Reviewers Compare Yelp to a 'Slave Ship' in Ridiculous Class-Action Lawsuit

Here's something to yelp about.
Some Yelp reviewers have filed a class-action lawsuit demanding monetary compensation for the reviews they post on the site. The plaintiffs argue they are technically unpaid employees who deserve payment for their contributions, given the importance of the reviews to Yelp's business model.
According to the suit, Yelp’s failure to pay reviewers – who voluntarily choose to evaluate their experiences at everything from restaurants to law firms – “have become suspect in both the public forum, as witnessed by the proliferation and popularity of such websites as yelp-sucks.com, and within the courtrooms.”
The suit goes on to compare Yelp's business practices to those on a slave ship. “Business journal commentators have compared said business practices to a 21st Century galley slave ship with pirates banging the drum to keep up the fast pace and to fill the pockets of their stockholders with treasure,” it states.
The plaintiffs argue that instead of offering payment, Yelp draws in reviewers through “cult-like rewards,” such as "trinkets, badges, titles, praise, social promotion, free liquor, free food, and free promotional Yelp attire, such as red panties with ‘Make Me Yelp!’ stamped across its bottom.” One Yelper is quoted as stating, “It’s kind of like a cult, except instead of Kool-Aid we drink alcohol.”
The plaintiffs, who include some of Yelp's "elite" writers, also claim they had to write positive reviews of venues that sponsored company events, where they were often offered free food and liquor, or they risked losing their elite status.
Yelp refuted the lawsuit and said it will seek to have it dismissed. "This is a textbook example of a frivolous lawsuit; it is unfortunate the court has to waste its time adjudicating it and we will seek to have it dismissed. The argument that voluntarily using a free service equates to an employment relationship is completely without merit, unsupported by law and contradicted by the dozens of websites like Yelp that consumers use to help one another," a company spokesperson said.
Yelp has faced legal action in the past for alleged extortion and review manipulation -- claims which the company has repeatedly denied. Yelp has faced additional backlash for the proliferation of fake reviews on its site. 
However, this is the first suit to object to Yelp’s utilization of reviewers as unpaid labor, exploiting “a vulnerable and disposable class of workers.” “By shirking its responsibilities to pay its workers,” states the document, the “defendant is in essence thumbing its nose both at their workers and the taxing authorities of all states and the U.S. government.”
With recent discussion surrounding the hot-button issues of writing for free and interning for free, unpaid reviews are in some ways simply the next step in demanding payment for labor. However, with over 47 million local reviews, it seems unlikely that Yelpers will be paid every time they pen a couple sentences about their trip to a new sushi restaurant. Yelp’s business model has always been built on unpaid reviewers freely choosing to share their opinions – a fact that no Yelper could have been unaware of when they spent five minutes writing their first review. 

Yelp Co-Founder: 'There Has Never Been Any Amount of Money You Could Pay Us to Manipulate Reviews'

Yelp co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman is on the defensive again. This time, Stoppleman stopped by reddit for an AMA (Ask Me Anything) question-and-answer session where he fielded questions from owners who accuse the social rating site of bad business practices.
"There has never been any amount of money you could pay us to manipulate reviews," Stoppelman said during the online discussion. "We do have an algorithm that highlights the most useful and reliable reviews on our site which is about 75 percent of contributed content."Business owners have long accused Yelp of displaying mostly negative reviews on a business's Yelp page so that the owners will pay up in advertising dollars in order to have those bed reviews taken down.
In the AMA, Stoppelman -- also a former engineer at PayPal -- expanded on that issue and touched on a number of others. Here, we've pulled out the highlights from Stoppelman's answers.
On Yelp's review policy and filtering algorithms:
Millions of businesses don't pay us a dime and have fantastic reviews (only 57,000 of the 20 million listed on Yelp pay us). As you browse around the site you'll see reviews on any popular place. Word-of-mouth amplified at no charge.
We have a review algorithm that filters approximately 25 percent of contributed content automatically. We started our work on this in 2005 as soon as the site took off to ensure that the reviews consumers were reading were as reliable as possible. This idea and technology is something our competitors are now mimicking (hi Googlers!)
On Yelp's efforts to combat fake reviews:
Certainly shady businesses or "reputation management" firms do sometimes try to buy reviews. However we are constantly pursuing them with our own undercover sting operations. When we find businesses guilty of trying to purchase reviews we warn consumers by posting a consumer alert on their page and revealing the evidence.
On what he learned at PayPal and how it informs his own management style:
Joining [Paypal] gave me invaluable experience both in coding and later engineering management. I also built an incredible network of colleagues and saw the entire company lifecycle from young promising startup to public co. I think if you can spend a few years at a fast grower with a great "promote from within" culture that's a good risk-reward balance.
On what has and hasn't changed at Yelp over the years:
I still spend a ton of time with product and engineering, we do seem to get a lot more press attention these days, but perhaps most fortunately I haven't had to invest a lot of time with Wall Street (if you pardon the pun) ... our CFO Rob Krolik handles most of that.

How to Handle Negative Online Reviews

Q: How should small businesses respond to negative reviews through social media and on sites like Yelp?

- Dara Khautisen 
Chicago
A: Negative social media reviews, especially those that are potentially malicious, are near the top of the list of nightmare scenarios for small business owners and entrepreneurs. But don’t panic. The last thing you want is to become the next Amy’s Baking Company, the restaurant that became famous for lashing out at customers.
As a business owner putting your heart and soul into pursuing your passion, it’s all too easy to act first in the face of negativity and have regrets later. Hold your tongue.
Before you formulate a strategy for addressing criticism, you need to determine if the comment or review is true. Investigate before taking action. Could this be a competitor spreading a rumour or something that has happened that nobody’s told you about? Once you figure out the basis of the comment, follow the below steps:

The statement is factually incorrect:  

If a statement made is untrue (not just an opinion you disagree with), you have the right to ask for the comment to be removed or retracted. While in theory that seems simple, in reality getting a comment removed can be a tricky.

It can only be successful if you are able to provide conclusive supporting evidence which shows, without a doubt, the comment is factually incorrect. If you can't provide proof, the sad truth is you won't get anywhere asking for removal.
If you do have factual evidence and the site doesn't take down the negative statement or review, you should consider correcting the post in the comments section. Lay out the conclusive facts in a professional manner and don't make it personal.

If a comment is factually true, but negative: Make sure you present your side of the story, and be honest. If you can, add a comment to the post explaining your rational in a non-hostile way and how you plan on addressing the situation.

If you sense a protracted back-and-forth could occur, it’s a good idea to try and take the conversation offline. State your willingness to receive any questions or comments through email. Make sure you, or a senior-level staff member, personally addresses the complaint.
One tactic you need to avoid is creating new “personas,” or fake accounts, to support your position in blogs, forums and message boards, as you’ll likely be caught.
Remember prevention is better than a cure. This situation can often be avoided (or at least substantially mitigated) by ensuring you are tuned into social media at all times, not just when there's an emergency. Cultivate your business’s fans to proactively share their experiences and recommendations online. Consumers are smart enough to sniff out and ignore one odd-ball negative review in a sea of positive ones.