few arcades left that one can Google, but one that claims to be the largest in the country is "Galloping Ghost Arcade" (it's main website is down right now, oops). I am not affiliated with this place, but I'll mention them in the spirit of keeping such places alive. I visited it ~ 1.5 years ago and found: hundreds of historic machines crowded into a small, spartan, warehouse-like space, a rather warm ambient temperature, a cheap entry fee for unlimited play, and, I'd guess, about 10 - 20% of the games in need of repair (which doesn't surprise me since I've owned many such machines).

Um you know about the eternal flame over at the Salt River landfill?

Yeah, it's there. Cute.

Many of those locations might be closed.

For example, for the one in Redmond OR, there's this:

https://www.yelp.com/biz/block...

Food deserts are located in lower-class residential neighborhoods of poor cities (and I link to Richmond, a 20 minute drive from SF without traffic). You can go miles without a store aside from corner stores, which have little/no fresh produce. Residents may not have a car, may have kids, and often work difficult jobs that keep them from having free time to make regular long trips to grocery store across town. Maybe you've taken a lot of vacations to some wonderful cities, but areas with food deserts are not the sort of places anybody goes to unless they live there.

There are many supermarkets and Mexican markets in Richmond. Fresh food is available with effort. But there's also definitely a lot of residents who do not have any convenient way to get to a store with fresh food.

If you poke around Yelp's site, they talk about how paying them can result in better placement, targeted advertising, etc. That seems expected and fair behavior.

I can't find anywhere that it would infer that your aggregate rating will be affected by whether you pay them or not. In fact, on their About page, they state "Paying advertisers can never change or re-order their reviews." (which, I guess, does not exclude Yelp themselves from doing it). The perception is that the ratings are organized and aggregated based upon algorithms. If the reality is that it's also based upon whether Yelp is getting paid by the business in question, that seems shady. It certainly should have an impact on consumers' confidence in Yelp aggregate ratings.

His house is in Arlington, VA which has numerous ISPs including Cox and Verizon. So, crowdfunding, then?

Yelp tried to extort them a few times, so this restaurant gives 50% off on pizza if you give them a 1-star review:

https://www.yelp.com/biz/botto...

http://www.bottobistro.com/REW...

http://insidescoopsf.sfgate.co...

http://time.com/money/3398188/...

I got omelette at Cock-A-Doodle Cafe. Where are my cock eggs?

I got Goat Cheese Quesadilla. Where are my cock eggs?

I got Tacos Huevos. Where are my cock eggs?

I've wanted to switch to Sonic for a while. However I haven't because of the terrible reviews on Yelp. Sonic used to get wonderful reviews on Yelp. But then the average ratings went down. Right now more than half (14/22) of the Yelp reviews on the first page, sorted by "Newest First", are 1-star (counting both reviews when someone sent in an updated review).

Those bad reviews seem genuine, not negative astro-turfing.

I hope Sonic can fix whatever the problems are. I'd like to switch to them.

Top 976 Complaints and Reviews about Geek Squad Quote: "I feel that they're a scam. They get people to buy their support and anytime they help it costs more money."

9 Confessions Of A Former Geek Squad Geek Quote: "A high percentage of Geek Squad employees lack basic troubleshooting skills such as correctly identifying malfunctioning components."

Geek Squad Complaints and Reviews Quote: "$430 Average loss"

Yelp Reviews for Geek Squad in San Francisco Quote: "Dealing with Geek Squad has been an absolute nightmare!! And judging by the hundreds of other reviews here, im guessing most of you feel the same way."

Geek Squad Consumer Reviews Quote: ""Cheat Squad," Not Geek Squad"

That's nothing. There's one gas station that I pulled into while running low on fuel that advertised one price, and when I looked more closely, it was a dollar more per gallon for using a credit card. I drove on and risked running out of gas just to avoid rewarding them for such egregious abuse.

yelp reviews of yelp:

https://www.yelp.com/biz/yelp-...

Many of the negative yelp reviews are under "not recommended".

https://www.yelp.com/biz/redmo... The least you guys could do is link the review in question.

You are a fucking liar. I used to live in Sunnyvale and work in Palo Alto. There are MANY ISPs to choose from in that area.

