The power of an accusation of racism is being diluted like the warnings of the boy who cried wolf. Once I was reflexively appalled. Now I'm reflexively sympathetic to the accused until there is evidence. If that makes me a designated racist it's a label I'm much less horrified by than I once was. Almost as an acknowledgement of that dilution a new label has been popularized: white supremacist. So now the same is happening to that label. I wonder what's next.
The tl;dw is that Yelp refuses to take down _obiovusly_ fake reviews, so of course this racism branding is going to get abused by people with an axe to grind.
They tried to extort our company as well. Listed us as closed and tried to sell us $300.00/mo. package as remedy. "Partner together and you can work with us" the rep said.
Yelp isn't the problem here, it's free speech without accountability. Citizens obviously have an interest in hearing the history of conversation about any institution, and that includes hearing whether your taxis cheat, whether your AirBNB rentals spy with hidden cameras, or whether the institution or town has a history of racially conspicuous odor.
The problem is that people aren't held accountable for their speech, and if anything, there's a movement toward not wanting to be held accountable for the things you say. You can't have it all ways.
One has to trust Yelp to think this sort of thing would work as proposed, and I don't see a lot of trust for Yelp out there.
There is also the possibility of unintended effects. Don't care for people of different skin tones? Look for a restaurant flagged as racist by Yelp. Get called on it? Point out, accurately if disingenuously, that nobody really trusts Yelp.
Yelp reviews are largely fake and their business model is a pay-to-win scenario for businesses: a bunch of 1 star reviews will magically appear in the days leading up to a phone call from a sales rep who offers to remove them for a fee. This has been known for years now, especially to anyone who still uses that dumpster fire of a site.
I am surprised to find such an obviously politically-charged site linked to HN. Reading through some of the other articles on the site, it seems to be a like The Blaze, a heavily right-leaning site with articles written in a way to make conservative blood boil. Half of the most read stories on the sidebar are about how difficult it is to be a Trump supporter in America.
Anyone is perfectly able to start a competitor to Yelp. If Yelp feels this adds to their value they are more than welcome to do this. Clearly Yelp weighed the pros and cons and decided this would help their business.
What’s the issue here? Don’t see how comparing a business to the ccp government is comparable in the slightest.
On edit, its clear the author has an axe to grind.
The network effect[1] means anyone is not perfectly able to start a competitor. Well, they can start one, but it is not like starting a competing store or restaurant.
The comparison to the CCP does seem like an unnecessary stretch. Yelp’s new feature is bad enough on its own. The comparison to the CCP gilds the lily.
The network effect is the least sympathetic business moat to run up against, because it's saying "you are way too popular" and nothing else.
Very different from talking about restaurants or stores where you have geographic control, which is a far more odious form of monopoly (competition is restricted because the customers cannot reach competitors). Very different from talking about how Yelp owns the underlying infrastructure (roads, the web, etc.) that makes their business possible.
We've banned this account for abusing HN for personal attacks and ideological flamewar. You can't post like this here, regardless of how wrong someone is or you feel they are.
If you don't want to be banned on HN, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.
Let's say the power company decides to stop providing electricity to people that disagrees with their political views. It's okay right, since anyone is free to start their own utility company?
Utilities are regulated very differently from "traditional" public companies so you're going to end up with answers around that (which is fine if it's what you intended just giving you a heads up).
