Ironic considering the condemnation of businesses on Yelp by people that may have not actually made a purchase there.

I often try to talk to people I do know. But you and I have had totally different experiences, then.

I usually go to travel websites or some kind of city forum if I am going to a completely unknown city. Typically, I find genuine word of mouth works the best. Talking to someone that has been there, lived there, etc.

What a strange and bewildering world view. The amount of intellectual sandbagging it must take to maintain it... I'm exhausted thinking about it.

I don't think the poster quite gets that. I think she thinks it's some sort of Kumbaya community group there for the public's pleasure and not a money driven, ruthless corporate business there to squeeze business owners out of money in exchange for their on-line reputation.

It's interesting, because most of the "I worked at a place with a hilarious owner who didn't take shit and actually did work" stories I hear seem to be restaurants owned by Italians. Hell, we went out for dinner at a nice Italian place the other night and the owner was busting his ass — hosting, rearranging tables,…

You're an attorney? Seriously? I gather that means you went to college and utilised critical thinking skills.

Your endless defence of a corrupt and biased business is painful to read. This isn't about Yelp - it's about you. Think about it. All you've done is defend the indefensible because you write for it and you…

Yep! I used to work in a small office that dealt in diamonds and gold purchases. They had one Yelp review that was visible and everyone I worked with complained about it because they claimed Yelp was filtering all their reviews. So I looked at the filtered reviews and they were all five-star reviews from the girls who…

Well, you are assuming it's friends of the owners or people who are not sophisticated enough to write good fakes. That's not the case.

Lets play "Spot the Yelp worker" *points at Cat* FOUND ONE!

But it's not a public service; it's a corporate entity.

Your defense (which you seem strangely, or perhaps suspiciously passionate about) is that since Yelp says they're not doing a thing, then they're definitely not doing the thing?

I'm a former restaurant owner. I have copies of advertising/letter/promotions/emails Yelp has sent us over the years offering to help us with our ratings and rankings and by the way had we considered their special deal for 12 months worth of advertising?! I have a good friend in the accommodation industry that Yelp…

Oh, Yelp says they haven't done anything like that? Well, I guess it must be true, then! Why would they have any reason to lie?!

tl;dr: you obviously work for yelp, or are feeling bummed because you have wasted your time writing hundreds of reviews. in other words, how do you know that this *isn't* going on? because yelp swears it isn't? please. (but you know, even if yelp is lying, it's not like, illegal or anything.)

Could use more vegan/raw/gluten-free/nut-free/sugar-free/fair trade options.

Please, please someone go on there and leave a review that says "Could've used more vegan options" and nothing else. I'll die laughing.

Given their own website, it actually wouldn't shock me if they did this.

Makes the meatball sandwich sign look rookie by comparison.

Well this is delightful. I hope the next time Yelp contacts them they just respond with a picture of someones butt.