Here is a list

If I am dependent on a tricked-up one-shot in a Custard Stand to defend myself, I'll probably order vanilla. With one shot of chocolate sauce, but go light on the sauce.

95% of the gun deaths in America are via handguns.

Not rifles, not assault rifles, not machine guns... handguns...

70% of those are gang related...

The vast bulk of gun crime has nothing to do with what the media harps about over and over.

As for machine guns, they cost thousands of dollars and require a more extensive background check and the payment of a $200 transfer fee to the government. People who go through the process are not criminals.

A friend of mine imported 3 Mi-24 Hind Helicopters from the former USSR. Yes they fly, and yes it is legal.

http://www.coldwarairmuseum.co...

1 was damaged in transit and is used for parts, the other 2 fly.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/cold-w...

Click on the picture on the left, it is getting work done to the engines, but that helicopter does fly. Burns a crap load of fuel, up to 200 gallons an hour.

Yes, average citizens should be able to buy those types of things.

Side note, the Mig-21 in the middle isn't yet airworthy, but they are working on it.

Did you do a Google Image search too?

On Yelp, this guy is Deepak Patel http://www.yelp.com/not_recomm...

But at Norwest Venture Partners, he's Sanjay Rao https://angel.co/norwest-ventu...

They also had no complaints at the BBB. http://www.bbb.org/losangeless...

Also, I looked on Google for the lawsuit National Collection Agency, Inc. Vs Link Corporation, Et Al Case Number 1-08-CV-129441

Couldn't find it.

Wow, an electronics shop in Derby, UK. It must be the only place where you can resistor with an oil leak. But seriously, now that you live in Seattle, take the I-90 or 520 bridge over to Bellevue and visit Vetco Electronics. http://www.vetco.net/ http://www.yelp.com/biz/vetco-... About every component you could ever ask for, and surplus sales too. Sounds like Potts is very similar, I'll check them out next time I'm in Derby. (Which until recently was pretty much every 6 months... Business takes me to Wolverhampton instead now)

But this all raises a much larger issue and that is we almost need a yelp to rate the rating services. Especially as time goes by these crowd sourced rating services will either begin to alter their ratings for pay or they will be largely gamed by various unethical players who usually have financial motives to game the system.

Yelp provides a review and rating for Yelp: http://www.yelp.com/biz/yelp-s...

Jess at Ocean Crest Resort could give a class on how to respond to negative (and positive) comments.

Based on your last post, you live in Atlanta.
There are TEN PAGES of ISPs in your area:
http://www.yelp.com/search?cfl...

Give me a break.

This nonsense about ISP monopolies has to end. There are areas where there is only 1 ISP, that's true. But they're all rural and there's only 1 ISP because it's very expensive to serve the area. There's no competition because there's no one that wants to compete. It's not profitable. Anywhere were the population density is high enough to make internet service popular there are at least TWO options... the local Cable and Telecom companies. If your towns large enough like Atlanta, there's likely dozens of options.

Where are customers supposed to flee to? Many of these companies are de facto monopolies in many areas or at the very least in lock-step with their "competitors." There aren't very many choices for tech companies unless you want to do without, which is unpalatable for many.

And again, they are not monopolies. Why does this myth persist? The guy they're talking about here, Ryan Block, lives in San Fransico. There are 15 pages of ISPs in the area on yelp: http://www.yelp.com/search?cfl...

FIFTEEN PAGES

More than a few provide phone and television as well.

The poor support works because most people are not Slashdot users, and do not use their internet for anything more than facebook and a game or two. As a result they do not call often, if ever and rarely have a technical issue. So they go for the cheapest service. If 99% of your customers want the cheapest service possible and 1% wants tech support that speaks proper English, which way would you go?

John J. on Yelp beat you to it:

Apparently we are not allowed to write negative reviews, so I will write a positive one.

I very much enjoyed my stay at the Union Street Guest House, which met or exceeded every expectation! Everything felt authentic and vintage, like the bathroom, which did not have working toilets. ("Just like olden times," noted the concierge.) Similarly, the beds were very uncomfortable, just like in the days of yore, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had taken the trouble to obtain several hundred bedbugs to place in the bed, for the sake of authenticity.

The food in the dining room was similarly amazing -- totally inedible! One bite of the cold porridge and my wife said, "Wow, this stuff is unbelievable!" So true.

