Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Court Rules Against Online Anonymity

Posted by Unknown on from the turns-out-anonymous-coward-is-a-cat dept.

cstacy writes "The Virginia Court of Appeals has ruled (PDF) that people leaving negative feedback for a carpet cleaning service are not allowed to remain anonymous. Yelp must unmask seven critics to the carpet cleaner, who feels that they might not even be real customers."

4 of 314 comments (clear)

  1. And thus ends Yelp. by Kenja · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Since the whole point is to give unbiased feed back and the chance of repercussions by definition creates a bias, that's more or less the end of that.

    --

    "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
    1. Re:And thus ends Yelp. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Can't support that enough. Here in Germany, they bought a local competitor, and suddenly all the positive reviews disappeared unless you pay for an "advertisement package".

    2. Re:And thus ends Yelp. by mythosaz · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There's pretty much four types of reviewers on Yelp, in pretty much this order or volume:

      1) The semi-professional Yelp reviewer. He's writing yelp reviews for every last thing he does.
      2) Shills, inflating their companies and friends, and leaving crap for competitors.
      3) Guys who got a toenail in their lunch who made an account to complain.
      A distant 4) People who had a great meal who felt a need to share.

      If you know this, you can still read between the lines and make informed reviews.

  2. Papers please comrade ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    You do not have the right to not identify yourself.

    America is rapidly ceasing to be free in all meaningful sense of the word.

    Oh, sure, you can act like you're free. But the reality is, you are rapidly becoming a police state.