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."

3 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.