Yelp

The extensive coverage of Ms. Chu’s misstep hasn’t addressed why she, a highly educated person with a PhD, was Yelping in the first place? Why did she, according to the Yale Daily News, announce in a college-wide e-mail that she had become “Yelp! Elite”?

I can tell you why I once Yelped a lot. I moved to Colorado in 2008 without knowing many people. A date took me to a Yelp! Elite party, with salsa dancing, tequila, food, cigars and swag. Afterwards, we went out for dessert. He encouraged me to write a review of the dessert place, my third for the site. We stopped dating, but I kept reviewing. The Yelp! platform acted as a chronicle of my new life. I enjoyed letting others know if a restaurant or shop was amazing or needed improvement. As a former small business owner myself, I tried to be balanced and fair. At some point, without telling me exactly why, Yelp! granted me Elite status. They put a badge next to my name, like a gold star awarded in elementary school. Now I could invite friends to parties, the theater and cocktail gatherings and meeting other foodies. I enjoyed the perks for a time. Then it dawned on me: If I weren’t willing to spend my own money to see these performances or visit a particular restaurant, why would I accept them as compensation for having written lots of reviews? How could I know if these businesses willingly hosted us, or if they had succumbed to Yelp!’s pressure to feed and entertain dozens of “Elites” or else suffer the consequences of not being on the Yelp! radar? The bigger Yelp! became, the harder it was to ignore.

When Yelp! began asking its members to commit to writing 100 reviews a year, more of my alarm bells went off.
When Yelp! began asking its members to commit to writing 100 reviews a year, more of my alarm bells went off. That’s about two reviews a week, a lot of free content to provide to a publicly traded company now worth roughly $2.4 billion. How many people, unless they travel a great deal, visit two new businesses a week? To meet the 100 quota, Yelpers offer their two cents on gas stations, Starbucks, convenience stores, or, like Ms. Chu, a local cinema, establishments that once were off the review radar. Would she have bothered to critique them at all if Yelp! didn’t offer the carrot of Elite status?

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It is hard to know what “Elite” even means, given that Ms. Chu achieved the status while using language in posts that Yale deemed “reprehensible”. She did apologize for the words she used. Still, Yelp! allowed her snarky and mean-spirited content to stand, thereby condoning it and setting the tone for future reviews and the next crop of “Elite” Yelpers, who can continue to rack up perks for writing up service infractions and imperfections. How does that benefit anyone?

Ms. Chu, by virtue of being a dean at one of America’s most prestigious universities, had already achieved a high place in society. That sh