I can't recommend this place enough. It is by far my favorite plague-infested parasite haven in Hudson, NY.

Please don't fine me $500; I spent all my money getting rid of the bedbugs I brought back with me.

Yelp reviews

Of course 80% of the reviews suspiciously appeared after the lawsuit was publicized (10% of the most recent reviews are in English instead of French is another clue). The old ones are mostly mediocre, but as you might expect the recent ones are mostly complaining about the lawsuit (and the recent ones posted after the lawsuit publicity appear to be perhaps a bit reality-challenged). Me thinks there might be more lawsuits on the way ;^)

There appears to be only 1/7 reviews on yelp that predate this event and appears to have the common qualities of a yelp review (you can read whatever you want into that assessment).

On the other hand, it appears to be just a generic pizza place in a rinky-dink (pop 7396) coastal town in France. What do people expect?

This was discussed already and the general conclusion was the restaurant had very poor service. Poor service will kill a reputation faster than anything else. I remember going to a restaurant that was short staffed. They were trying to accommodate people, and were nice about it. But after waiting 30 minutes for bread, we left. You can always expect bad reviews based on food, you can't please everyone.

Plus I don't think Google information can kill a place in just a few weeks. People have phones and call ahead to confirm hours, seating availability, location and even directions. I know I always call. It's lazy people who just browse Google and believe everything they see without confirmation.

Website: http://www.serbiancrown.com/

Yelp Reviews: http://www.yelp.com/biz/serbian-crown-restaurant-great-falls

Trip Advisor reviews: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g57783-d497915-Reviews-The_Serbian_Crown_Restaurant-Great_Falls_Fairfax_County_Virginia.html

Google Maps entry: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Serbian+Crown+Restaurant/@38.97349,-77.295876,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x89b6360d0a8fbba5:0x79a2bbe49b2f3a1e

Most of the reviews complain about very poor service. Waiters not checking up on the tables, one guest said they had to wander around to find a water pitcher and refill it themselves. People have waited 30+ minutes to receive the menu and bread. One guest claimed they were there for over 3 hours in total waiting for various courses. Guests would arrive only to find there was not host/hostess at the podium to seat them. Guests complained about rude staff both in person and over the phone. And these aren't recent complaints, they go back to 2010.

They give some examples of businesses that claim to be having problems because of incorrect data Google Maps. But then one of those examples just has abysmal reviews in general (which, to their credit, they note in the article).

There is no monopoly. http://www.yelp.com/search?cfl...
Seriously people, common sense.

Who would have thought that competition is good for progress...

This "ISPs have a monopoly they're evil!" myth is getting a bit old.
http://www.yelp.com/search?cfl...

TELECOMS have a monopoly on COPPER PHONE LINES. It has nothing to do with internet. And you could always get a phone via VOIP or Cellular. Whatever advantage the telecoms had was gone at the turn of the century.

Well, I'm using libreOffice calc for my income taxes (just as I've done for the past 5 years).

Enjoy your state at Riker's Island.

If you go here you can get a DC as part of the entertainment.

The actual text of the reviews is not included, but the description of the implicated posts suggests that in at least some cases, it may have been possible to correlate the description of work performed to a customer record, or potentially rule out the reviewer as a customer (e.g. the New Jersey customer). With many caveats and unknowns, of course.

10. The negative reviews in Exhibit 5 are false and
defamatory. For example, user âoeBob G.â from Oakton allegedly
relates how he was in a desperate need of emergency carpet
cleaning and was ripped off. User âoeChris H.â from Washington
reported that his precious rugs were shrunk. User âoeJ8.â from Falls
Church reports that he was charged for work never performed.
User âoeYB.â from Fairfax reports that unauthorized work was
performed and his rug was stained. One user, âoeAris P.â from
Haddonfield, N.J. reports that the price was double the quote and
that Hadeed was once bankrupt. Many of the negative reviews
report that the price was double what was charged [sic]. After
combing it customer records, Hadeed was at a loss to find record
of these allegations. Regarding Aris P., in particular, Hadeed
conducts no business in New Jersey.

