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Every time you search for restaurants, shops, services or products, most of us go straight to the Internet. We want to know what other people are saying about these things. Yelp is one of the most used consumer guides on the Internet today—search for taco places near you and find out almost instantly which is the best, based on the number and quality of reviews received from the site’s members, people who volunteer time out of their busy schedules to provide insight to new prospective customers who may need it.
But now a group of users who claim Yelp hired them to write these reviews are suing the company, “[seeking] for refund of unpaid compensation.”
“Yelp earns revenue by selling advertisements on its site, whose content is created for free by hordes of wanted posters, in violation of Federal Labor Law,” the complaint states. It also claims that the company’s use of words such as “reviewers”, “Yelpers”, “independent contractors”, “interns”, “volunteers” or “contributors” to describe its users is nothing more than “cult rewards and disciplines” a system designed by Yelp to be able to slide around paying for the work they need to keep their entire business model running.
Vine members can send you soon-to-be-released products – the only condition is that you review them and use them exclusively.
This is not the first time such a lawsuit has been filed against a major Internet company. In 2011, the Huffington Post filed a class action lawsuit brought against them by a group of writers led by former HuffPost writer Jonathan Tasini, claiming they were not paid for stories they wrote for the site. The Huffington Post gives bloggers the freedom to write about whatever they want, but they don’t get paid for the content they produce for the site because they employ reporters and editors who actually have contracts detailing rules they must follow and responsibilities they must fulfill. TechDirt reported that the judge quickly called the lawsuit frivolous and implied that Tasini’s lawsuit was likely prompted by the fact that the Huffington Post had just acquired AOL for a whopping $315 million.
Although the HuffPost cases did not go in favor of the writers, there are online publishers and review platforms that reward users for reviews. Amazon has Vine, an invite-only program available to the site’s highest-rated reviewers. As a Vine member, you may be sent soon-to-be-released products, all you have to do is review them and use them exclusively. According to Amazon’s help page, any review written as part of the program is always labeled “Amazon Vine Review” on the product page and “Amazon Vine User Review” when reading the review in its entirety.
And this setup is remarkably similar to the Yelp Elite Squad, a group of top-rated users who are nominated and selected based on “well-written reviews, great mobile tips, an elaborate personal profile, active voting, and compliments to shoot and play nice with others.” The only difference is the fact that nowhere on the FAQ page does it specifically say that Elite Squad members are being sent free stuff. In fact, accepting free gifts in exchange for a review is highly discouraged. The closest Yelp has to paid reviewers are Yelp Ambassadors, official employees who also write real reviews. (However, elite Yelpers can enjoy many perks, like parties and events.)
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I asked Yelp a few questions regarding the Elite Squad membership requirements and what happens if a member doesn’t meet the standards mentioned in the FAQ (cited earlier), and here’s what I was able to glean from Rachel Walker, Yelp’s Senior PR Specialist:
1. There is no set number of views required of Elite Squad members. The only standard requirement as far as they are concerned is that Elite Squad members be role models “who embody the spirit [the Yelp] community – online and offline – and write helpful, funny and cool reviews.”
2. A community member may lose their Elite Squad membership “if they choose not to stay engaged on the site and with the community.” The only consequence of this is that they will lose their Elite badge on their profiles and will no longer be able to attend Elite events planned by the local Community Manager (AKA Yelp Ambassador) in their city. They still have the same ability to share reviews, interact on the site, and attend events as regular Yelp users.
3. Elite Squad members are not compensated or paid for their activities on the site and are completely voluntarily. “Elite Yelpers have access to Elite-only Yelp events, which are planned by a local community manager and are usually free. These events are designed to introduce passionate locals to great local businesses and, in turn, give those local businesses more exposure to their community.” Additionally, all Yelp users have the opportunity to receive compliments from other users as well as topic votes for their reviews.
4. Yelp Community Managers are paid employees. They are located in cities around the world in the 23 countries where Yelp is present. “Their role is to connect the local community, both online and offline. They host fun events, write a weekly newsletter, educate business owners about the free tools available on the site, and more. They also write reviews about their experiences with local businesses.”
I also found an Elite Yelp member, Ophelia Yan. She has been an Elite member for about two years and has written about 170 reviews since joining. She says she hasn’t heard of people getting kicked off Yelp because of the reviews they post, and she’s never received free products from anyone in exchange for a good review. “Sometimes events are held with free food and drinks at the company, but we are clearly instructed NOT to review the company based on that event or experience,” shares Yan. “You must go again yourself before reviewing.”
When asked how she feels about the class-action lawsuit against Yelp, she says it doesn’t really matter to her. “I write reviews because I enjoy using them and find them useful. I look at it as “give a penny, take a penny”. If you don’t contribute, the resource becomes stale and you rely on others to maintain it.”
While Yan’s report on the service paints a pretty positive picture, several claims in the lawsuit stand out. Yelp has been accused of holding quotas for Elite members (which rings true to Walker’s description of how one can lose their Elite status) and punishing reviewers for writing negative sponsor reviews. There’s also a section in the legalese that describes how Elite Yelpers can be fired – although again, this could be what Walker was saying about Elite Yelpers losing their Elite status if they’re not as active in the community.
It is difficult to give any credit to this case; on the surface it sounds like a few of the Elite members’ skills have gone to their heads and are overestimating what they’re doing. At the same time, Yelp has had to wage a war against skepticism about the various pieces of fraud related to its business model; how posts get promoted or buried, whether users are fake or not, and there’s the never-ending battle to prevent people from being hired to write great reviews. But all this comes with the territory: when you build a business model of people who are happy to create and give you data, at some point (perhaps when it becomes known how valuable the platform is, and thus their data), some of them will start asking for something in return.
Categories: GAMING
Source: newstars.edu.vn