The above sound like they are written as pretty clear-cut customer testimonials (e.g. I actually did business with X, was quoted Y, charged Z), but this ruling brings up an interesting question: what is VA's legal criterion for being a "customer" to post reviews? An example that comes to mind is a user that posts a negative review of a business because the owner was rude/threatening/racist/etc., and left the business for this reason prior to completing a purchase. The Yelp page of a local yarn store is full of such reviews, where the prospective customer indicates he/she left in disgust before purchasing (i.e. does not assert that any purchase was made or service rendered). Would such reviewers also be unmasked?

Streisand Effect: http://www.yelp.com/biz/hadeed-carpet-alexandria

Honestly, I don't know what the f*ck Americans are doing to have almost twice as much emissions as here in Europe.

There are several reasons. First, our energy costs are lower, so we can more easily afford to use power.

Second, we tend to live in larger houses, drive larger cars (and trucks), and in general consume more "stuff".

I'm above average in my CO2 production, to be sure, but I live in a 350 square meter house, drive a truck that gets 5 kilometers to the liter (or 20 L/100 if you prefer that metric), and I have 8 tons of air conditioning on my house (I have no idea how that converts to Europe's measurements).

http://www.yelp.com/topic/atlanta-why-dont-europeans-use-air-conditioning-very-much

Just a random post online talking about how we use tons of AC and Europe does not.

HVAC is, by far, our largest residential use of power in the United States. Making our TVs use less power will help, but replacing the older HVAC systems will make far more difference. It is expensive to do however on any scale.

But i've been in areas where the standard procedure for nearly everyone a reasonable distance away from certain areas wants to run a credit check on you before signing a lease.

This article and this discussion and this article claim that standard procedure can be worked around. Showing pay stubs, offering to pay three to six months' rent up front in states that allow it, or seeking a shorter lease term will make the landlord more likely to feel like filling a vacancy.

Or a famous one within 10 min drive from Google HQ.

also in the USA at the Salton Sea salt lake: http://www.yelp.com/biz/salton-sea-mud-pots-and-geothermal-mud-volcanoes-calipatria

All quite reasonable criteria, I'd say.

Honestly I never really paid all that much attention either, until two years ago when I spent a summer in California living with a roommate who worked at the Embarcadero farmer's market (the most elitist of the farmer's markets!) and would regularly bring home just the absolute tastiest stuff (he would trade with the other merchants). I'd almost (but I'd probably be exaggerating) describe it as finding that red, juicy strawberry feeling, but in a whole range of other foods. Since then, I've decided that good food definitely makes my list of priorities to spend a little extra dough on.

Anyway, I guess we can reasonably conclude: I'm an elitist, and you're a fool :-)

Apparently many of the posts on this thread come from people who didn't look at the contest.

This is not a programming contest in the sense that they are asking people to create a program. It's a data mining contest where they are asking people to solve a data mining problem.

Yelp is a business directory that allows people to post reviews. The programming challenge is to create a program/algorithm/method to determine how many "this was useful useful" votes a review will receive. Presumably they want this information to inform their reviewers on how best to write a review - what to avoid, how to phrase, &c.

Winning the contest isn't writing the program per-se, it's making a better prediction algorithm than anyone else.

Also it's a long-term contest (8 weeks) instead of the "overnight hackathon challenge" you might be thinking of. You can make several submissions and get feedback for how your algorithm is doing, and how it stacks up to other teams.

Also also it's a team effort. You can enter solo or as a team.

The job offering is for a data scientist at Yelp, so it makes sense that they are looking for people who can manipulate data.

The job listing doesn't have the typical "must have 4 years experience in XXX" listings that everyone hates. It states:

.) A passion for big data, and creative ideas for what to do with it.

.) The algorithms and data structures experience to make your ideas workable.

.) The coding experience to turn those ideas into reality. We use Java & Python. You don’t need to be an expert, but experience is a plus and we will expect you to learn them on the job.

.) A background in Machine Learning or Information Retrieval.

.) Minimum BA/BS degree in Computer Science, Math, or related degree

.) A love of delighting people with local knowledge.

Everyone complains about the HR "minefield" that sorts candidates by requiring useless or immaterial experience instead of raw coding ability. This is a new type of job search that doesn't have these problems.

This doesn't appear to be what everyone thinks it is.

This one Where I learned all about the responsibilities of being a sushi chef.

Wait, while I agree that the TSA is bad, have you seen the jackbooted idiots who man the Statue of Liberty checkpoints? These military dressed morons go way beyond what the TSA do and they are armed to the teeth. This is beyond the airport style screening you have to go throw to get to the islands. It truly is a lesson in freedom when to go see the symbol of freedom in this country treats everyone going to the island like a suspected terrorist.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/statue-of-liberty-national-monument-new-york

Not my review:

To board the ferry you must pass through "airport-style" security screening, although removal of shoes is not required. This privately-contracted security screening is not so bad either. It's when you want to enter the museum, or climb the stairs to the crown, that it gets very very bad. Once on the island, further screening prior to entry is handled by The Nazis of Liberty Island, federal employees highly trained in sulkiness, sullenness, antagonism, and hostility, an embarrassment to any Americans proud of freedom or of their national heritage, and a bizarre insult to all visitors, who (as I noted) have ALREADY PASSED SECURITY just to get there.

Apparently I messed up a tag, I meant to parenthetically link to this as a source.

Sadly, it looks like they're going the other way.

Here's the Yelp page for Dietz Development. Look at the reviews and you can see that Yelp has been censoring them pretty heavily. All of them are from the last day or two and the review in question has been removed.

This was a great opportunity for Yelp to stand up for consumer rights and freedoms, but instead they've stuck their head in the sand. Even if they'd put a notice at the top of her review saying that "the statements here are not those of Yelp's, blah blah blah lawyer speak" that would have been fine. However, they've shown they have no backbone and won't stand behind their users.

What if Slashdot editors deleted comments anytime somebody looked at them wrong; what effect would that have on the quantity and quality of the discussion here? There's only been a tiny handful of times that a comment here has been censored -- hopefully it stays that way.

I've never used Yelp before because I wasn't real familiar with them. Now that I am I'll never use them in the future.

that's not quite accurate.

Yelp uses an automated algorithm to filter out some posts: "How do you decide which reviews to filter? We use filtering software to determine which reviews should be filtered on any given day among the millions that are submitted to the site. The software looks at a wide range of data associated with every review. We invite you to watch this short video for more detail about how it all works." http://www.yelp.com/faq#why_filter

as a site dedicated to enabling ordinary people to post reviews about businesses in their own communities, Yelp provides a great service for consumers. but Yelp also has its own concern to try to keep reviews on its site relevant as much as possible. it doesn't serve anyone to allow users to publish reviews that have little to no connection to the actual businesses being reviewed. Yelp's reputation for being a place where you can get low-noise, high-signal reviews is on the line. and having too much noise as compared to actual signal does not serve Yelp's users either, as they won't get a reasonably accurate picture of businesses reviewed on the site.

i'll acknowledge that Yelp is treading a fine line here. i think they understand that. but to say that Yelp is "undermining consumer rights and freedoms" here is completely unfair and unabashedly silly. filtered posts can still be seen if you click on a link below the reviews. Yelp explains why they have been filtered but still allows users to access said posts.

and even then, if you go to Dietz Development's page now, there are a slew of negative reviews, completely unfiltered, that have nothing to do with Dietz Development's services or customer relations. most of them are backlash "internet badass" posts shaming Dietz for suing. while allowing people to review businesses like Dietz and provide said reviews online for the public is a general good, allowing for higher noise to signal and for reviews that have little to do with the actual quality of a company is not.

there was a Florida pizza restaurant President Obama visited during this year's Presidential campaign. the owner of the restaurant was, apparently, a conservative, but he was excited to host the President all the same and even gave Obama a hug. as a result, hundreds of trolls crashed the restaurant owner's Yelp page and posted negative review after negative review. many of the "reviewers" acknowledged never having eaten at the restaurant. some of the "reviewers" had never been to Florida. would you say Yelp should keep all those "noise" posts anyway? i would argue no. the posts were marginally-relevant, if at all, to the actual pizza restaurant, the quality

Sadly, it looks like they're going the other way.

Here's the Yelp page for Dietz Development. Look at the reviews and you can see that Yelp has been censoring them pretty heavily. All of them are from the last day or two and the review in question has been removed.

This was a great opportunity for Yelp to stand up for consumer rights and freedoms, but instead they've stuck their head in the sand. Even if they'd put a notice at the top of her review saying that "the statements here are not those of Yelp's, blah blah blah lawyer speak" that would have been fine. However, they've shown they have no backbone and won't stand behind their users.

What if Slashdot editors deleted comments anytime somebody looked at them wrong; what effect would that have on the quantity and quality of the discussion here? There's only been a tiny handful of times that a comment here has been censored -- hopefully it stays that way.

I've never used Yelp before because I wasn't real familiar with them. Now that I am I'll never use them in the future.

that's not quite accurate.

Yelp uses an automated algorithm to filter out some posts: "How do you decide which reviews to filter? We use filtering software to determine which reviews should be filtered on any given day among the millions that are submitted to the site. The software looks at a wide range of data associated with every review. We invite you to watch this short video for more detail about how it all works." http://www.yelp.com/faq#why_filter

as a site dedicated to enabling ordinary people to post reviews about businesses in their own communities, Yelp provides a great service for consumers. but Yelp also has its own concern to try to keep reviews on its site relevant as much as possible. it doesn't serve anyone to allow users to publish reviews that have little to no connection to the actual businesses being reviewed. Yelp's reputation for being a place where you can get low-noise, high-signal reviews is on the line. and having too much noise as compared to actual signal does not serve Yelp's users either, as they won't get a reasonably accurate picture of businesses reviewed on the site.

i'll acknowledge that Yelp is treading a fine line here. i think they understand that. but to say that Yelp is "undermining consumer rights and freedoms" here is completely unfair and unabashedly silly. filtered posts can still be seen if you click on a link below the reviews. Yelp explains why they have been filtered but still allows users to access said posts.

and even then, if you go to Dietz Development's page now, there are a slew of negative reviews, completely unfiltered, that have nothing to do with Dietz Development's services or customer relations. most of them are backlash "internet badass" posts shaming Dietz for suing. while allowing people to review businesses like Dietz and provide said reviews online for the public is a general good, allowing for higher noise to signal and for reviews that have little to do with the actual quality of a company is not.

there was a Florida pizza restaurant President Obama visited during this year's Presidential campaign. the owner of the restaurant was, apparently, a conservative, but he was excited to host the President all the same and even gave Obama a hug. as a result, hundreds of trolls crashed the restaurant owner's Yelp page and posted negative review after negative review. many of the "reviewers" acknowledged never having eaten at the restaurant. some of the "reviewers" had never been to Florida. would you say Yelp should keep all those "noise" posts anyway? i would argue no. the posts were marginally-relevant, if at all, to the actual pizza restaurant, the quality

If posting to Yelp is a huge financial risk, the site will quickly die.

Sadly, it looks like they're going the other way.

Here's the Yelp page for Dietz Development. Look at the reviews and you can see that Yelp has been censoring them pretty heavily. All of them are from the last day or two and the review in question has been removed.

This was a great opportunity for Yelp to stand up for consumer rights and freedoms, but instead they've stuck their head in the sand. Even if they'd put a notice at the top of her review saying that "the statements here are not those of Yelp's, blah blah blah lawyer speak" that would have been fine. However, they've shown they have no backbone and won't stand behind their users.

What if Slashdot editors deleted comments anytime somebody looked at them wrong; what effect would that have on the quantity and quality of the discussion here? There's only been a tiny handful of times that a comment here has been censored -- hopefully it stays that way.

I've never used Yelp before because I wasn't real familiar with them. Now that I am I'll never use them in the future.

Absolutely. The best rental place I ever experienced was That's Rentertainment in Urbana, Illinois. A huge, constantly changing clientele coupled with a selection of movies that still can't be beat by any online service is still a winning combination. Throw in the brick and mortar charm (staff picks, daily specials, and even equipment rental) and it's still the thing I miss most about living out there.

You didn't know? For some reason nerds really like walnuts.

Doesn't Google now own Yelp? Why would they have to ask for permission? Here is Yelps' Privacy policy. It looks ok to me.

Or does Microsoft want Google to ask permission from the business owners actually being reviewed? Allowing only positive reviews would make the entire point of having reviews completely useless if you ask me, but then, may be that's Microsoft's aim, to make the web more difficult to search and more difficult to filter for everyone.